Business Intelligence Articles

If you are like every other player in your market, you want to dominate. You want your company to be the leading provider of your flagship product and every other component that supports your efforts. You want to be sure that when the industry is mentioned, yours is the first company name that comes to mind. And, since you are researching to ask what is business intelligence, it would be easy to assume that your company has yet to reach this pinnacle. One good thing when you ask what is business intelligence is the fact that you want to know more and you are willing to do your homework to dig deeper. 

What is Business Intelligence? The Microsoft Answer

Type in the question what is business intelligence into the search bar in Google and one of the first results to populate the page will take you to the Microsoft website. Microsoft does do a good job of providing an extensive knowledge base available for all customers. Most of the information provided is just enough to get you into trouble, but not enough to reconfigure your whole system. One thing it will tell you when you ask what is business intelligence is to show you that it is a process that simplifies the discovery of information and analysis so that decision-makers at all levels of the organization can more easily access, understand, analyze, collaborate and act on information. Your users likely want to be able to do this anywhere and everywhere and perhaps they aren’t asking what is business intelligence, but instead where is business intelligence.

What is Business Intelligence? Traditional to the Modern

Traditionally speaking, the answer to what is business intelligence would have been a much more direct answer. These processes were driven by analysts seeking to derive more value from the information and data they were collecting. The good news for you is that business intelligence applications have evolved and now when you investigate what is business intelligence, you come to understand the different and multiple initiatives that are used to measure, manage and improve on the performance of processes, teams, individuals, and even your business units. There are numerous benefits to gain for your company when you no longer have to ask what is business intelligence and instead start implementing the solutions to drive the results.

What is Business Intelligence? Value for All Employees

One thing is for sure when investigating what is business intelligence: today it is a valuable tool that must be made accessible for all employees. All of your key people play a vital role in your business, specific decisions you make, the strategies you execute on and the information you gather to drive all of these activities. They should not be asking what is business intelligence, but instead, what can business intelligence do for me in my job? Give them access to real-world examples of how this innovative platforms is driving results for companies all over the world.

In short, you should not be asking what is business intelligence, but instead, ask what is happening, what has happened, why, what will happen, and what do we want to have happen again. Business intelligence helps you to answer all of these questions when you leverage its full value.

How well would you be able to make strategic decisions if you have everything you needed at your fingertips? It’s likely that your company already collects the necessary information on the market, your customer base and your competitors, but what do you do with that information? Are you implementing business intelligence analytics to be sure you derive value from the information? This is an important question as you should be doing something with that information that promotes your business or puts you in a better position to win a deal. Otherwise, you are simply wasting time and money by collecting information. Turn that around and lean on business intelligence analytics. 

Hyundai’s Path to Success with Business Intelligence Analytics

The success story behind Hyundai Securities’ mission is one that you should pay attention to as it could lend value in your own environment. The company knew that it needed to implement business intelligence analytics, but it also wanted proof that the implementation would be beneficial for the company. Once it put the business intelligence solution in place with a customer segmentation system, the company turned to a marketing research firm to conduct a phone survey. In addition, a focus group test was completed to test the accuracy of the insights that were delivered by SAS business intelligence analytics. SAS is a powerful name in the space, but the company wanted to be sure that its solutions delivered on promises. Once the assessment and testing were complete, the results showed that the business intelligence analytics from SAS was very accurate.

A Mission in Business Intelligence Analytics

For Hyundai Securities, the mission was actually twofold: the company wanted to target VIP customers shown to drive retail profits; and to better cater to the needs of these customers with targeted and preference-based product and service offerings. Business intelligence analytics helps to equip the company to better achieve its goals and Hyundai Securities turned to SAS analytics for help. The two worked together on a business intelligence analytics project, designing a VIP customer management program, as well as a new customer welcome program. Business intelligence analytics will be used on this segment of the customer base in the future to develop customer preferences and profiles.

A First-Hand Perspective of Business Intelligence Analytics

According to Seung-Gwon Park, Hyundai Securities Customer Marketing Team Director, the business intelligence analytics put in place with the customer segmentation system was able to estimate that new customers brought in by the sales team accounted for roughly 10 percent. The quantitative survey conducted afterwards that focused on 1,000 Hyundai Securities customers, found this assessment to be accurate. The company also has plans to use business intelligence analytics to develop a customer loss tracking and alert program in an effort to combat churn. Hyundai Securities will again rely on SAS and business intelligence analytics to identify root causes of customer attrition, which will allow the company to develop the right strategies to counter the problem.

With the right business intelligence analytics in place, companies can be at a great advantage in the market, gaining a greater understanding of why things are happening and then controlling the total experience for the customer. In taking this approach, companies like yours can ensure healthy growth and greater profitability.

There is a lot to be said for unification, especially when it comes to business intelligence (BI) tools. If you rely on SAP technologies to drive your operations, you can take a closer look at how you might benefit from BI tools. The company recently announced that it has successfully unified its compliance tools onto a single platform. The BI tools will be promoted under the BusinessObjects banner

BI Tools on a Single Platform

This latest release from SAP takes the company’s BI tools and integrates specific elements with a new version of its risk, governance and compliance tools. The resulting technology solution is available on a single platform, one that is designed to easily plug into other BI tools software solutions, including ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications. One of the benefits of delivering this unification in the BI tools is to ensure the common look and feel across all of the available applications. This not only helps to drive user adoption, it also ensures that the platform is used for its intended purpose. Nothing is worse than selecting a software or other technology implementation meant to save your company money and find out that no one will use it.

Dashboards Matter in BI Tools

In addition to the unification on the single platform, this update from SAP also ensures that BI tools and reports are embedded and available on dashboards. This helps to drive integration across the organization so that all users can view information and understand the data that is being captured and analyzed. Plus, BI tools in the dashboard help to create a graphical tool to define and depict risks. It also helps to deliver far greater transparency, control and support for corporate strategy. New products within this BI tools platform not only make the product easier for all users, it also enables them to more easily communicate risks to you or other business managers, especially if access is limited.

BI Tools Help to Ensure Proactive Business Management

One of the biggest challenges that you or other decision makers within your company face is to tackle issues as they arise. If you can proactively manage the business and make decisions based on intelligence, you would be able to eliminate many of these issues before they ever occur. And, because BI tools can be easily integrated into core business processes and applications, executives are better equipped to manage the business strategically and in a way that is completely proactive. You will enjoy smarter decision making processes and those to whom you report will enjoy more accurate execution on those decisions, as well as improved results.

BI Tools and Your Strategies

Keep in mind that your strategy is generally something that you consistently keep on the dashboard so it can be seen at all times. BI tools help you to develop that strategy in such a way that you can design all of your processes to fit with that strategy. As a result, you can not only produce the desired results, you can also more effectively control the outcomes.

How successful could your business be if you could predict the future? This is exactly the concept behind predictive analytics. When you implement a platform of predictive analytics, you can gain deeper business insights so that decisions can be made much more easily. Predictive analytics from Symphony Analytics have been implemented by a number of different organizations as the company expands into additional vertical markets to deliver business intelligence to those who previously believed it was out of reach. If you have yet to venture into this area of focus, you’ll be amazed what predictive analytics can do for your business.

Technology Helps to Drive Predictive Analytics

Believe it or not, regardless of the industry in which you operate, companies throughout the global marketplace are all dealing with certain common issues. This is why predictive analytics can work in your environment, as well as the non-profit across town because it focuses on using information that you already have to create a direction that you need to go. Predictive analytics from Symphony Analytics offers a powerful solution that combines scale of technology and advanced modeling science. When these things are combined with end-user decision support tools and consultants experienced in driving analytics-based decisions, you can easily add value for your organization.

Common Issues Benefit from Predictive Analytics

There are certain things that every predictive analytics user is trying to overcome, which is why they turn to this technology. Common problems can include dramatic shifts in the buying patterns of customers, price volatility that seems to continue, accelerated use of new media and digital marketing to promote a campaign, the increasing convergence of different strategies, and more. Symphony Analytics understands that predictive analytics has to provide more than just information – it has to address specific problems and provide a strategy for the solution. Predictive analytics that continue to be leveraged include dynamic re-planning and scenario planning; predictive modeling on promotion and price; localizing strategy and execution; identifying and responding to real-time demand issues.

Develop Core Strategies with Predictive Analytics

No company likes to see a marketing strategy fail, especially one that has cost the business considerable time, money and other resources. When you are able to leverage your business intelligence through predictive analytics, you are able to gain a better picture of the anticipated outcome of any campaign. Such tools can apply to your pricing, promotions, communications, targeted campaigns and more. And, if you partner with a robust provider in this space, you should be able to produce effective predictive analytics in a matter of hours, instead of days or weeks.

Use Predictive Analytics to Drive Thought Leadership and Knowledge Management

Predictive analytics is really all about using what you know to develop better strategies for success. And, when you get good at the process, you can drive thought leadership and knowledge management within your organization. Why is this important? It provides you the opportunity to identify those methods for driving success in the future. As a result, your predictive analytics are produced on a consistent basis and focus on the current and past successes. This strong momentum moving forward will help to develop that strong foundation for long-term profitability.

You’re watching the industry and your competitors and you see that they are expanding into business intelligence applications. You have dabbled in this area somewhat, but not all attempts have proven to be fruitful. Perhaps the failure was in the vendor you selected, the culture in which the implementation would be driven or the overall challenges faced by the end user. Regardless, it is time to give business intelligence applications another try. Why? They have been proven to help businesses just like yours to improve competency and this improvement can be felt in your bottom line.

Business Intelligence Applications Prove Insight from Data

If your company has been in business for any length of time, you have a nice collection of data on the market, your current customers, your competitors, your partners and more. While this information may just be kept in a database or simply in spreadsheets, this is still valuable data that you can easily plug into business intelligence applications to turn it into valuable data. The issue has never been a lack of data – the challenge is to understand what data adds value and what data just adds extra work. A recent survey showed that 60 percent of executives believe they have more information than they can use. This may even be true for your company. It does not mean that you should eliminate all attempts at gaining insight from that data, however, it just means that you need business intelligence applications to sort through it.

Business Intelligence Applications to Make Sense of Data

You and those you report to are likely to be in the market for a solution that enables you to drive better decisions and improve your overall business performance. Did you know that top-performing businesses are twice as likely to take advantage of business analytics to drive future strategies and day-to-day operations as compared with lower performers? That means that your competitors who own a larger share of the market are likely leveraging business intelligence applications to drive effectiveness across their organization, leaving you behind. If you want to take your business to the next level, it’s time to take a closer look at business intelligence applications.

Business Intelligence Applications Enable Reporting

If your company is like many others in your field, you have specific reporting to complete. Perhaps this reporting needs to happen just within your company, or perhaps you report to partners, vendors or shareholders. Regardless of the audience, you still need to be able to gather intelligent information to present a true representation of the company’s performance for better decision making moving forward. Business intelligence applications not only allow you to capture that information, they also allow you to effectively report on your current progress, potential opportunities, threats and projected successes. When decisions have to be made with real-time information, you can’t get any better than what you can pull from business intelligence applications.

To dominate in any field, it really is all about competency and what your business intelligence applications can do to improve your data capture, decision making and reporting. While this truly just skims the surface, these three things can easily point you in the right direction to achieve optimal competency.

Business intelligence tools are great to have on hand, but not if it makes the work so complicated that your users can’t properly input information to lend any value to the organization. Instead, you need to focus on partnering with a vendor who can ensure your users have a friendly interface and integrated platforms so that what they normally do in a given business day can easily be tied to business intelligence tools. Infor had this demand in mind when it created the Infor Workspace. 

Business Intelligence Tools Workspace

Infor is known in the industry for providing business application software and its bi tools are designed to bring enterprise application use down to the business level. The Infor Workspace is built on the Microsoft SharePoint server, which means it delivers a common user interface for all of your employees. The in-context collaboration and business intelligence tools ensure that the right information is captured at the right time to promote proactive and real-time decision making.

Business Intelligence Tools Adoption Demands Ease of Use

While the common user interface is certainly an important element to help drive adoption within your organization, you also need to have ease of use in the platform. Infor designed its workspace to offer a single sign-on and seamless navigation across multiple applications that can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud. And, because this business intelligence tools platform is designed to be simple to use and easy to understand, your end users can easily learn, suggest, ask, experience and share in ways that have been previously unavailable through enterprise applications. It is the first business intelligence tools platform to allow applications to coexist, bringing in outside information to drive effective decision-making.

Context Aware Business Intelligence Tools

The business intelligence tools in the Infor Workspace are context aware, meaning they will automatically anticipate and adapt to use needs and interests, based on the role of the user and the business function they perform at any given point in time. Your end users will also be able to leverage these business intelligence tools to proactively manage business challenges and monitor the status of tasks in terms of anticipated completion or promised service level agreements. Such automated processes can be essential when you are striving to streamline the processes you have in place, while leveraging the capabilities of the business intelligence tools.

Customer Testimony on Business Intelligence Tools

For Brewster Dairy, the company was faced with the challenge of sorting through multiple applications to find the appropriate data. This manual process took up a significant amount of staff time, keeping individuals away from core responsibilities. The company turned to the business intelligence tools in the Infor Workspace to improve productivity through the unification of all relevant information according to job function. And, but putting this information into a single interface and alerting users when action was necessary, the company experienced significant improvements in workflows.

Infor has taken a completely different approach with its business intelligence tools, bringing it down to the consumer level, so users more easily adapt to the platform. The company refers to its design as an important step in a new direction for the way companies use software and business intelligence tools to make informed decisions.

Your company is already in the process of gathering information on your current business, the customer base, prospective customers, the market and even the competition. What are you doing with this information? Are you using it to promote your company or your products? Are you simply gathering this information to use at a later date? If you don’t have business intelligence (BI) software solutions in place to help you manage this information and turn it into actionable data, you really aren’t doing anything that adds value for your company. Schwan’s recognized that BI software solutions could help them enhance their profitable outlook and turned to Discovery to get the ball rolling. 

BI Software Solutions – Making the Investment

Discovery is part of a growing list of business intelligence systems that enable companies like yours to turn your information into valuable data. Discovery is offered by AFS Technologies, a company that recently won a contract from Schwan’s Food Service, Inc. The food service company wanted to identify opportunities and challenges at the customer level, but knew they could not do it through standard processes or spreadsheets. With the addition of BI software solutions in Discovery, Schwan’s gained to power to enhance efficiencies and overall profitability. The BI software solutions from AFS Technologies are delivered in a quickly implemented platform that offers intuitive point and click navigation, to ensure quick adoption by all users.

BI Software Solutions – The Features

Companies such as yours can benefit from BI software solutions as they allow you and your users to better optimize profits through a robust and easy-to-use subscription-based solutions that grants all users access to important data. As a result, decisions can be made more quickly and more intelligently. At the same time, you can more easily measure the impact BI software solutions have on the overall performance of your company. Schwan’s replaced its sales reports with BI software solutions found in the Discovery platform and now employees use this tool to track performance and project for future sales.

Employees Love BI Software Solutions

According to Lil Schroeder, Schwan’s vice president of customer operations, employees are drawn to BI software solutions in the Discovery platform as they have found it to be easy to learn and use than previous tools the company had in place. As a result, these users are able to easily check sales information, even at the top level within the company. This information can also be easily dissected in detail to assess where sales are successful and where efforts may be lacking. With the company’s brokers and sales professionals using the same BI software solutions, overall business discussions are enhanced.

BI Software Solutions Drive Better Decisions

No matter what industry your company is competing in, you want BI software solutions to enable you and your users to deliver the information necessary to make better and more profitable decisions. With the right information and analytics in place, you can take your current processes to the next level and have more control over the strategy to deliver profitability. With so much value offered in BI software solutions, you really have no further excuses to wait – it’s time to check out what BI software solutions can do for your company.

Business Intelligence is a vital aspect to any company.  Without the correct information, your decision making is suspect at best.  Making decisions based on instinct and hope is a recipe for disaster.  It might work out for awhile, but eventually it will catch up with you.  Gaining this intelligence can be a difficult process, but the proper BI software makes this easy.  The best software allows you to gather all the information yourself and then let you analyze the data without help from an outside source.  SAS BI Software does exactly this, and is an excellent option for anyone needing a BI software solution.

SAS BI Software Options: SAS Enterprise BI Server

The first BI software option from SAS is the Enterprise BI Server.  This self-service program is easy to use and combines analysis and data management tools to allow you to quickly and easily gather business intelligence.  One of the benefits of this program is that it allows you to gather proper information to ensure you make the best decisions.  It also lets you keep your data consistent and easily accessible.  This way you can make your decisions based on fact, and not conjecture.  The comprehensive BI software solution allows for a single purchase to handle all your business intelligence needs.

SAS BI Software Options: SAS Visual BI

Another unique BI software option is the SAS Visual BI.  It is a powerful tool because it shows your data in easy to understand options like bubble displays, and can display up to seven dimensions of data at one time.  This allows you to see interactions and relationships on your screen that can help you overcome limitations of looking at data in a standard spreadsheet or document.  It makes it possible to see longer term trends instead of simple year to date data.  With the increased depth of information available in this BI software, you can make quicker and more accurate decisions across your organization.

Unique Qualities of SAS BI Software

SAS has perfected the business of BI software by going beyond what other companies are able to do.  Most BI software does an adequate job of letting you know what happened in the past, but it does not help you predict what is coming.  The increased depth and breadth of SAS BI Software allows you to not only understand the past, but see the present and predict what changes are forthcoming with the decisions you make.  No matter the software choice, SAS BI Software peers deep into your company and takes information from across your entire enterprise and has that date available to anyone that needs it.  Now, instead of spending time digging for data, you and your people are analyzing the reports and planning for the future.  The benefits of the analytics available only from SAS make it easier to see the whole company at one time.  Finally, the services that go with SAS BI Software with their Competency Center show you the best practices and infrastructure to make the most of the BI software and the information you gather.

You know that SAP is a powerful name in business software and you also know that your company can benefit from business intelligence software. Have you considered the potential of combing the two together? Birst, a provider of SaaS business intelligence software and analytics, has done just that, eliminating the work for you, but still allowing you to enjoy all of the benefits. The company is now positioning this business intelligence software with SAP connectivity solution as the most comprehensive, easy-to-use solution available on an on-demand platform. 

Business Intelligence Software Used by Power Players

As you are searching for the right business intelligence solution to fit the needs of your company, a logical step in the process is to evaluate other users to determine the cost versus benefits of their chosen implementation. Birst delivers business intelligence software insight to a full range of companies on the Fortune 500 list, including Securian, Citrix Systems, Rackspace Hosting, Evobo, RBC, People Answers and Xactly. With an agile approach to delivering business intelligence software, Birst is able to deliver the capabilities you need in days or weeks instead of months. Plus, as an on-demand business intelligence software solution, your company can begin to enjoy the benefits without the added cost.

Business Intelligence Software from the Birst Perspective

Birst has a rapidly expanding customer community, according to CEO, Brad Peters. This growth is easily a testament to the success of the company’s agile and modern approach to business intelligence software. The latest release focuses on bringing the power f insight to a larger number of users, offering faster speeds and making it easier for business questions to be answered in such a way as to promote the strategic efforts of companies like yours. And, with the SAP connector, this business intelligence software provides greater flexibility and data deployment options that were previously unavailable.

Memory Expression in Business Intelligence Software

One of its differentiators in the Birst business intelligence software solution is the launch of Birst Memory Expressions. This powerful in-memory engine is designed to extend the flexibility of the business intelligence software platform. The feature is based on the Birst Expression Language (BEL), enabling business analysts to create useful and insightful reports, analyze rich detail and execute on sophisticated decision-making. Memory Expressions is designed to specifically deliver on business intelligence software needs for companies of all sizes.

Business Intelligence Software SAP Connector

Any company seeking to implement business intelligence software that also leverages SAP solutions can benefit from the SAP connector offered by Birst in its business intelligence software. With this connector, you can easily extract SAP data easily and automatically through the SAP BAPI. This connector ensures your users gain access to SAP information without the need for IT intervention, taking business intelligence software directly to the end users. Such connectivity is essential when you rely on SAP to help drive your core business initiatives.

Business intelligence software can be a significant asset, if it allows you to organize and execute on the information you have been gathering and will continue to gather on clients, prospective customers, the industry, your competitors and more.

Business intelligence can be a tricky concept as everything around you could be construed as business intelligence. The challenge in this space is to be able to capture that information around your industry or your individual customers and turn that information into a valuable asset. If you don’t currently have a way to do that, you are simply collecting information and you will likely spend more time funneling through piles of data to make decisions. This process can easily cost you time and money that could be better spent on business intelligence solutions that will do the work for you.

Business Intelligence Does Not Have to be a Challenge for the SMB

If you are operating in the SMB space, it is easy to assume that the business intelligence solutions available to you are too far out of reach or too complicated to implement. The stories of data cleanup, massive integration and major revisions to common workflows have either kept companies like yours from investing in business intelligence solutions, or have made it more difficult for you to compete effectively when developing your business intelligence platforms. If you have the right support from your company leaders, an IT staff that is appropriately trained, and the right vision for your implementation, you can realize significant results from business intelligence initiatives.

One Construction Company Makes Business Intelligence Work

Design-build and general contracting services corporation, TMG Construction was facing a dilemma. The company had grown from a small business to a medium-sized business and implemented the typical IT platforms they believed were necessary to ensure their success over time and as growth continued. Even with basic accounting and documentation systems in place, TMG Construction knew that an integrated system would provide a total picture of the business’s performance. This level of business intelligence would help the company to have the necessary leg up on the competition, and better position the company for growth.

Business Intelligence to Track Margin

TMG was in a fortunate position in that the company understood that business intelligence would help it to better track margin on construction projects. They also needed the business intelligence solution to gauge the work-in-progress schedule, and analyze sales statistics, the project backlog and earned revenue. To accomplish this, the company needed metrics that could be calculated as soon as data changes in the key business system. This approach would ensure real-time information was always available and easily presented for key decisions and reporting functions. With the right business intelligence tools in place, these requirements could be easily met.

To Leverage Business Intelligence – It’s All in the Design

TMG had already established that they needed to leverage business intelligence in their industry, and they also knew how it should be applied across the SMB. To ensure they could capitalize on their current skills, meet their current and future needs, and continue to drive growth, TMG designed a business intelligence solution that exactly fit their environment. They took six months to accomplish the project, but the result was a business intelligence platform that allowed them to analyze data in real-time, to make business decisions to drive profitable growth.

Business intelligence does not have to be a scary or in-depth process. Instead, it adds value to the current environment, allowing you to leverage data you already have, to drive growth and profitability.