Factors Influencing the Quality of Decision-Making Using Business Intelligence in a Metal Rolling Plant in KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract

The current study sought to investigate the factors which influence the quality of decision-making using business intelligence (BI) in a metal rolling plant in KwaZulu-Natal. Specifically, the study was focused on information quality, system quality and BI service quality. The study used a self-administered survey sent out to participants having sufficient report runs which made up the population of the study. The collected data came from different levels of employees, namely; managers (47%) and non-managers (53%) with varying levels of BI experience, and the data was imported into SPSS for analysis. The results showed that information quality had a positive significant impact on the quality of decision-making; system quality had a positive significant impact on the quality of decision-making; and BI service quality had a positive significant impact on the quality of decision-making. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to determine the strength of these variances in influencing decision-making. It was found that the three variables explained 65.7% of the variance in the quality of decision-making. Overall, the study found that high quality information, coupled with a high-quality system and good BI service, leads to a higher quality of decision-making, and that the impact of BI on decision-making is positive. The study recommends that the company implement data quality management focusing on data cleansing, it should also implement more sophisticated analysis techniques to get insights and have strategies to upskill both technical and business workers.