Business Intelligence: Can I Afford Not To Know?
Business Intelligence (BI) solutions once perceived as too costly,too complicated or too inconvenient to implement, are now becoming more cost effective and less complex.
"The ubiquitous spreadsheet has long been the preferred choice to support management reporting in resource constrained SMEs in lieu of sophisticated BI product suites that are expensive to buy, configure and implement."
Gary Simon, Managing Editor, FSN
Affordable Business Intelligence
What have I got ?
Business systems have always been very good at processing transactions, but less effective at management and financial reporting. This is partly because their reporting features are often cumbersome to use and lack functionality.
However, for many SMEs, achieving complete BI is not expensive, as it is often present albeit unrecognised, in software already procured. For example, in 1998, Microsoft elected to bundle its BI tools free with SQL Server and this is true of many software applications.
Careful use of BI applications can in turn help to reduce costs by streamlining business processes and improving the quality of decisions made by managers, by virtue of their receiving more accurate and more pertinent information.
However, a recent report by Gartner suggests that more than 50 percent of BI projects are likely to fail, not usually for technical reasons, but because of a lack of communication and a lack of consideration given to the data and information concerned.
What is Business Intelligence ?
Business intelligence (BI) comprises technologies and practices that simplify information discovery and analysis, making it possible for decision makers at all levels of an organisation to more easily access, understand, analyse, collaborate and act on information, anytime and anywhere. Key components of a BI solution may include: a Data Warehouse, On Line Analytical Processing and a graphical querying tool.
Emma Taylor, founder of Obis Omni, says:"Dashboards are the number one priority in the current economic climate; making the right decisions with precision has never been more important."
What are the benefits of BI ?
| 1 | Access to information Users can access whatever information they want, without having to refer to an expert in an IT department and then wait for a response. |
| 2 | Increased productivity A single source of information eliminates reconciliations, reports can be updated in seconds and distributed automatically. |
| 3 | Increased accuracy For example, Finance staff have more time available to review and interpret detailed data; this allows them to spot errors that they might otherwise have missed. |
| 4 | Profitability Combining and matching detailed sales data with detailed cost data, leads to an awareness of the profitability of individual products or customers. |
| 5 | Drive Information on dashboards or scorecards can aid managers in making the right decisions to drive a business towards achieving its strategic objectives. |
Where do I start ?
- Sign up for a free half day workshop to explore solutions that will address your business requirements.
- Conduct a software audit to uncover under utilised or as yet unused resources.
Case Studies
Case Study - Frank Roberts & Sons Ltd
Sector:
Frank Roberts & Sons Ltd. had a need to conduct ad hoc analyses over their sales data and had a requirement for a suite of management reports. However, the company was unable to...
