Business Intelligence

Robert Frost says, "The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning, and does not stop until you get into the office."

Business is generated complexity from numbers and people around you. As Robert said, your brain stops only when you reach to your business. Managers do agree with problems of numbers with making intelligent decisions.

From usage of calculator to computers, numbers to neural networks – technology tries to simplify business problems.

Rising demand and importance of market statistics need fast and accuracy in counting. More than giving just sum or average, analytical tools are expected to give detail graphical analysis & trends.

Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much. Cutting down from thousands pages and opinions to single analytical page is what manager looks for.

Business Intelligence is the buzzword for 2000. It encompasses anything from applications, Data Marts, Data Warehousing, OLAP to Web technology and more.

Business Intelligence involves integrating processes to provide a holistic view of a business that provides value (or intelligence) about the business going forward.

Business Intelligence systems are designed to give executives information from their operational systems to help make better decisions for the business. Data Marts, Data Warehousing, OLAP and Web methodologies and technology are all tools to assist in providing this information.

Intelligence & Business

Now days, no business is free from competition. Business strategy is delivered through the decisions, performance and actions of your management team, and their staff, across your entire organization on a daily basis. This unrestrained continuum of activity generates, and relies upon, a complex network of data that is both flowing and disparate in nature.

Key Challenge: Bringing this key business intelligence together and presenting it to employees, at all levels, in an accurate and meaningful way, as well as ensuring it is delivered on a timely basis, is one of the key challenges for modern corporations as they drive and support their business strategy.

The Technology: Business Intelligence - provides analysis of end-user access to data and information.

Today’s technology categories include –
1. Executive information systems (EISs),
2. Decision support systems (DSSs),
3. Query and Reporting tools and
4. Multidimensionality—also known as online analytical processing (OLAP).

Business areas & Road ahead to Intelligence

Areas that really need to extract intelligence from dumb data in business are:

• Sales and Marketing
• Financial Management
• Procurement Control

Taking each area lets see how BI helps.

Sales & Marketing Analysis

1. Sales and marketing data consolidation
2. Enterprise data warehouse management
3. Multifarious performance analysis
4. Marketing effectiveness evaluation
5. Forecasting sales trends accurately
6. Profitability analysis by division, product, or geography
7. Leverage and marketing matrix
8. Cross-selling and up-selling prospects analysis

Financial Analysis
1. Cash flow analysis
2. Payment analysis
3. Outstanding analysis

Procurement Analysis
1. Inventory management
2. Cost reduction through analysis of cost data
3. Procurement management
4. Leveraging volume purchase and managing service level agreements
5. No extra contract standing on crucial time

Talking apart from data warehouses and OLAP tools, what simply can we do to manage BI in organizations?

1. Think of governing information management
2. Rationalization in management of data entry points
3. Data integrity among files and systems
4. Data cleaning from outside purchased data or gathered data
5. Never mix up unclean data with extracted data
6. Avoid carelessness and inaccuracy. It doesn’t matter at what level you are
7. Strengthening data entry point. Restrict mistakes at entry point itself
8. Make a group to maintain quality in system
9. Responsibility and Authorization

I believe above aspects may cater a clear approach to your business. Intelligence is nothing but accurate and rational effort to mean out something!!