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As the end of the calendar year approaches, companies must
once again set budgets and forecasts for the upcoming year.
Creativity is an important quality to bring to this effort,
as year after year, companies are forced to be more productive
on leaner budgets. Experts say the economy is beginning to
rebound (it’s shown through the recovering holiday sales);
however, companies are still facing an uphill climb. This has
forced organizations to change the way they make choices and
decisions.
The hardest decisions for these companies inevitably involve
technology. Executives with sometimes limited technical
background must decide what exactly is needed, what isn’t
needed, what they need to replace and what they can leverage
with their current solutions. This is not a decision to be
made in a vacuum or with little exposure to data.
With so many new solutions coming to market, it is understandable
that people can get confused.
Technology should be the solution to executives’ business pains
and not the problem itself. One helpful tool that is growing
rapidly is called Business Intelligence (BI). For many, this
phrase sounds like one of George Carlin’s infamous oxymorons.
Instead this is actually one of the most helpful processes that
could make all the difference in a company’s bottom line next year.
Very few executives would answer no to the following questions,
and therefore almost every executive would stand to make
significant gains in their performance if they could simply
get a handle on the intelligence being produced, collected
and distributed on a daily basis:
- Does your company produce, collect or distribute a large amount of data from its business operations?
- Does your company need to continually report to customers, shareholders and employees?
- Does your company need to continue to drive ROI?
Hopefully, the answers to all of these questions are yes, but the
one question not asked is "how does a business Know what it
already Knows?" Or, more simply put, "does your company know
how to access its data in a seamless, timely and efficient
manner in order to be able to make effective decisions for
the organization?" To keep track of all of that information,
companies would need to use many different programs, some
that they might already have and some that they don’t. Using
these multiple software programs makes it difficult to retrieve
information in a timely matter and to perform analysis of the data.
So, what is Business Intelligence? BI represents tools and
systems that play a key role in the strategic planning
process of a corporation. These systems allow a company to
gather, store, access and analyze corporate data to aid in
decision-making. Generally these systems will illustrate
business intelligence in the areas of customer profiling,
customer support, market research, market segmentation,
product profitability, sales metrics, statistical analysis,
and inventory and distribution analysis.
Reaping the Benefits of Business Intelligence
Now, when something comes as highly recommended as Business
Intelligence, it rarely meets the expectations of its end
users. But BI is the exception that has proven its value
time and time again.
This is perhaps because BI is not just a high-tech device or
the latest software application. It is a business framework
which stresses the need to make better decisions faster. This
framework is supported by technologies, software and processes
that turn a company’s data into valuable information –
information that gives real-time insight into profitability
and performance.
With the use of BI frameworks and technologies, companies
are able to increase revenue and lower operating costs. A
company will also find it is easier to:
- Respond faster to new opportunities and changing demands
- Acquire insight into your customers’ buying patterns to increase profitability
- Reduce costs by minimizing the time required to collect relevant business data
- Identify and target new customers and markets
- Optimize customer relationships and increase customer loyalty
- Respond quickly to shifts in market demands
Applying the Business Intelligence Framework
Business Intelligence solutions enable companies to achieve these
goals by transforming disparate, fragmented data into viable
information capable of answering key business questions.
Data from across an enterprise, business units and functional
areas is reorganized and recombined to report key performance
indicators. Powerful BI technologies provide real-time
analysis capabilities via intuitive tools that increase
"speed to insight". BI technologies have matured significantly
over the recent past, as well as become far more cost
effective to deploy. The result is the incremental BI
capabilities are within the grasp of every business.
By putting the power to make better and quicker business
decisions in the hands of management, Business Intelligence
solutions will ensure companies are able to immediately
adapt to market changes, customer demand and performance trends.
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NuSoft is, without exception, the best example of "hyper-responsive" I've ever seen. During our project, I've been impressed with the attention to detail, and the depth of technical ability; there has been more than one time when I thought I knew precisely how to approach something, but then changed my mind when exposed to a new perspective.
- Peter Basso Associates
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