Guide To Implementing Business Intelligence

Organisations need to react to the information they're been given as this is where the value is added, this is what we refer to as BI culture, creating the mindset within the organisation to ensure people are getting the best out the business intelligence solutions to ensure the business is able to move forward.

For a business intelligence solution to really add value, you need to start by considering your key performance indicators (KPI's), these are the business information needs, what do you need to know to make better business decisions?

In order to define KPI's you need to know what the vision of your business is. You need to start from the very top and work out what the goals are, what is the vision of your business and where are you taking it, this will enable you to work out what the critical factors are for success, once you know this, you can decide what KPI's you need.

Once you've worked out which critical success factors these KPI's affect you'll need to ensure everybody knows what their KPI is (within any organisation it's not uncommon for a KPI to be sliced by different parts of the business). Once everybody is working on their own KPI you can start to measure the results indicators which are essentially the results of activities in your business.

Implementing an effective business intelligence solution can be difficult because it's often cross functional, the quality of the data is sometimes unknown and it's not always all going to be under your control, or it may simply be a case of the KPI's not being fully understood or clearly enough aligned to the data being used.

Another reason companies may find it challenging is because they often have long delivery cycles in their IT departments, for example, if you're using a waterfall approach where you have to define the requirements up front, get them approved then go into a six month delivery cycle, quite often what you're delivering isn't what the end user requires any more because business has moved on. This means that to implement business intelligence solutions it's strongly recommend that a more agile development approach is taken where shorter delivery cycles are used and the end user is continuously consulted (i.e. what they want, what their priorities are etc).

An effective way to ensure any data is moved and processed is the extract transform and load tool (ETL) which is there to move data from A to B and to process it. There are lots of ways this can be done, traditionally its hand crafted, this solution will work fine if you have people who are familiar with where they're working, and they like handcrafting code. However, a senior manager who has the issue of change management and of controlling that source code will prefer to centralize it and have it in a tool to make it more manageable.

It can be very beneficial to have a ETL tool if you're going to build a data warehouse as it will need to evolve and change with your business, in this case you'll want a tool set that will rapidly allow you to adapt to your system. The ETL tools of today that are very centralized and multi user based, enable people to change the data and document the processing they're doing as they build it, it's a rapid development tool, so if your business is very complex and quickly evolving over time, an ETL tool would be recommended.

Your HR data is often key to most businesses, you need to know exactly who your staff are, what skills they have and the benefits they bring your business, more often than not they'll also be one of your biggest costs.

In many cases it's the HR data that will be the last to get pulled into a data warehouse because of the sensitive nature of the data but once you start to manage this data effectively, you can see at a glance things like retention, absentees and where people are struggling and this information can prove invaluable when it comes to the effective management of your business.

This data can be difficult to analyse though because any one person can have many attributes hanging off them, meaning you can have many dependants and many skills, however if you extract the HR data, into a data warehouse, you can actually overcome some of the issues intrinsically found, then you can normally find some invaluable information on how you can be managing your people more effectively.

A data warehouse appliance is an all in one solution, hardware, database software and networking software, that allows you to take data from disks, filter it, present it out and build queries from terabyte databases, it's ideal for very large databases and very large data solutions.

A data warehouse appliance does not however grant immunity against the every day challenges business intelligence presents, the front end delivery solution still has to be designed and built and you've still got the demand of user requirements changing as well as data quality issues but a data warehouse appliance does allow you to process vast amounts of data in a much more optimal fashion.

Business intelligence is about bridging the gap between the data collected and what data business people need to drive the business and improve. It's taking that data and turning it into beneficial information that can be used to help your business progress. Although the tools do exist to help with this, many organisations only manage what they can measure which may not give the business value.

About the Author

IT Performs are the experts when it comes to business intelligence solutions and training and business objects training. Improving the way companies measure and manage business, through developed methodologies and frameworks ensuring lower risk and higher quality. http://www.it-performs.com/

BI Topics : BI Implementation, Business Intelligence BI Application Software. Source: goarticles.com

ERP and Business Intelligence

ERP and Business Intelligence Innovations :Until recently it has been quite difficult to find an enterprise wide, full scale ERP business intelligence (BI) solution or software application that was both effective and affordable. Historically, the solution was finding separate BI solutions focusing on varying business processes and then bridging them together with customized programming. This resulted in sub-par solutions that required vast amounts of resources and time to get implemented which generated poor investment returns for many companies.

Recently, however, new innovations in enterprise BI applications and tools have hit the market that meet user expectations and company demands. These software on demand, software as a service (SaaS), automated business intelligence solutions are a new model shift that addresses old pain points while creating exciting new opportunities for companies.

The benefits of automated BI solutions are many. For data warehousing automated BI solutions allows for quick assessment of new stars in the data warehouse by providing a more flexible solution that doesn't require a single enterprise data warehouse.

Customers and users are not required to develop another set of metadata to navigate through the information and data or custom cubes for analytical reports since they are generated automatically and maintained from the star schema.

From an enterprise reporting and presentation perspective, the automated BI systems does not require the IT group to customize reports and performance dashboards for varying departments and managers. The automated system filters through the data and highlights the key business metrics and creates reports that focus on these areas and tweaking reporting formats requires minimal input to generate accurate and specific reporting requests.

Key non-feature benefits of automated solutions, as most SaaS based solutions are, is that they are not only faster, but they are cheaper and many times more flexible making them affordable for a whole new market of businesses as they provide companies with a tremendous ROI with an affordable capital investment entry point.

The need for an effective ERP business intelligence solution has always been there. The demand for BI solutions has increased almost 10 percent a year for the last decade. Now for the first time, the BI process can be streamlined with an automated solution with a delivery model (SaaS based) that is now affordable and consequently available to the masses, or small to mid-sized businesses looking for an enterprise software solution to help managers make better decision and keep companies competitive in the challenging business environment.

For more information about ERP Products and ERP Events visit ERP.com. Learn More at ERP network and ERP enterprise at Erp.com

About the Author
Sudhani works as a copy writer, specializes in promoting websites for highly competitive keywords like ERP.

BI Topics : ERP Products, ERP Network, ERP Enterprise, Business Intelligence BI Application Software. Source: goarticles.com

Guidelines for Retail Business Intelligence

Starting your own retail business may seem daunting at first glance, but with an organized and systematic approach, you can successfully launch your business. Guidelines for retail business intelligence.

Merchandising You are likely to already have an idea of what you want to sell. Select a market niche and design a theme for your retail store that will help dictate what type of merchandise you put on your shelves. Visit wholesalers or distributors, attend trade show, or contact manufacturers of these sorts of items you would like to carry. Make selections based on your store's theme, your target consumer, and the price range you are hoping to it. Essential Technologies Retail software, especially a superior point-of-sale (POS) system is must for every retail business. A good retail software package will make your life as a small business owner much simpler. A good POS system assist you maintain every single aspect of your business, including:

- Inventory input
- Inventory output
- Staffing
- Managerial material
- Organization
- Leadership
- Customer Databases

The ways a POS assists you manage these facets of retail business may include:
- Sales tracking
- Barcode scanning
- Transaction processing
- Credit card processing
- Inventory management
- Purchase order development
- Customer history management

A point-of-sale system also has different advantage of helping you determine how much merchandise you are losing to shoplifting and theft. The other technology you may desire to consider for loss prevention is an in-store video observation system. These retail business intelligence systems vary from very affordable to very expensive. Having video cameras in your retail office or store is a very effective way of avoiding employee theft. When your staff knows that you conduct and monitor video observation in the store, they are much less likely to steal merchandise or cash. ETP Group, a leading name associated with retail business intelligence, offers POS solution, merchandise management, and retail software to make your business successful.

BI Topics : BI for Retail, Retail Business Intelligence, Business Intelligence BI Application Software. Source: goarticles.com

Learn Something More About Business Intelligence UK Software

Why You Need Business Intelligence Software?

There are lots of people who believe they can handle all essential business tasks on their own, but they don't realize the opposite, until they hurt their business in a big way. Using business intelligence software is a good way to overcome different business related issues along with getting the following advantages.

* Business intelligence software allows you to collect key information about your business. Just by paying attention to the information collected through such software, an enterprise can actually determine the achievable goals for future. What it means is that if you need assistance in realistic goal setting, you can get amazing help by using some business intelligence software.

* These software programs are made by experts after putting in a lot of effort. It is due to the effort being made by these experts that you can now find one single application to handle all your business needs. It doesn't really matter if you need help in customer relation management or need assistance for inventory management, you will always find business intelligence UK software to get things done in a simple and quick way.

* The U.K based companies can use business intelligence software UK for ecommerce as well. It can help you in managing web presence, accounting, purchasing, payroll and more.

* If you opt for such a software solution that is offered as an on-demand service, you will be able to save yourself from buying extra hardware.

* By opting for a right business intelligence software UK suite, you will become able to enjoy advantages like rapid installation, simple operation, low training cost and cost-effective expansion.

These are few of the advantages that are associated with such type of software. But, before opting for some business intelligence UK software, you must bear in mind that different software come with different limitations. For instance, some software will only run on Windows, Linux or UNIX. It is because of this particular reason that you must choose software that may work well with any data network.

The fact of the matter is that you have to get the right type of information about your business in order to make it go further. If you have an appetite for information, you must opt for business intelligence UK software to satisfy all your needs. Not only will it help you in getting information to make right business decisions at right times but it will also assist you in improving your relations with your customers by offering the best services. So, don't overlook the importance of such software and start using one according to the size of your business enterprise.

Starting a business is easier compared to making it run smoothly, whether you are in the U.K. or elsewhere. One has to take a lot of steps in order to make his business a real success. However, business success is all about setting the right goals and that's where business intelligence UK software comes into the picture.

About the Author

Symtex (UK) Business Intelligence is delivered through a trusted and familiar environment that solves the business needs of orgs of all sizes.

BI Topics : UK BI Software, Symtex BI Software, Business Intelligence BI Application Software. Source: goarticles.com

BI Market Definition and Description

Business Intelligence Market Definition/Description

BI platforms are used to build applications that help organizations learn and understand their business. Gartner defines a BI platform as a software platform that delivers the 12 capabilities listed below. These capabilities are organized into three categories of functionality: integration, information delivery and analysis. Information delivery is the core focus of most BI projects today, but we see an increasing need to focus more on analysis to discover new insights, and on integration to implement those insights.

Integration

BI infrastructure — All tools in the platform should use the same security, metadata, administration, portal integration, object model and query engine, and should share the same look and feel.

Metadata management — This is arguably the most important of the 12 capabilities. Not only should all tools leverage the same metadata, but the offering should provide a robust way to search, capture, store, reuse and publish metadata objects such as dimensions, hierarchies, measures, performance metrics and report layout objects.

Development — The BI platform should provide a set of programmatic development tools — coupled with a software developer's kit for creating BI applications — that can be integrated into a business process, and/or embedded in another application. The BI platform should also enable developers to build BI applications without coding by using wizard-like components for a graphical assembly process. The development environment should also support Web services in performing common tasks such as scheduling, delivering, administering and managing.

Workflow and collaboration — This capability enables BI users to share and discuss information via public folders and discussion threads. In addition, the BI application can assign and track events or tasks allotted to specific users, based on predefined business rules. Often, this capability is delivered by integrating with a separate portal or workflow tool.

Information Delivery

Reporting — Reporting provides the ability to create formatted and interactive reports with highly scalable distribution and scheduling capabilities. In addition, BI platform vendors should handle a wide array of reporting styles (for example, financial, operational and performance dashboards).

Dashboards — This subset of reporting includes the ability to publish graphically intuitive displays of information, including dials, gauges and traffic lights. These displays indicate the state of the performance metric, compared with a goal or target value. Increasingly, dashboards are used to disseminate real-time data from operational applications.

Ad hoc query — This capability, also known as self-service reporting, enables users to ask their own questions of the data, without relying on IT to create a report. In particular, the tools must have a robust semantic layer to allow users to navigate available data sources. In addition, these tools should offer query governance and auditing capabilities to ensure that queries perform well.

Microsoft Office integration — In some cases, BI platforms are used as a middle tier to manage, secure and execute BI tasks, but Microsoft Office (particularly Excel) acts as the BI client. In these cases, it is vital that the BI vendor provides integration with Microsoft Office, including support for document formats, formulas, data "refresh" and pivot tables. Advanced integration includes cell locking and write-back.

Analysis

OLAP — This enables end users to analyze data with extremely fast query and calculation performance, enabling a style of analysis known as "slicing and dicing." This capability could span a variety of storage architectures such as relational, multidimensional and in-memory.

Advanced visualization — This provides the ability to display numerous aspects of the data more efficiently by using interactive pictures and charts, instead of rows and columns. Over time, advanced visualization will go beyond just slicing and dicing data to include more process-driven BI projects, allowing all stakeholders to better understand the workflow through a visual representation.

Predictive modeling and data mining — This capability enables organizations to classify categorical variables and estimate continuous variables using advanced mathematical techniques.

Scorecards — These take the metrics displayed in a dashboard a step further by applying them to a strategy map that aligns key performance indicators to a strategic objective. Scorecard metrics should be linked to related reports and information in order to do further analysis. A scorecard implies the use of a performance management methodology such as Six Sigma or a balanced scorecard framework.

Source: Business Intelligence BI Market and Decription, Magic Quadrant Garter for BI 2000 at gartner.com

Operational Business Intelligence and Supply Chain Performance Management - The SCOR Model

Organizations must not only perform well: they must be able to identify how they perform, well or poorly - and why.

Internal information isn't enough: companies need to look at and analyze information from business partners all along the supply chain.

Operational business intelligence, and performance management are processes that provide your company with the ability to retrieve and act upon business critical, timely information from throughout your operations. Today's companies need real time business intelligence software that captures, processes and analyses information from all events and transactions, across functions, departments and organizations. This data must be integrated for feedback to operations systems.

As businesses increasingly search for the best ways to maximize supply chain and ERP solutions performance, important answers may lie in a unique model called SCOR. In the relentless search for ever improving returns on investment and market competitiveness, some of the world's biggest corporations are applying a model that is known as SCOR -- the Supply-Chain Operations Reference model -- to maximize efficiency.

Siemens, Hewlett Packard, Intel, BASF, and Coca-Cola all use the SCOR model because they know survival in today's fierce markets demands detailed scrutiny and reengineering of every link in the supply chain -- from the supplier's supplier to the customer's customer. Recognizing the strength of the model, many integrated supply chain management software companies are developing stand alone software products to manage and analyze performance based on SCOR.

The SCOR model is the industry de facto standard for providing Business Process Modeling data, metrics for evaluating Performance Management and Best Practices information derived from practitioners' experience. It is entirely vendor and technology independent and is the only real independent in-depth reference model for the complete supply chain of all companies.

SCOR makes it possible to make supply chain performance comparisons between companies by industry. It also provides mapping processes to make more effective relationships between partners, suppliers and customers: it is a tool for revitalizing your ERP solution internally and externally. Companies deploying SCOR have dramatically cut costs and boosted returns. Using the SCOR-model, Siemens Medical, for example, has been able to cut costs by 30 percent, reduce inventory by 60 percent, and cut order lead-times from 22 weeks to just two. The SCOR model is organized around five key management processes: Plan, Source, Make, Deliver and Return.

Each of these processes is examined on three levels of detail. The first level is strategic, what the company wants from each process area. The second level maps out exactly what is currently happening within each process area. The third level examines the operational level of the process areas, the area where execution can be altered.

SCOR doesn't tell you what changes to make but it maps out where the weak links are. It is then necessary to apply appropriate execution adjustments specific to the particular chain. Successful supply chain management is about consistent scrutiny, getting real time information so you can react to less than optimal performance. It also means getting quality operational business intelligence. Companies that will be successful in the long run are those that realize the answer lies in maximizing supply chain efficiency.

With enterprise application integration driving so many changes within organizations, traditional methods of measuring business performance need to be augmented.

About the Author

Marcus Schulz is a consultant with IBS Australia. IBS develops ERP Software, enterprise distribution software solution and business management supply chain software inventory management systems, manufacturing ERP software, operational business intelligence software and EAI software.

BI Topics : Supply Chain Performance Management, Operational BI, SCOR Model, Business Intellication Application Software. Source: goarticles.com

2009 Magic Quadrant for BI Platforms

This document was revised on 5 February 2009. For more information, see the Corrections page on gartner.com.

The Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms (see Figure 1) presents a global view of Gartner's opinion of the main software vendors that should be considered by organizations seeking to develop business intelligence (BI) applications. Buyers should evaluate vendors in all four quadrants and not assume that only the largest organizations can deliver successful BI implementations. In addition to Gartner analysts' opinions, the scores and commentary in this document are based on three sources: customer perceptions of each vendor's strengths and challenges derived from BI-related inquiries with Gartner, an online survey of vendor customers conducted in late 2008 yielding 480 responses, and a vendor-completed questionnaire about their BI strategy and operations.

Market Overview

In January 2008, SAP completed its acquisition of Business Objects and IBM completed its acquisition of Cognos. The acquired firms were two of the largest in the market and had, arguably, been the defining suppliers in the space. Their absorption into larger entities (along with Hyperion into Oracle six months earlier) seemingly marked the end of BI platforms as a predominantly stand-alone, best-of-breed, buying decision. In 2008, BI platform investment decisions became tethered more closely to strategic sourcing and stack-led factors, and more influenced by organizational relationships with application and infrastructure vendors than before. Conversely, however, based on the research conducted for this report and interactions with Gartner customers over the year, there clearly remains a demand for independent BI platforms. To understand this duality, it is necessary to consider a number of factors at play that are driving the BI platform today:

1. A growing bifurcation of buying preference. There are two types of buying behavior evident: A) firms that see their BI platform as an extension of their enterprise middleware, and require the platform to fit into more heterogeneous data and application sources; and B) those with an inclination for pre-integration of a BI platform into a stack of data and application sources from a single vendor.
2. Innovation yielding to integration. One consequence of the market's consolidation has been that the acquiring megavendors' product releases and road maps have inevitably been dominated by integrating the acquired technologies into their existing portfolios. These vendors face a challenge balancing the conflicting goals of making the BI platform better at working together with the vendor's other products, while at the same time not becoming too inward facing. In the main, innovation in BI platforms is being driven by independents.
3. "Flattening" alternatives. The maturing of Microsoft's lower-cost BI portfolio, the application of Web 2.0 techniques, the availability of data warehouse (DW) appliances, the growth of open-source BI and the ongoing emergence of software as a service (SaaS) offerings have continued to make BI capabilities increasingly accessible and more affordable. As a result, this Magic Quadrant includes commentary on some alternative vendors which, while not meeting the inclusion criteria for the Magic Quadrant itself, offer a viable alternative for some BI use cases.
4. The re-emergence of "workgroup BI." Many of the pioneering vendors of the BI space entered the market delivering personal and workgroup-based BI. After much encouragement from their clients and from analyst firms (including Gartner), these vendors began to focus most of their resources on delivering enterprisewide BI solutions. This left an opening for a new crop of vendors to deliver solutions for personal and workgroup BI requirements using disruptive technology (specifically in-memory analytics). It seems likely that despite the inherent risk of silo-perpetuation, workgroup BI's light-touch nature will prove attractive in a recession.
5. Return on investment equivalence. Based on conversations with Gartner customers, and the survey carried out for this research, beyond the capability to meet the needs of international deployments, there is no correlation between the size of a vendor (in either revenue or staff terms) and the level of satisfaction or the return on investment delivered with a BI platform implemented. Formerly, while the market was dominated by independent pure-play BI firms, size was an important indicator as to capability; now, this isn't the case — a $300 million revenue BI specialist may well (and often does) out-deliver a more broad-based vendor many times its size. This apparent equivalence in the relative level of success delivered is reflected in the Ability to Execute axis positions in this year's Magic Quadrant.

After the vendor merger and acquisition (M&A) turbulence of 2007, 2008 was a year of transition. And 2009 is likely to be a critical year in which the total cost of ownership (TCO) of BI comes under increased scrutiny, and its value as a decision-making tool in the toughest economic conditions is put to the test.

Forecast

Gartner's view is that BI platform revenue will be less affected by the economic downturn than some other technologies because of the heightened need to make better, fact-based decisions — BI is a vital competitive tool of increased importance in an environment where doing business more smartly, in order to maximize share of the reduced revenue in circulation, is a necessity. That said, however, the recession, commoditization and consolidation are expected to put BI platform growth into the single digits in 2009 and beyond. As such, the BI platform market's compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2012 is expected to be 7.0% for stand-alone BI platforms and 7.9% for both stand-alone and embedded functionality (for details and an explanation of terms see "Forecast: Enterprise Software Markets, Worldwide, 2007-2012, 4Q08 Update").

Several demand-side factors indicate that BI platform revenue will continue to grow:

* CIOs are increasingly being required to invest in technologies that drive business transformation and strategic change. The fact that BI is a top priority for CIOs indicates that they see BI as part of the answer to this requirement. BI can deliver on this promise if deployed successfully because it could improve decision making and operational efficiency, which in turn drives the top line and the bottom line.
* Information generated from enterprise applications is at an all-time high and will continue to increase. BI platforms are seen as a means to turn that information into an asset on which better decisions can be made.
* BI platforms are expanding their capabilities beyond traditional query, reporting and online analytical processing (OLAP) functionality, toward providing dashboards, scorecards and visualization as well. We expect innovation and growth to come from technologies that make it easier to build and consume BI applications (such as visualization, search, in-memory analytics, SaaS and service-oriented architecture [SOA]).
* Smaller and midsize organizations are becoming an important target market for BI vendors, with a large proportion being new opportunities. The success of smaller vendors targeting the segment, new SaaS delivery models and increased offerings from Microsoft are prompting further growth in demand. In addition, several vendors traditionally not in this domain have been modifying or extending their product, pricing and partner strategies to reach this key group.
* While BI standardization projects are increasing, departmental projects are also on the rise, especially those provided by smaller horizontal analytics specialists and within emerging technologies, such as in-memory BI, search and visualization.
* Areas that have traditionally been under corporate performance management (CPM), such as business planning and forecasting, are increasingly being embedded with BI capabilities. This, together with a trend of embedding analytics into business processes, will drive further investment in BI.
* Consumerization of information — Users are becoming increasingly savvy in using and manipulating information to their advantage. This will enable a spread of BI across organizations, leading to a need for more licenses. Technology trends, such as increasing visualization, might help further.
* Another positive driver is the use of BI functions in customer-facing Web site applications as a value-adding service differentiator, using Rich Internet Application (RIA) techniques.

Source: gartner.com

Retail BI - SaaS/On demand Business Intelligence tool

Held from 19 - 23 October 2008, at Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, the aim of GITEX Business Solutions was to build upon the exhibition's position as the region's largest IT procurement platform, by providing focused areas for technology organizations to network with the thousands of senior technology managers and chief information officers set to visit the high profile event.

BIRetail's presence at GITEX introduced BIRetail's state of the art business intelligence technology to audiences in the Middle East, specifically for those seeking newer technology solutions in the Retail industry.

BIRetail's presence at the conference facilitated a direct showcase to an audience seeking newer technology solutions in the Retail industry.

About BIRetail

BIRetail is a "license-free" Business Intelligence tool compatible with any Point of Sale software, which assists Retailers exercise better control over their operations.

This innovative solution helps Retailers generate higher profit by churning their operational and transactional data into "Actionable Intelligence". Using this solution Retailers can:

• Optimize Inventory costs

• Maximize earnings through visual Profitability Analysis reporting

• Increase Sales by improved customer recognition

• Get better mileage for merchandise spends, with better Product behavior patterns

BIRetail currently serves the challenging needs of retailers in U.S, U.K and Europe.

To know more contact them at info@BIRetail.com or visit us at http://www.biretail.com

BIRetail was showcased at GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK 2008 which is a dedicated event for government, enterprise and SMB solution providers, "GITEX Business Solutions".

About the Author

We will be glad to explain in detail, how we manage to provide such a powerful solution at such an affordable cost. Please let us know a convenient time for our representatives to schedule a online demo at http://www.biretail.com/ScheduleDemo.aspx

Topics : BIRetail, BI for Retail, BI Software, Business Intelligence Application. Source: goarticles.com

Business Intelligence Software and their role in a web Development Company

With business intelligence software, you can easily keep a track of your business progress and thereby regulate the process to achieve your objectives. Working as a single platform for all your management work, business software would help you to collate all necessary information and bring about convenience in running your business.

More so, when it comes to being in the business of web sites development . In this particular arena, one needs to manage all the ecommerce activities like web presence, account maintenance, purchases and payroll to be in sync with progress. Moreover, the development of website requires the creator to streamline a huge array of tools and technologies with the set tasks in an organized manner to reach the goals at the precise hour.

Professional web development service providers feel the need for business intelligence software at a greater level. For the purpose of web based development, there is an apparent need for a proper business strategy that concentrates on the development of step-wise elements. Business intelligence software comes packed with all the essentials that can make your business operations a fairly easy task. What's more, it sure is a very cost-effective way of giving ample space for growth to your business. In web sites development, there are always constant requirements for updating and assorting internal components like web content, web design and scripting, which can be really difficult to maintain manually. The software can be of great help here by organizing all the activities and keeping track of the work progress so there can further scope for improvements in the future.

Planning to establish your own business brings with it a whole range of dos and don'ts that would go on to determine the success of your business in a crucial way. You need to check into the areas of key concentration and find out what can be the most effective solutions for each one of them. Now, one particular element that comes across as a highly effective component in organizing your business planning is business intelligence software.

About the Author

I am the webmaster at www.synapsewebsolutions.co.uk - a development of website offering quality and cost-efficient offshore website design and development solutions.

Topics : BI Development Company, Business Intelligence Software, BI Application. Source: goarticles.com

Hertzler Systems' Reflects on Business Intelligence

Evan J. Miller, developer of Hertzler Systems' GainSeeker Suite, an automated SPC software system (http://www.hertzler.com/php/solutions/spc.software.php), noted that, "A recent article on SearchDataManagement.com about a Gartner Group conference on Business Intelligence (BI) discusses the fact that business intelligence is probably the number one priority for CIOs, but most companies have not translated that prioritization into high value. That conclusion doesn't surprise me. I've been arguing for sometime that most businesses under-utilize their data assets. Here are a couple of blog posts, looking at topics like BI as an oxymoron, technology and culture, and the key drivers of Best-in-Class manufacturing."

According to Miller, "More sophisticated users often create their own spreadsheets, which by definition fall outside the view of IT, to make up for the limitations of ad hoc queries. IT departments should develop data discovery environments that empower users to do the analysis they need, but which also let them connect that analysis back to the organization. That sounds to me like a dashboard that users can drill into to get to the underlying data. It sounds to me like an analysis wizard that guides users to the underlying sources of variation in a process. IT people do sometimes lose sight of their real goal. As one conference attendee, Chad Erman, head of BI for Southwestern Energy put it, "We noticed a lot of people think in terms of reports, instead of BI or key metrics. What I constantly had to remind them … is: What is the question you're trying to answer? Then work to achieve that goal."

Hertzler Systems Inc., a leading provider of SPC, Operational Intelligence and Manufacturing Intelligence software, provides this important information on the company blog, "The Data Heads." This blog provides insight into the role of data in empowering business transformation, with topics that range from using Key Process Indicator (KPI) dashboards in supporting organizational change, to applying Statistical Process Control (SPC) techniques to drive variation out of any process. The blog is published at www.hertzler.com/blog/dataheads/.

Hertzler Systems (www.hertzler.com) provides seamless, accurate data acquisition solutions that drive business transformation. The company provides the leading real-time data acquisition and analytics software, the GainSeeker Suite. This powerful and flexible system is best used by lean and progressive companies. Gainseeker Suite allows companies to connect with devices and other information systems, collecting data and alarming key personnel when problems arise; this technology allows organizations to analyze data for root cause problems, converting data into knowledge.

Hertzler Systems Inc. www.hertzler.com Adrienne DePew Communications Manager info@hertzler.com 800.958.2709

Hertzler Systems has been a leader in Statistical Process Control and Six Sigma for over twenty years, and includes a diverse customer base in service, transactional and manufacturing environments; clients include BAE Systems, Crown Audio, IDEX Corporation, McCormick & Company, Inc., Hormel Foods Corporation, Titleist & Footjoy, and TaylorMade-Adidas Golf Worldwide. The company's software and services enable clients to collect and analyze data; building a robust data infrastructure for making data-driven decisions. These capabilities help clients to reduce costs, cycle time and errors, and increase profitability.

About the Author

Professional Marketing Firm for the Manufacturing Community and Manufacturing Journalist to most manufacturing magazines.

Topics : BI Company, Business Intelligence BI Application Software. Source: goarticles.com

Business Intelligence (BI) Software can Transform Business Performance

DMC Software Solutions, the leading provider of fully integrated business systems says that Business Intelligence (BI) Software can bring good news to businesses in these troubling times. This intelligence provides the means for organisations to analyse their market and make predictions that will give them the competitive edge.

Business Intelligence (BI) tools have progressed greatly since they were introduced to the market place and now they are accessible to everyone, without the need for in depth technical knowledge. Increasingly, Business Intelligence is becoming a necessity for organisations to combat economic pressures, maintain competitive and review the return on investments made, allowing decision makers to make better informed business decisions.

Mike Ramsay, managing director of DMC Software Solutions a leading provider of fully integrated business systems, explains, "All businesses can benefit from business intelligence software, it is no longer exclusively available to businesses with large budgets. Business Intelligence offers its users agility and insight, helping to support important business decisions by analysing data too complex for manual processing. It takes every day data collated through internal systems and transforms it in to actionable business acumen spotting trends, analysing performance and making suggestions for areas of improvement, no business in this climate should be without it."

He continues "Introducing a Business Intelligence solution to an organisation can transform they way in which it operates. New found agility will enable businesses to adapt quickly to the changing needs of the customer, identifying requirements of the target market ahead of competitors."

Modern day Business Intelligence software uses graphical representations to transform large quantities of information into intuitive data; users are able digest, understand and explore complex information allowing them to identify opportunities for increasing revenue, reducing costs and product development. Ad hoc reports can be produced for quick and easy distribution so that everyone has access to the information exactly where and when it is required, reducing the learning curve while encouraging the organisation to utilise available data.

Sage 200 Business Intelligence forms part of the Sage 200 Suite delivering the ability to report on financial data within Sage 200 with dashboards that contain essential business data at a glance. Future releases are set to include reporting in commercial and CRM data. With Sage 200 Business Intelligence there is no need to upgrade to benefit from subsequent releases the new features will be included within upgrades of the Sage 200 Suite.

About DMC Software Solutions
DMC Software Solutions are specialists in providing fully integrated business solutions as well as standalone Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and accountancy solutions. DMC Software work businesses to decide upon the best tools and services to increase efficiency of business processes and profitability- the array of products and services on offer guarantees DMC clients' exceptional customer service.
For more information on the solutions available from DMC Software visit www.dmcsoftware.co.uk, email us info@dmcsoftware.co.uk or FREEPHONE 0800 6522 423 to speak to a member of the sales staff.

- ENDS -
For more information please contact Jade Dixon-Winters, Marketing Executive.
Email: jadewinters@dmcsoftware.co.uk
Tel: 01733 362120

About the Author

Marketing Executive for DMC Software Solutions. DMC Software Solutions are specialists in providing fully integrated business solutions as well as standalone Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and accountancy solutions.

Topics : Business Performance, DMC Software Solutions, Business Intelligence BI Application Software. Source: goarticles.com

When the going gets tough, Business Intelligence could help make critical decisions

By Sunny Pokala To take advantage of these sluggish times, your company needs access to critical data about how well your business, your market, your competitors, and your suppliers are responding to today's challenging times. In positioning your organization to weather turbulent markets, insight and making informed, good decisions can be the critical factor that determines your success or failure, rather than depending on your instinct or guts. Most organizations are inundated with data, with more flooding in every day. This exacerbates an already difficult problem: how to manage data and extract meaningful information from it. Users typically find ways around this by generating extracts, massaging data in secondary tools, proliferating copies, and sometimes correcting the copy so it disagrees with the original. Ever-increasing regulatory pressures force retention for compliance purposes, so data deprecation becomes an important consideration that impacts storage requirements. Reducing the number of data sources and de-duplicating the data in those sources will lead to fewer errors, greater efficiency, and reduced maintenance costs. That is why it is important to understand how Business Intelligence can protect your company from the economic storm and have you emerging a winner.

Business intelligence (BI) is used to analyze and report on multiple data sources (both data at rest and in motion) to enhance business processes and inspire changes to the organization's business model. Effective BI should keep the organization from missing opportunities for business innovation. In the heightened competitive pressure that accompanies a constricting economy, BI is a wise investment. Make sure you know what you desire to know, however; otherwise, what appears to be great data mining may tell you nothing at all. BI makes business processes more efficient and information-management processes less complicated and these are some of the reasons it can play a crucial role in a weak economy.

Using Employee Metrics to Motivate Performance One way to motivate positive performance is to make employees aware of how they compare to their peers / colleagues. This information could be put to use by employees to make better decisions and also encourages them to work harder to improve their standing in the organization. A BI system can automatically update a reporting database whenever designated revenue and trading milestones are reached. Additionally, using BI technology can help create several dynamic reports to motivate employee performance. For example, the Top 5 Employees report reveals which employees are bringing in the most revenue; the Top 5 Branches ranking system encourages healthy competition among offices. These daily ranking systems, along with a cumulative Book of Records report, continually acquaint each trader, manager, and executive with the company's progress in this dynamic industry.

Using BI to Identify Cost-Saving Opportunities One of the ways BI reduces costs is by shortening the time it takes for people to get the relevant information. A BI application shrinks the process of acquiring relevant information from weeks to minutes. As it refines the predictive analysis capabilities of the information gathered, the organization is better able to react to leading indicators before they impact the product margins.

Helping a Dealer Network Reduce Costs BI technology can be applied to create a dealer reporting system that saves a few millions each year. The system identifies excessive repair costs by monitoring how much each dealer's warranty performance varies from the average performance of other dealers in the same geographic region. Helping dealers keep costs down and comply with regional averages contributes to the company's bottom line.

Using BI as a Profit Center BI can also uncover previously untapped revenue. The genesis of these initiatives is often a desire to fully analyze data about customers, products, and sales. For example, the administration department of an IT company wants to figure out how and from which sector revenue is being generated for the company. To do its job more effectively, the company can create a programme that calculates revenue and yield from each of its branches, sorted by week and month. Data visualization software uses geographic displays to reveal point-of-sale data on a world map. Linking interactive graphs makes it easier to detect correlations in the data. This leads to more productive meetings; better understanding of the issues, and more clearly defined follow-up activities. It is the same data but it is interactive, so users can isolate a certain aspect of the data, drill-down, and spot problems in specified areas. This type of analysis is better than data mining because it allows users to drill down to the core of the issue, rather than simply run predefined algorithms from a data-mining program.

Many business leaders are looking to BI for near-term solutions, but BI delivers high-value returns on many levels. BI enables companies to work smarter, even when tight financial times mean smaller IT budgets and leaner staffs. Market-leading companies in every industry are turning to Business Intelligence solutions to stay ahead. When the economy turns--as it inevitably will--these are the firms that will be in the best position to seize the next wave of opportunities.

About the Author

The author is Chairman, InfoBuild India and President, Amtex Systems and can be contacted at sunny@infobuild.in

Topics : Critical Decisions, Business Intelligence BI Application Software. Source: goarticles.com

The Positive Aspects Of Business intelligence Advisors

Sure the executives of businesses like the big three auto manufactures and larger lending institutions can afford to take long "siestas" while their business sail toward the rocks, because they know that Uncle Sam will always come to the rescue just before they run aground. However; what about you and your business?

Of course you are completely familiar with your particular business but are you an expert on extraneous particulars that can effect your business in the coming future? For instance, can you rely on your local community for a reliable labor source for the upcoming decade or should you be exploring concepts in outsourcing?

Hard work and determination got you to where you are in business now and of course you can always count on that to carry you through. However; have you ever considered the possibility that an outside opinion, particularly on newer more technologically advanced subjects like advanced business intelligence usage might be of benefit?

Can you really trust the opinions of government business and economic analysts for instance? Also, how with fluctuating currency values and oil prices effect one or more aspects of your business? What about changing tax laws and the new economic stimulus package. Are you familiar with all aspects of these and other coming changes?

New trends in outsourcing and foreign competition mean that for todays businesses owner and managers that aspire to remain competitive, the advice of a business intelligence advisor can prove to be invaluable. It's a fact that you will make miscalculations, because everyone does but a business intelligence advisor can and will help you to keep your miscalculations to a minimum.

Are you aware of all the new developments in business intelligence software? Software tools such as Crystal Reports that you can use for data mining and analysis and writing intelligence reports. Be aware that a tighter credit market means that banking loan officers and potential investors now want to see detailed business reports before they will consider any type of business financing.

The Cost of Business Intelligence Advisors

There are basically two considerations that you should take in when contemplating the cost of bringing in an outside unbiased business intelligence advisor. First, there is the actual cost of the advisors work, which may be far less than you imagined. Then there is the cost to your business that can be incurred by going it alone without the help of a business intelligence advisor in todays far more complex and competitive climate. Bear in mind that advice in business is worth what you pay for it, thus, free advice is worth absolutely nothing.

Aren't Business Intelligence Advisors Expensive?

The cost of expertise isn't negligible but the results can be very significant. An investment in your business could be your best chances at ensuring you survive difficulty in the economy, survive new competitors in your field and keep loyal customers loyal while driving new business your way. A company that continuously improves also retains its best talent as individual contributors appreciate working for an organization that fosters personal development and growth.

Read em and weep. The statistics on business failures in recent months and years are nothing short of horrifying. Just as horrifying is the most common excuse that those who were running these businesses give for their failures. "They didn't anticipate impending changes in the economy and business climate".

About the Author

Written by Cassandra Reppenten. Find the latest information on business intelligence advisors as well as business intelligence analyst

Topics : Business Intelligence Advisors, Business Intelligence BI Application Software. Source: goarticles.com

Business Intelligence Software: Delivering custom Reporting tools

Business Intelligence, per se, is a wide and deep topic comprising comprehensive tools for enhancing business work from start to finish. With the increasing importance of sound decision making at business speed, businesses around the world tend to go for custom development of web based reporting tools.

Good business intelligence software integrates an effective reporting tool that takes into account the exact needs of the users within an organization. A modern business intelligence software meets the challenges of reporting for today and renders complete solution in terms of

Collaborative reporting,

Complete enterprise reporting and

Delivering reports that have to be authored once, which would be adaptable to different data sources and would be consumed anywhere on long lasting basis.

One of the principal objectives of Business Intelligence is to work as channel of delivering the right information to the right candidate at the right time. Under the purview of this requirement, the professionals responsible for development of reporting tools also take into account the diversity among target consumers of the business reports - their large base and the various consumption methods at their disposal. Accordingly, a sound reporting solution makes sure that it caters a separate report for each consumption method - for e.g. Separate Reports for web, PDA, BlackBerry, Symbian devices and so on. A good reporting tool also avails you the benefit of multilingual reporting, citing the globalization needs.

It is usual for software development companies in the US, Europe, Australia, Korea and other parts of the world to look at software development services in India to outsource software development. Looking out for an offshore software development company is a finer option for all these countries because Software Development Services in India offers them substantial cost advantage coupled with highly skilled and qualified software professionals working for their project round the clock, with total responsibility and accountability.

The advent of custom software application development has facilitated all facets of human life, including business. Business intelligence software are fine examples of custom software application development that offers a significant extension to the general business acumen and facilitates better decision making by helping the management make informed choices.

About the Author

I am the webmaster at www.synapse.co.in - a software development services company offering numerous services, such as flash web development, flash scripting, offshore software development, website development, and website maintenance services.

Topics : Reporting Tools, Business Intelligence BI Application Software. Source: goarticles.com

Challenges of successfully deploying business intelligence and data warehousing

Business intelligence refers to the information that is available for the enterprise to make decisions on. A data warehousing (or data mart) system is the backend, or the infrastructural component for achieving business intelligence. It also includes the insight gained from conducting data mining analysis, as well as unstructured data (thus the need for content management systems).

The concept of business intelligence has existed since ages for achieving long-term organizational goals by looking at trends and patterns, multi-dimensional analysis and so forth. The data typically exists anywhere from a day to a week, to a month, to even a year or more. What has essentially changed is the focus to get it closer to real time. That's what is referred to as operational business intelligence. It is more about managing daily operations. Initially strategic business intelligence meant building our own little worlds. Data was extracted out of the operational systems and data warehouses and data marts were built in accordance, completely disconnected from the operational environment on purpose. This really helped create strategic decision-making environments, without affecting the operational systems. But all that has changed now with operational business intelligence and data warehousing being interconnected. No longer can there be a wall between the operational side of the house and operational business intelligence.

Operational business intelligence is also used by a very different audience. By its very nature, it has to be made more actionable for it to be useful by the operation personnel as well. And, by actionable, that means it has to be embedded into their everyday workflow, or their everyday processes. The traditional audience--the business analysts, and the executives--who are interested in being able to analyze this historical information were not really focused on current or real time or, even near real time data for that matter. In other words, the joint efforts of business intelligence with data warehousing is the need of the hour.

Business intelligence and data warehousing are commonly associated terms. In fact, many of the tool vendors position their products as business intelligence software rather than data warehousing software. There are other occasions where the two terms are used interchangeably. So, what exactly is business intelligence?

About the Author

Arun Gupta is a professional writer for an Offshore Software Development Indian IT company offering customized solutions including Application Testing, Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing (BI & DW) and Infrastructure Management Services for clients around the world.

Source: Data Warehouse, Business Intelligence BI Application Software articles at goarticles.com

Business Intelligence: The Key to Business Success

From my experiences as a Microsoft Access developer over the years working for many different type industries, I have often seen that businesses may have business tools that are utilized to provide business intelligence, however many times these tools are not encompassing all the data. They often times are not setup to display and provide other aspects of information that can be tied into the data they are conducting analysis on. This in turn is a disadvantage to the company as they are not seeing the whole picture and basing their key business decisions on partial data.

When I perform Access development work for these companies and tell the senior managers of my findings, they are often surprised because they figured that the corporate-wide ERP system, which they had just paid one hundred thousand dollars or more for would provide them everything they need. ERP systems are very beneficial for most companies and provide significant cost savings, however many times they come with canned reports based on the specifications provided by the company and inevitably new segments of data will need to be analyzed down the road, which will not be part of the original ERP system.

A well designed Business Intelligence solution will extract data sets of all needed data and consolidate it into a centralized location such as Microsoft Access. The benefit of having the data extracted to a relational database such as Microsoft Access is that the data can be logically tied together. It can also be queried and the user specific filtering results can be displayed in Excel charts, graphs, and pivot tables, Word, PDFs, Outlook e-mail attachments etc. As a consultant performing custom data services for many different business types, Microsoft Access has been my tool of choice because of these benefits, also the fact that it ties in perfectly with the world's most popular business software suite (Microsoft Office) makes it the preferred tool hands down.

Many times businesses have an idea of what they need to analyze but do not know what would be needed or the exact details of all the data they would need. Experienced Access developers with industry experience many times know the business side and can assist companies in defining the exact requirements that they will need in order to perform effective analysis. An experienced Access development programmer will be able to answer all questions that a company may have and work hand in hand with company staff to achieve a highly-effective business intelligence tool that will benefit the company immensely.

An effective business intelligence system will provide your company with the exact facts and figures you need to pinpoint critical aspects of your business. From my experience as a consultant over the years and performing most of the business intelligence solutions through Microsoft Access development, I have found that the benefits that these tools provide a company far outweigh the cost that it is to implement an effective business intelligence tool. As I had said in my experiences from designing hundreds of business solutions, hiring experienced Access developers to design the solution through Microsoft Access is in my opinion the best path to take.

One of the key ingredients for any businesses' success is its ability to have in-depth knowledge of the company. This entails such factors as customers, products, employees, sales etc. Having this information in an organized and efficient manner will provide a company with all the information that it needs in order to make key business decisions.

About the Author

Dan H is the owner of Data Gopher Custom Access Databases. He has designed custom Microsoft Access data solutions for many Fortune 500 companies and is considered to be an authority on developing custom data solutions for businesses.

Source: Business Intelligence BI Application Software articles at goarticles.com