A recent merger between business services firms ASYST Intelligence, BusinessIntelligent and the Microsoft division of DigiQuill has resulted in the formation of a new business intelligence (BI) firm that aims to drive a “radical shift” in the application of BI systems in the African market.

CEO Nick Bell said at the launch of Decision Inc on Tuesday that the company’s vision was to add “real value” to clients by providing business and process knowledge and leveraging the power of information through robust data and “best-of-breed” platform technologies.

“In addition to our understanding of decision-making processes and related solutions, our value proposition is based on the provision of both technical skills and relevant business knowledge across the BI value chain.

“This will help clients realise maximum value from their investment in decision support technology and enable them to make better decisions, faster,” he commented.

Decision Inc would represent global software vendors QlikView, SAP, Microsoft, Roambi, MicroStrategy and IsoMetrix, describing itself as an “expert” in the implementation, support and execution of these technologies.

The firm aimed to deliver value by leveraging this technology to provide clients with solutions that assisted in the definition, implementation and support of decision-making processes.

“Our combination of business and technical competence will help business leaders make better and smarter decisions, gaining critical insight from their data,” said Bell.

“Clients are no longer focused on reporting for the sake of reporting, they see and understand the competitive advantage of being able to make better business decisions faster. They need actionable intelligence provided to them efficiently and through a platform that enables them to answer important questions about their business.”

Bell identified the four key pillars of Decision Inc’s consulting resources as the delivery of decision advisory and strategy capabilities, data engineering, insight generation and presentation, and solution enablement and support.

Under its decision architecture business segment, business analysts and consultants would provide expertise to assist clients to determine organisational strategy, perform decision audits, design decision rights workflows and set and monitor organisational and individual key performance indicators.

Architects would also assist in designing or auditing enterprise-wide architecture and infrastructure, both technical and nontechnical.

The data engineering division would see data specialists assist with data audits, warehousing, cleansing and stewardship, as well as development.

Decision Inc’s insight generation and presentation offering would provide the “best-of-breed” platforms to deliver data in highly visual, contextualised ways to drive the decision-making process.

This service incorporated analytics, reporting, mobile and financial intelligence as well as portals.

Lastly, the enablement and support division offered change management, classroom and workshop training, project management, remote support and call centre assistance.