Bi Apps as Ingredients of Digitalization and Its Impact on the Performance of Farm Businesses

Abstract

The article highlights the benefits of implementing and using BI applications as components of digitalization and its influence on the efficiency of agricultural production. Today, the meaning of the notion of agricultural production efficiency does not lose relevance among the present-day Ukrainian economists. This has become especially relevant due to the rapid development of information technology that is already an integral part of both social life and manufacturing processes in the economy, as the level of production digitalization is now one of the competitive advantages of farm businesses. The level of competition in the market of agricultural products encourages businesses to search new and effective ways to reduce production costs and increase the economic efficiency of the farm businesses. The article presents digitalization as a modern factor of production efficiency in the agricultural sector of the economy. An ingredient of the digitalization process is the use of means of modern business intelligence (BI applications), which provide operational analytical information about the condition of production, which allows experts to identify "weaknesses" in production and prevent rising the cost of goods manufactured. The selection of the required BI application for implementation is carried out by the farm business management team based on the so-called Gartner Magic Quadrant, in which manufacturers of BI applications are evaluated according to certain criteria. The paper deals with operational concept of BI application, principle of interaction between an information user and a BI app. The user accesses to information from any modern electronic device (smartphone, PC), having an opportunity to view, analyze and, if necessary, make managerial decisions. According to the centers for financial responsibility in farm businesses, production tasks are defined, and operativeness of their execution can be increased through the use of BI app. Technological benefits of the BI applications help to quickly and efficiently analyze current production information, foresee and prevent exceeding the allowable expenditure level, while increasing the farm business management efficiency.