Time is one of the major challenges businesses face today.
With information overload and an accelerated business pace, decisions must be
taken quickly in an ever-changing market place.
Unfortunately, decision-makers spend 70 per cent of their
time compiling information, leaving 30 per cent to analyse the data and
understand what needs to be done. However, thanks to business intelligence,
those percentages may not only be switched but allow for better decisions to be
taken.
The first priority is facilitating access to the necessary
data and presenting a visualisation – a picture – of the organisation that can
easily be understood. Access to the right level of information at the right
time will improve the decision-making process.
Business intelligence solutions present decision-makers with
a ‘dashboard’ on which key performance indicators (KPIs) such as cash, revenue,
budgets and profitability are displayed in a graphical user interface. The concept is very similar to the dashboard
we are all familiar with – the one we keep our eyes on while we are driving to
ensure there is enough fuel, etc.
Any variance from the budget figures and business rules that
require attention will be flagged. In this way, a ‘management by exception’
environment is created in a user-friendly environment.
The amount of data created by other operational systems may
overwhelm executives. What executives really need is a panoramic view of the
organisation’s performance with the ability to use analytics to drill down into
the detail when required. This is the
slicing and dicing concept – a decision-maker can dynamically analyse
performance by various dimensions such as segment, industry and brand to report
on different measures such as revenue, profit and quantities. Every dimension tells a different story of
business.
Business intelligence solutions empower executives to pick
and choose the data they require to take ad hoc decisions. This is
revolutionising the way we work by unlocking the full potential of the data
that exists within our organisation.
Sometimes this information resides in a number of
operational systems that create ‘silos’ – a huge amount of detail on a specific
subject matter such as accounts, customers, stocks which do not lend itself
easily for sharing across systems. Business intelligence provides the
methodology to extract, transform and load the data into a data warehouse.
Connecting to multiple ‘silos’ of data generates an
unparalleled synergy and business value creating one version of the truth. This
process reconciles the multiple sources of data and creates confidence ensuring
the integrity and reliability of the information.
With such large amounts of data, trying to identify
variances in performance may be difficult.
But advanced business intelligence tools provide insight to the data and
guide the analyst by pinpointing variances and trends and suggesting the
reasons for the results.
We live in a virtual world where today’s generation share
ideas, discuss and collaborate over social media. Imagine the possibility of
discussing performance and trends of the business using the same techniques
where executives can share, comment and ask questions all based on dynamic
content linked to live data. Business
intelligence tools with these facilities create the ideal forum for
decision-making.
Mobile business intelligence is the latest innovation in
this sphere. Many decisions are taken on the field, while meeting customers and
suppliers. Giving the mobile work force
access to business analytics to dynamically slice and dice the data during a
business meeting could prove to be invaluable and provide that edge which could
make or break a business transaction.
These business intelligence solutions can give your business
that competitive advantage and help executives take the right decision in
today’s dynamic marketplace. Sustained
profitability and growth demand investment in such innovative solutions.
