Business Intelligence Review

Real Time Business Intelligence

2010-03-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

I think you have been familiar with, business intelligence. But, there is another term about Business Intelligence, what it is called : Real Time Business Intelligence .

Bellow is nice article about Real Time Business Intelligence taken from http://www.gravic.com.

Real Time Business Intelligence

In today’s competitive environment with high consumer expectation, decisions that are based on the most current data available will improve customer relationships, increase revenue, and maximize operational efficiencies. The speed of today’s processing systems has moved classical data warehousing into the realm of real-time. The result is Real Time business intelligence (RTBI). Business transactions are fed as they occur to a real-time business intelligence system that maintains the current state of the enterprise. The Real Time business intelligence system not only supports the classical strategic functions of data warehousing for deriving information and knowledge from past enterprise activity, but it also provides real-time tactical support to drive enterprise actions that react to immediate events. As such, it replaces both the classical data warehouse and the enterprise application integration (EAI) functions.

Real Time business intelligence is also known as event-driven business intelligence. In order to react in real-time, a business intelligence system must react to events as they occur – not minutes or hours later. With real-time business intelligence, an enterprise establishes long-term strategies to optimize its operations while at the same time reacting with intelligence to events as they occur.

Business Intelligence Products

2010-03-22T08:11:00.000-07:00

Do you plan to buy business intelligence products ?
May this article will be beneficial for you.

Business Intelligence - Secret Weapon to Successful Business

By Jason Dove

Unlock your company's most valuable resource with business intelligence products.

Remember IT? Information Technology? It seems many businesses forgot that the computer age was supposed to be about information and efficiency.

Instead, the entire computer industry became about the collection of data for its own sake.
In recent years the concept of Business Intelligence (BI) has evolved, and as a result, many managers have been reminded why they were collecting all of this data in the first place.
As a manager, you should be able to ask any question about your company operations and be provided with a clear answer from the information held on your computer systems:

* Seasonal sales figures
* Bulk buying trends
* Geographical spread of customers
* Staff efficiency and performance
* Advertising campaign effectiveness
* And any other process analytics

If you cannot, you are making decisions in the dark.
May your business need to buy one of Business Intelligence Products. What is Business Intelligence Products.

Business Intelligence and Business Intelligence Products.are the torch that can light the way.

Back in the mid 90's Joe's Garage installed a computerised records system. This was nothing flash a stand alone PC installed with some basic business software, which came free with a magazine, and records customer details, sales and stock.
Joe has been dutifully entering every customer and transaction for fifteen years.

Big Companies use Business Intelligence Products
While the world's largest organisations have invested heavily in Business Intelligence, and are busy reaping the rewards, the majority of businesses are reminiscent of pirates burying hoarded treasure and never spending it, and in some cases, forgetting that it is there at all.

You already sort of use Business Intelligence
Most companies gain benefit from the tiniest amount of Business Intelligence Products which exists by default within their business software process analytics. Something as simple as checking a customer's payment history before agreeing credit is an example of BI at work.

Unfortunately, extracting more complex information is beyond the capabilities of most business software. not Business Intelligence Products.

Joe only uses his customers' contact details when he needs to inform them when their required parts have been delivered.
One day, Joe buys a pallet of oil at a bargain price and realises he can offer cheap oil changes.
Unfortunately, his computer system cannot provide him with a list of customers who have not purchased an oil change in the past year.

Databases, the Hidden Treasure

For each of the little clues that your current business software imparts, there is a wealth of hidden treasure buried deep in your data records. Do a large percentage of your customers always buy a particular add-on purchase with their main order? And the customers who don't - are they aware that this add-on is available?

Does your current software answer this question?
If doesn't, you need Business Intelligence Products

The answer to these questions (and many more) can be found in the information already stored in your company database, and extracting these answers is the heart of Business Intelligence and Business Intelligence Products.

I have worked as a BI specialist for over a decade, and on every, EVERY, assignment I have undertaken I find managers surprised by the wealth knowledge they have collected through the course of normal business, and how interrogating this information can move their business in a positive direction.

Undeterred, Joe spends all of his evenings and two weekends manually looking through each record on his database.
By the end of this tedious process, he has a list of thirty customers who have not changed their oil in twelve months or more.
However, as Joe was scouring the last few records, he identifies another pattern - an oil top-up is included as standard in every car service. He realises that offering free oil top up could entice more profitable work into his garage and, if advertised, could also attract new customers.
To find out which customers to target, Joe must begin his manual search again.

Unlocking the Treasure Chest
The basic premise of Business Intelligence and Business Intelligence Products is to utilise a range of reports to access the company database and then analyse the available data in order to provide clear and concise information which meets the decision maker's requirements.

Most business applications, whether off the shelf or bespoke, have a basic set of reports included. These vary in usefulness from package to package, and a comprehensive set of reports for one business maybe completely useless to another. These reports are usually developed by a general programmer with no BI expertise and certainly no knowledge of your business or the process analytics you require.
To make up for this short fall in reporting accuracy, some products offer a limited set of tools which allow data to be extracted into a spreadsheet.

However, this only produces a boundless mixed up mass of data to be picked through, in an alternative format. Spreadsheets do have a raft of helpful tools, but are the wrong application for this job and can make even the simplest of tasks very time consuming and prone to error.

Obviously the ideal way to access your valuable data resource is to create reports which group data together in common ways and compare various results. This can be anything from seasonal sales figures for a particular product to identifying the most efficient person in a call centre. During my BI career I have worked on projects to optimise performance and streamline processes for everything from selling paint to counter-terrorism.

Knowing What to Look For

Although Business Intelligence is a skill in itself with its own experts, your company's biggest asset is its own managers and staff. This fact is often overlooked, and is the reason why a lot of BI aka Business Intelligence Products implementations fail, as external experts build a library of information which they alone have determined the requirement for. The end result is an elegant suite of Business Intelligence reports which do not answer any of the pertinent questions being asked by the management.

Having an accurate description of the goals and desired outcomes for each project is a crucial factor.
These not only vary from organisation to organisation, but are also dependant on the wider circumstances.
For example, identifying the most successful sales rep for bonuses during good times is an entirely different proposition to identifying the least productive sales rep during a lengthy period of slow trade.

Once you have an idea of what you need, the next step is to ensure that your business has been recording the data on which to base this decision, and identify whether the information has been recorded accurately and consistently.

This can be an involved job in itself, but any good BI consultancy will offer this as a separate evaluation as one of their base services.

Despite Joe's limited funds, he decides to invest in a BI expert for a week's work to obtain a prescribed list of information which he feels he can quickly profit from.
The BI expert does his job well - he takes care to communicate in a consistent exchange with Joe, provides exactly what is required, and even proposes some additional ideas based on some of his past experience.
Joe sells some oil at a discount price, but after looking at the result of the BI reports, it is apparent that his idea to offer the oil as a free gift alongside other services will be a far more cost affective use of the oil.

How to Make the Most of BI and Business Intelligence Products.

Even for companies with a high IT skill level, it is often beneficial to hire a BI expert for at least some of the implementation. A good BI consultancy will offer guidance every step of the way and not just try to sell consulting hours or software before knowing exactly what it is your business requires.Purchasing a two day consultancy to ensure feasibility and identify the various options available is a worthwhile move which lays a solid starting point for both parties.

To those new to Business Intelligence it may seem like a huge task to implement a system like this from scratch. However, there is a solid advantage to having a fresh start with a clear vision - too many of the implementations I have been involved with have had to cater to previous versions of BI aka Business Intelligence Products which were more trouble than they were worth.

Also, many BI implementations are huge and sprawling, attempting to cover entire companies in one swipe. Bigger BI implementations can lose focus and produce process analytics for their own sake without a clear business requirement.

Far better results are achieved if implementations are split into small, well focused projects. Splitting work by department is good, implementing one logical BI area at a time is even better. Obtaining details for a focused advertising campaign is a good start to examining what BI has to offer, as is implementing a staff rewards scheme based on an accurately measured set of performance attributes.

Keeping the area of interest small initially is a good way to demonstrate the positive impact that BI can have on any organisation.

With the extra income generated from the BI guided oil sales / offers, purchases some more oil and rehires the BI expert to produce a report to be run daily. This report takes the form of a letter offering a free oil top up addressed to all customers whose cars are due for service within the next two week period.
Times are rough financially, and Joe's focused advertising has a high take-up rate as people search for bargains. This provides a steady stream of extra income at a time when other garages in the area are struggling.
Joe has also started to wonder about lost customers, and so requests a report to highlight all customers who have not visited his garage in over two years, what was the last job done for each, the time taken to carry out the job and the average time taken for each type of job.
The results shock Joe as it is now apparent that the wheel balancing jobs done by his apprentice Steve take twice as long as they should and are apparently responsible for 70% of the lost customers.
Joe responds by sending Steve on a two day wheel balancing course and sends out letters to these lapsed customers offering 10% off any other service they take with his garage within the month.

Business Intelligence and Business Intelligence Products is a great tool for aiding decisions and evaluating effectiveness of advertising, new working practices and staff performance. Utilising just a small part of the broad spectrum of advantages BI has to offer can revolutionise your company.

Can you afford not to have BI working for you?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jason_Dove

business intelligence reporting tool

2010-03-22T06:55:00.000-07:00

Business Intelligence Reporting Tool Gives Data Meaning

By Scott Duglase

Your company has data - and lots of it. The data tells you what your customers are purchasing, what your sales trends are, where your inventory is, what your profits and losses are, and more. Or rather, your data would tell you all these things, if only you could take that enormous pile of facts and figures and make sense of it.

Why do you need business intelligence reporting tool ?

Welcome to the world of business intelligence. Business intelligence, also known as BI, describes the tools and technologies that help you understand your data i.e business intelligence reporting tool. Business intelligence is vital for any company looking to excel in today's rapidly evolving business environment. Business intelligence gives your company up-to-the-minute information on your past, present and future by turning a mass of jumbled data into key summaries and detailed reports that can guide critical business decisions.

Business intelligence includes functions such as reporting, analytics and data mining, and one of the easiest and quickest ways to gain insight into your data is to use a business intelligence software solution that will allow you to harvest in-depth data and generate BI reports for internal and external use, it is called business intelligence reporting tool .

A business intelligence reporting tool can give you the ability to:

- Locate company data quickly
- Connect multiple, dissimilar data sources and quickly and simply and define the relationships between data sets, no matter how convoluted they are
- Locate specific data using a very user-friendly interface
- Select data in a narrative style, which is natural to an individual's approach in focusing on desired data
- Present meta data as you wish it displayed and described
- Display selected data in a spreadsheet with critical numbers represented by a gauge in a summation cell for each row
- Generate reports on your schedule that can be delivered to multiple individuals in a variety of ways

Business intelligence reporting tool come in many forms, depending upon the reporting software you use. Some programs let you create graphical tools such as charts, gauges and dashboards that automatically refresh to display up-to-date information that is easily and quickly understood. Some of these business intelligence reporting tool packages allow you to really dive deep into your information using sophisticated tables. Also, they can include the ability to include outer information - growth and economic trends for example. This will give you a better grasp on how market forces affect your bottom line.

While business intelligence reporting tools vary in cost and capabilities, they all have one thing in common: the goal of providing your company with the information it needs in order to thrive in today's competitive environment.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_Duglase

Business Intelligence Software

2010-03-22T03:54:00.000-07:00

Do you confuse Choosing Business Intelligence Software for your Organization?
May this article will help you in deciding what Business Intelligence Software you should choose.

Business Intelligence Software

By Richard L Young

Most small business owners have figured out by now that competition is tough. The problem usually comes from the fact that she can't figure out exactly what's needed to get to the top.

Preserving the status quo may not be enough. Pouring funds into the latest technology available can be a wonderful boon such as buying the most expensive Business Intelligence Software for example -- or the last straw that sends the business into bankruptcy. In this feast or famine world, it seems like the majority of small business either (a) don't have enough technology or (b) have every new technology ever created as soon as it's created.

Regardless of the technology spend, though, there do exist some relatively new technologies that every business owner can utilize. This technology answers questions like:

How can businesses identify important trends?
How can businesses find existing demands?
How can businesses make better decisions, faster?

And this technology is the crystal ball of our time: Business Intelligence Software.

Buying Business Intelligence Software can be one of the most rewarding investments that a business makes. By utilizing data-mining, reporting, and querying, Business Intelligence Software allows businesses to understand, manage and then respond to specific situations. Business Intelligence Software gives key decision-makers, as well as staff, the ability to use important business numbers in a way previously unimaginable.

Business Intelligence Software helps them determine:

· Which customers appear profitable -- but aren't?
· Which customers are truly profitable?
· Is the business close to, or far from, achieving critical milestones?
· When is the optimal time to launch a new marketing objective?
· What was the best-performing product/service in any given time period?

Unfortunately, Business Intelligence Software can cost more than some small businesses can afford. But fortunately, there are BI services from Business Intelligence Software available on the Internet at a relatively reasonable cost. Although there are many to choose from, it's important to do due diligence before selecting one.

Richard Young, reformed corporate attorney, helps people make money online. Visit his number-one money maker, the Reverse Funnel System or read his Reverse Funnel System [http://reversefunnelreview.com] review.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_L_Young

Business Intelligence Vendors

2010-03-21T18:05:00.000-07:00

Business Intelligence - Seven Important Steps when Considering and Implementing a BI Solution from different Business Intelligence Vendors

By Andis Dimants

Today's business world continues to evolve into hyper competitive environments that require immediate responses from customers, suppliers and employees. The business professional is constantly being voice mailed and e-mailed with "urgent" and "immediate" responses required. Less time is available, but more time is required regarding business analytic because of how quickly the market place can change and the massive amount of information that must be analyzed to make an informed business decision. Business Intelligence is quickly becoming more of a necessity then a luxury, and it is very important to choose correct Business Intelligence solution from correct Business Intelligence Vendors.

When considering BI solutions from Business Intelligence Vendors, the following questions should be asked to perspective vendors and within your organization:

What will the Business Intelligence solution provide to the enterprise?
This seems like an obvious factor, but I am always surprised that during initial kick off sessions with new clients it becomes very clear that they do not know what they want their solution from Business Intelligence Vendors to provide them with. More often than not, I find that customers know what they don't want not what they want. Make sure your organization has a clear understanding of what it wants from the solution from Business Intelligence Vendors, it will save time and money.

Chose a user friendly system. The BI solution is much different than an accounting software or and ERP system in that a significant number of people use everyday. While you may look at the results or information that a BI solution is providing in the form of a dashboard, the analytical side of the program is usually not used on a daily basis by everyone, as you would for an accounting program. The easier the program is to uses the better, if people forget how to use software - they just will not use it. So, choose the most user friendly one from Business Intelligence Vendors.

Mapping - Business Intelligence solutions can typically be attached to a number of databases or ERP systems, once the Business Intelligence Vendors understand were the data exists. In order to save time and money, find out up front if your Business Intelligence Vendors have the mapping for your system and is familiar with the data location of your existing accounting or ERP system. The more familiar they are with the architecture of your existing system, the less it should cost you in consulting or implementation fees.

Who will use the Business Intelligence solution?
Senior management must be fully on board in implementing a Business Intelligence solution. If senior managers are not using the analytical tools provided, mid and lower mangers will follow suit. Including one individual from each department will also insure that the organization gains the greatest benefit from the solution.

Test Drive the Business Intelligence solution from Business Intelligence Vendors. Many different types of solutions from different Business Intelligence Vendors exist in the market with slick interfaces and great looking dashboards. But a solution has to be matched for needs of a specific company which can vary greatly between companies and industries. Ask for prototypes from Business Intelligence Vendors with your company's data and trial periods so that your company can validate that this is the correct solution for your enterprise.

How long is the implementation time line?
Again, this may seem obvious, but many Business Intelligence solutions from Business Intelligence Vendors are very powerful but can be difficult to implement and / or attach to certain databases, account programs or ERP systems. The cost of the software may be just the tip of the iceberg. Talk with existing customers and ask how long the implementation stage was?

Designate an internal project manager for the Business Intelligence implementation. When companies implement new accounting systems or ERP systems they typically identify a project manager - one person that is managing the process and keeping a close eye on implementation deadlines. Business Intelligence solutions from Business Intelligence Vendors typically lack this type of internal resource allocation which can result in missed deadlines or unclear communication between the vendor and the company. Allocate an internal manager; it is an important step that will increase the chances of a successful implementation of chosen Business Intelligence Vendors.

The following seven issues are typically the areas that can cause significant delays or failures in implementations. Be sure to discuss all of these issues in detail with your potential vendors and you will be significantly increasing the chances that you will pick the correct BI solution and will gain all the benefits from a properly matched and implemented solution for your enterprise.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andis_Dimants

Business Intelligence Vendor

2010-03-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

What is Business Intelligence Vendor should you choose for your business?
May this information is beneficial for your decision in choosing right Business Intelligence Vendor.

Bellows are 5 Top Business Intelligence Vendor (According to IDC):
1- Business Objects

Business Objects continues its reign as the leading Business Intelligence Vendor. In 2006, the company’s software revenue in this market reached $894 million. In 2006, Business
Objects experienced a slight slowdown in its BI tools license revenue growth. After
gaining half a percentage point in share in 2005, the company gave it up in 2006.
However, the latest information on the uptake of its Business Objects XI platform
suggests a pickup in growth in the latter part of 2006 and early 2007. Business
Objects is also making an aggressive push into the midmarket, where it targets
organizations with less than $1 billion in revenue. The company’s partner network is
one of its strongest assets, and this effort, which depends in large part on indirect
sales, is expected to contribute to the growth of Business Objects’ BI tools.

2 - SAS

SAS was again the second-largest Business Intelligence Vendor, with $679 million in software revenue and a continued steady increase in market share to 11%. SAS had the
highest growth rate among the top 3 Business Intelligence Vendors and the third-highest growth rate among the top 10 vendors. SAS still derives more revenue from its advanced
analytics tools, but its effort to revamp and more aggressively market its QRA tools
since 2004 has paid off, with QRA’s share of SAS’ total BI tools revenue increasing
from 37% in 2004 to 44% in 2006. As the leader in the advanced analytics market,
SAS holds 31% of that market segment.

3 - Cognos

Cognos maintained the third position in the Business Intelligence tools market, with $622 million in software revenue and a 10% growth rate in 2006. It is also one of only three Business Intelligence Vendor with at least a 10% share in the BI tools market. Cognos has pursued a two-pronged strategy of developing and marketing BI tools and financial performance management applications, with recent expansion into other related performance management
markets such as workforce analytics. Nevertheless, BI tools remain Cognos’ largest
product line. In 2006, Cognos released several enhancements to its core BI platform.

4 - Microsoft

Microsoft as Business Intelligence Vendor had another strong year in the BI tools market, with the highest growth rate (28%) among the top 10 vendors. IDC’s revenue allocation for Microsoft in this market differs somewhat from other vendors in that its BI tools revenue is not only made up of standalone software that the company acquired with its 2006 purchase of
ProClarity Software but also includes what IDC calls embedded BI tools that are
bundled with Microsoft SQL Server. These database-embedded tools include SQL
Server Analysis Services and Reporting Services. As part of its broader business
analytics offerings, Microsoft also includes SQL Server Integration Services within
SQL Server. Its other related tools that the company positions within the business
analytics stack include Microsoft Excel, with specific Excel 2007 features for BI, and
Performance Point Server, a set of performance management applications to be
released in the second half of 2007.

Microsoft’s growth in the BI tools market between another Business Intelligence Vendor can be attributed to focused sales and marketing efforts in recent years, accompanied by both internal R&D and acquisitions. While, in the past, Microsoft considered BI to be functionality that helps to sell databases and enhance its partners’ more extensive BI capabilities, the
company has since identified BI as a market worth pursuing directly.

5 - Hyperion

Hyperion maintained its fifth position in the market Business Intelligence Vendor, with a 5.2% market share and a 12.3% growth rate. Since releasing its latest BI platform, which incorporates the best of the Hyperion and former Brio components (in addition to certain new performance enhancements), the company has improved its standing in the BI tools market.
Hyperion’s other major product line includes financial performance and strategy
management applications, where company has been the market leader for years.
In March 2007, Oracle announced its plans to acquire Hyperion. IDC sees the event
as a positive development for both Oracle and former Hyperion clients.

So, make a wise decision what Business Intelligence Vendor should you choose for your business!

Business Intelligence Companies

2010-03-21T03:05:00.000-07:00

Do you need right Business Intelligence Companies for your business?

The right Business Intelligence software from right Business Intelligence Companies can save you time and money . That's why it is a must to be wise in choosing correct Business Intelligence software from right Business Intelligence Companies. Bellows are some Business Intelligence Companies, that may need to be considered for your company:

Business Intelligence Softwares

2010-03-21T02:38:00.000-07:00

Business Intelligence Softwares - Get Maximum Output From Your Business

By Keyur P

source:http://www.electrical-res.com

Every business depends on information and data. This market is full of information. So, we need some technique or software which can gather all information, sort them out, finalize their information and access their final use in your business. In business, there are numerous amount of information related to clients, products, services, and many more. Putting all these in your database is not possible unless and until you don't realize their use. Here Business Development Software plays a very vital role.

Business intelligence means, your business is getting right set of information or data at right time. This is the core concept behind Business Intelligence. To perform this task, there is a need for Business Development Software.This collects and access data available in market, analyzes everything and helps in making final decisions. Business Intelligence system was developed just to focus on the core area, which directly impacts the growth of any company. These areas include customer support, product profitability, statistical analysis, graphical analysis and many more. Such field plays an important role in success and development of any company or business. This software collects vital data, related to these fields and gives the output in the form of basic changes required in the data. Based on final report submitted by this software, you can make future strategies for upliftment of your business. This software also includes various financial features that can help you in tracking record of your finances and through which you can make final budget of your company.

In simple words we can say that Business Intelligence Softwares is the backbone of any business. This software also works in various other fields like employee training and promotion, sales forecast, product reviews etc. Any company using this software can make themselves free from different tasks and work load, as this software handles various things which affect company's development. This software reflects various parameters, you are using in your company. It is always recommended to keep your software updated with all latest updates, as it will help your company in achieving final goal. These software provide various services like faster implementation of future plans, detailed database of different companies, better market related planning and also works on present scenario of the company.

Business Intelligence is all about analyzing data to make better decisions. Before using Business Intelligence Softwares, you should understand how to use it. Many companies fall at very first hurdle, because they have no knowledge about proper usage of this software. Always go for branded business software package, because only branded software works efficiently and with extremely high speed. This software is an effective tool which will surely help your business in long run and you will definitely give you fruitful result.

The leader in business intelligence softwares - we deal in many softwares like predictive analytics software, EDI software, Dashboard Software and more. Visit us today at http://www.emanio.com/.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Keyur_P

Business Intelligence

2010-03-21T02:20:00.000-07:00

What You Need to Know About Business Intelligence

By David McKeegin

(source: Microsoft)
Every business wants to be successful. That success always comes from growth. With most businesses, growth comes from customer retention and gaining new customers. Business Intelligence can help a company gain new customers and retain old customers. Business intelligence can be abbreviated BI. A formal definition of business intelligence is that it is a process of collecting information in the area of business. In BI, data collected is enhanced into information and then into knowledge. Business Intelligence can give any business an accurate idea of its customers' needs. Businesses that have large amounts of information about their customers can act upon that information. Businesses utilizing BI gain knowledge and understanding of a customer's needs, customer's decision-making process, and economic, cultural, and technological trends. When using businesses intelligence, businesses select either short term or long goals. BI helps a company reach those goals.

Business Intelligence History

The idea of business intelligence goes back to Sun Tzu's "Art of War." Tzu believed that in order to win a war, you must have complete knowledge of your own strengths and weaknesses, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of your the enemy. This is the central idea in present-day business intelligence. Companies must know themselves better than their competitors, and they must know their competitors better. War and business are a lot alike considering that with BI, one must sift through heaps of data (both external and internal) for management to then make strategies for where to take the business and marketing. Warfare involves strategic plans as well. BI is the process of gaining information about every element of your market. Simply understanding the customer is not enough; a business must understand its competitors, and itself.

KPI, Key Performance Indicators

The present state of business is assed by the use of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in business intelligence. As more companies implement KPI, data is becoming available to business faster and more efficiently. Data used to be available for business only after one or two months. This untimely availability did not help business adjust their strategies. More recently, banks have tried to make data available sooner and with shorter intervals. Banks do this especially for businesses that have higher credit/operational risk loading. This allows many companies to get new data weekly, and adjust their strategies faster than ever before, leading to increased customer satisfaction and retention.

BI Tools

When using business intelligence, a company has to collect a vast amount of information. BI tools can help businesses store, organize, and even collect business data. Some data tools are data warehouses, data modeling, and data mining. Using data tools helps to improve the efficiency of business intelligence. While data tools are used for organization, Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) is used in the analyzing process. OLAP is commonly referred to as simple Analytics, which is based on the hypercube or "cube" dimensional analysis.

There are also vendors who help business with business intelligence. A vendor provides a company with the business intelligence tools and support needed for the successful implementation of a business process. Siebel Systems, Microsoft, Altius Consulting, Business-Soft, and SAS Institute are just a few of the companies offering business intelligence tools and support.

Conclusion

The better a business understands its market (everything from the customer to its competitors), the more effective that business can be. Businesses that have as complete, 360-degree understanding of what their customers need and want will be better able to devise successful strategies and implement successful processes to make their business thrive. Business intelligence is the path that businesses can take to achieve their goals, which can be either short-term or long-term. Some may wonder about the ROI of business intelligence. No doubt, if a company ends up gaining many customers, and retaining current customers as a result of business intelligence, then it will be a positive ROI. Business intelligence, if implemented correctly, and efficiently, can only help a company.

David McKeegin writes about a variety of business topics. He writes for a business intelligence blog entitled Business Intelligence Lowdown (http://www.businessintelligencelowdown.com).

Business Intelligence Softwares Review : SAS

2010-03-14T00:09:00.000-08:00

Hello dudes, in this post I am reviewing another Business Intelligence (BI) software. In this Business Intelligence Softwares review edition SAS is chosen.

Taken from its official site:

SAS^® Business Intelligence gives you the information when you need it, in the format you need. By integrating data from across your enterprise and delivering self-service reporting and analysis, IT spends less time responding to requests and business users spend less time looking for information. SAS BI also offers an integrated, robust and flexible presentation layer for the full breadth of SAS Analytics capabilities, including statistics, predictive analytics, data and text mining, forecasting, and optimization – all integrated within the business context for better, faster decision making.

This SAS Business Intelligence Softwares has excellent features, especially in:

Enterprise Business Intelligence, it is dedicated to help decision maker in your organization to make better decision by empowering SAS analytics and data integration.
Business Visualization, by its excellent graphical representation, it will help decision maker to gain insight on what is going on in your organization. For instance it will help finding pattern at your organization, such that you can predict what will happen in the future.

That all, what I can present in this post, see you !

Business Intelligence Framework

2010-01-13T04:52:00.000-08:00

By Colin White
B-EYE Network

The Smart BI Framework brings together the four forces that drive business operations: people, plans, processes and performance.

I’ve often made the point in my articles that business intelligence is no longer just nice to have, but is essential to business success. I’ve also commented at the same time that business intelligence applications and their underlying data warehouses can only support the needs of the business if they are tightly integrated into the overall IT environment. To highlight the importance of business intelligence and the need to integrate it into the enterprise, I developed the concept of the Smart BI Framework. The latest version of this framework is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The Smart BI Framework
Copyright BI Research and Intelligent Solutions, 2005.

Business Intelligence VS Decision Support System

2010-01-11T18:10:00.000-08:00

Ahmad Mukhlason
(lecturer at Business Information System Department, Faculty of Information Technology, INSTITUT TEKNOLOGI SEPULUH NOPEMBER, Surabaya Indonesia)

Dearest readers :)

I am very sure some of you have been familiar with Decision Support System (DSS), or may be Computerized Decision Support System. Then, nowadays emerges new term called Business Intelligence (BI). Is it something different with Decision Support System? and what is the correlation between Decision Support System and Business Intelligence. At this post I am presenting new BI versus DSS.

What is Decision Support System.

Broadly speaking, decision support systems are a set of manual or computer-based tools that assist in some decision-making activity. In today's business environment, however, decision support systems (DSS) are commonly understood to be computerized management information systems designed to help business owners, executives, and managers resolve complicated business problems and/or questions. Good decision support systems can help business people perform a wide variety of functions, including cash flow analysis, concept ranking, multistage fore-casting, product performance improvement, and resource allocation analysis. Previously regarded as primarily a tool for big companies, DSS has in recent years come to be recognized as a potentially valuable tool for small business enterprises as well. [1]

Talking about Decision Support System, we must know any types of Decision. Based on [2] Decision can be classified into two categories: Programmed Decision and Non-Programmed Decision. The programmed decision is repetitive and routine. The non-programmed decisions are novel, unstructured, and call for intelligent adaptive and problem oriented action when solving the problem. Simon states that the traditional techniques for these non-programmed decisions are judgment, creativity, and intuition.

References:
[1]http://www.enotes.com/small-business-encyclopedia/decision-support-systems/
[2]Simon, H. The New Science of Management Decision. Englewood Cliffs. NJ: Prentice Hall

Business Intelligence : What is Business Intelligence?

2010-01-11T04:20:00.000-08:00

Ahmad Mukhlason
(lecturer at Business Information System Department, Faculty of Information Technology, INSTITUT TEKNOLOGI SEPULUH NOPEMBER, Surabaya Indonesia)

Dear readers :)

At this first post, I would like to invite you to know and understand well what Business Intelligence is, and how it can benefit organization.How Business Intelligence can help your organization win the competition in this turbulent business environment.

Today's turbulent business environment characterized by uncertainty and inability to predict the future is extremely challenging, and thus requires the development of new competences. Competence development is seen as a critical success factor ensuring companies' competitiveness. Today's business environment is quite dynamic. Companies that are willing to survive in competition must react to the changes quickly. These changes are numerous and challenges to re-engineer or adapt with continuous improvement are numerous, too [1]. Competence development is seen as one of the critical strategic factors ensuring companies' competitiveness [2].

According to [3] Today’s Turbulent business environment is affected by 4 majors factors i.e Markets,Customer Demands,Technology, and Societal. Markets is characterized by strong competition, global market, blooming electronic market, innovative marketing and methods. Customer Demands nowadays desire for customization, quality, diversity of product, speed of delivery, powerful and less loyal. Technology in other side is more innovation, new product and service, increasing obsolescence rate and information overload.

Societal includes Government regulation and deregulation and ncreasing social responsibility.
Like or dislike Business Intelligence may be the answer for winning this competition.

What is Business Intelligence?

Business Intelligence (BI) refers to skills, processes, technologies, applications and practices used to support decision making. BI technologies provide historical, current, and predictive views of business operations. Common functions of Business Intelligence technologies are reporting, OLAP, analytics, data mining, business performance management, benchmarking, text mining, and predictive analytics [4].

Business Intelligence often aims to support better business decision-making. Thus a BI system can be called a decision support system (DSS). The term business intelligence is often used as a synonym for competitive intelligence.

References:

[1] Raija Suikkia, Raija Tromstedta, Harri Haapasalob, Project management competence development framework in turbulent business environment,Sciencedirect Technovation 26 (2006) 723–738.
[2] Nyhan, 1998 B. Nyhan, Competence development as a key organisational strategy—experiences of European companies, Industrial and Commercial Training 30 (1998) (7), pp. 267–273
[3] Turban, et al. Decision Support and Business Intelligence Systems, 8th Edition, Pearson Education 2007. pp. 3-14
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_intelligence