The Role of Information Integration Resulting from the Integration of Business Intelligence and Knowledge Management Systems in Supporting Decision-Making in the Saudi Electricity Company

Abstract

The immediate accessibility of information has become a highly important, if not critical, factor in the recent years in all enterprises, organizations and firms, to ensure optimal decision-making in business organizations. Therefore, the current research aimed to investigate the role of information integration resulting from the integration of business intelligence (BI) and knowledge management (KM) systems in achieving optimal decision-making at the operational, tactical and strategic levels in modern organizations. The researcher sought to provide an insight into how companies undergo information integration in the Saudi Electricity Company in particular, and to find the ways of integrating BI and KM systems to improve the information integration process and the main challenges introduced by the process, and how to enrich data through knowledge sharing, and how to complete the resulting information integration system and use it in supporting the optimal decision-making processes.

          To achieve the objectives of this research, the qualitative explorative experimental approach was applied and data was collected through three questionnaires directed at the sample (331) employees including BI systems users, specialists and consultants, and decision makers. Research sample responses were analyzed using SPSS. The research concluded that the responses of the sample about information integration process application was very high, data consolidation was strongly rooted in knowledge sharing and information transfer practices as well as has an open policy to share knowledge about correcting incorrect data in source databases, and gain new insights and information for optimal decision-making based on a wide range of verbal communication and semi-documented forms of communication.

        The researcher presents the relational model framework, which explains how the process of information integration happens between BI and KM, including knowledge integration stage “which reflects organization and documentation of new knowledge resulting from information transfer process” and BI, where that was performed through documentation of information integration practices in institutional information warehouse to ensure that the whole organization can benefit from the relate lessons. The researcher also demonstrated the process of integrating BI and KM systems to prepare, plan and implement information integration systems, processes and result to assist optimal decision-making effectively and the challenges they encounter during application.