Title: The Ladder of Business Intelligence (LOBI): a framework for enterprise IT planning and architecture

Authors: James E. Cates, Sam S. Gill, Natalie Zeituny

Addresses: LOBI Group, LLC, 4960 Almaden Expressway, No. 351, San Jose, CA 95118, USA. ' San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, CA 94132, USA. ' NZconsulting, 58 West Portal, San Francisco, CA, 94127, USA

Abstract: The LOBI Framework is a methodology that facilitates the creation of an Information Technology (IT) plan and the design of IT architecture for a business. The LOBI Framework derives the plan and the architecture on the basis of the business objectives through a detailed analysis of the people, process, and technology mix of a business. This paper shows how the LOBI framework forces alignment between the business strategy and the IT strategy through a step-wise methodology that inductively proceeds from vision, through mission and core processes, to IT initiatives. The LOBI Framework also allows business intelligence to be defined in an operational sense, and shows how the effectiveness of utilising business intelligence can be measured, and how it is possible to differentiate between effectiveness and efficiency as a measure of intelligence value. Finally, the LOBI Framework facilitates mapping all IT Technology used in a business to six levels of intelligence.

Keywords: ladder of business intelligence; LOBI; information technology-business alignment; people-process-technology; intelligence modelling; BRIA; IT budgeting; framework; business role; business process; information technology planning; balanced scorecard; information technology architecture design; business strategy; information technology strategy; business information systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2005.007408

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2005 Vol.1 No.1/2, pp.220 - 238

Published online: 18 Jul 2005 *

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