Business intelligence software and tools
Reporting, analysing and presenting data in a highly legible manner are the cornerstones of business intelligence (BI) software and the tools that can be used range from the accessible to highly complex applications that are best suited for system developers. A selection of BI tools and software is listed below:
Local information systems
This set of tools are primarily used in Europe, and chiefly for geographic reporting, with the primary function being the reporting of statistical data with support for storage functionality and the recovery of uncategorised data. Statistical data can loaded, analysed and referenced according to key geographical regions. This helps to target a wide range of groups in the shortest possible time.
Data Mining
Data mining is considered to be one of the most advanced forms of BI, and incorporates artificial intelligence into its design in order to extract numerous data patterns. Customer profiling, fraud detection and company-wide surveillance are all part of the features that data mining can offer.
OLAP
Online analytical processing is the best approach a business can take if it needs to address multi-dimensional analytical queries. Complex data models and on-the-fly queries can be performed in rapid succession of each other. OLAP queries are displayed in intricate matrices, millions of rows and columns that constantly measure the data of the current project.
Spreadsheets
Excel, Calc and other spreadsheet applications are typically used in order to record date from the BI systems into a unified order. Once the data is inputted into the spreadsheets, it can then be exported into the OLAP for further data dissemination.
Digital Dashboards
A digital dashboard is an executive information system and forms the user interface which is easy to understand and modify as per the needs of the BI model. Dashboards are laid out in such a manner that the flow of information is constantly tracked to monitor all business processes. The digital dashboard can be graphically customised in any way that the design team sees fit.
Business performance management
Achieving a small sub-set of goals is the key component for correctly running a BI campaign. With business performance management, it becomes possible to track all goals within the core BI group and further analyse each sections success and failures, building a predictive model for all current and future projects.
A large percentage of these BI tools are standalone packages and with the exception of the spreadsheets, are all targeted to highly specific users within the industry.
Best practices in Business Intelligence
Simply put, business intelligence (BI) best practices deliver highly-detailed implantation documents as well as a readily-configured system that is custom-designed to support all end-to-end company processes in a generic or specific way and of course, according to the requirements of the market. This is all structured on a ‘building block’ attitude and delivers a customisable system that can address the unique needs of the business. Dually, it will address the primary issues of any business shortcomings.
BI best practices will usually comprise of customised templates with the necessary documentation which are readily designed for the company’s systems. These preprogrammed templates are easily integrated into existing system architectures, but preconfigured and highly specific templates can be written for business scenarios that are not covered by the best practice solutions.
Both large and small organisations can benefit from best practices solutions as they roll out their BI implementations for alpha-level projects or for worldwide rollouts of various business suite applications or software tools. The best scenario for the use of BI is when a company needs to create a readily-defined process flow for any corporate circumstances. Best practices involve a through description of all processes as well as all needed content that can be launched on a business system for rapid deployment.
Building block methodology is employed to assure smooth integration into all BI products and services. The building blocks hold configurations as well as the necessary tools and documents for rapid installation of individual modules into the businesses system. Building blocks provide a structure for speedy, intuitive and error-free deployment of data packages into any industry. Each building block can be further modified to address the needs of any complex scenario. With best practices, all data evaluation and implantation is seamless and error-free, with the correct decisions being carried over from design to implantation phase.
Get the best Business Intelligence services in South Africa
Finding the best business intelligence (BI) services in South Africa is dependent on a number of factors. BI ensures that a company remains focused on assisting clients by analysing both internal and external data in order to create further value in all areas of the business. A deeper understanding of company procedures, business decisions, financial organisation and regulatory compliance is the backbone of BI.
Getting the best service is wholly dependent on which modules of BI the company is looking to integrate into its daily workflow. Services that a business may require include data mining, data warehousing; information strategy and information analytics.
South African BI services, such as Intellient, an EOH company, will help a company in determining which new venues of revenue it can explore, by unmasking hidden opportunities through detailed reports. BI services allow any business to examine its ROI, or return on investment. This not only applies to new business, but to the existing ones as BI digs deep into the factors which influence new and old clients alike: BI understands customer relationship and customer intelligence thanks to unrivalled data comprehension.
Regulatory guidelines in both the government and commercial sector have a stringent set of compliance that must be followed. BI enables quicker task-solving and intuitive decision making at all levels of business, whether it be the tactical, operational or strategic levels.
Other services that will ensure the best deliverable results include:
Analytics services
On a microscopic level, pick apart the companies decision making abilities and adjust strategies according to the data harvested from the BI systems. What information needs to go where, and to whom must it be delivered to? Analytics services are the path to success.
Business Intelligence Diagnostics
Asses the current needs of the companies BI capabilities and identify opportunities before the competition does. For the company that lacks momentum, BI diagnostics can create a cohesive management model for driven decision making.
BI services are innovative and customisable for any system – with South Africa being in the enviable position of being home to some of the top BI development teams in the world.
What you need to know about Oracle Hyperion business intelligence
Hyperion Solutions Corp. was acquired by Oracle in early 2007; this was a clever tactic for Oracle and caused them to become the number one solution for all business intelligence (BI) system requirements. As Oracle stated back in 2007, it was their goal to become the premier business intelligence and corporate performance management (CPM) leader in a burgeoning market; now in 2010, Oracles predications have resonated true. Oracle focused on building the core infrastructure that is required for a successful BI, with the acquisition of Hyperion giving them the push they needed to layer analytical applications on the backbone of their data management technologies.
The Oracle Hyperion BI is an enterprise based data model, which sticks to conformed dimensions for true cross-functional configurations. This applies to all sectors of the business such as marketing, operations, HR, finance and so on. The addition of Hyperion delivers an interactive dashboard with intuitive navigation and a more channeled workflow.
Oracle Hyperion BI delivers unrivaled support key areas of the business, with analytics tools that are prebuilt with a featured set of KPI’s (key performance indicators), as well as various metrics and decisive workflows. BI from Oracle Hyperion allows companies to save money, integrate informed decisions into their workflow, measure the performance of its employees and streamline expenditure by tracking the fiscal performance of various departments and the projects they are involved in.
Once a firm is able to both manage and track its most well-performing campaigns, then a new level of effectiveness can easily be reached. The most esteemed cliental can be segmented into various metrics for further performance measurement. The complete picture can be generated, with new data being effortlessly integrated into the BI systems for further insight into the company’s performance. There is no better way to measure a company’s performance on every level, then with Oracle Hyperion business intelligence.
Why Business Intelligence matters now more than ever
With business intelligence (BI), a detailed report of a company’s financial standings, as well as customer relationships and overall operational functions are accurately portrayed thanks to advanced software.
BI matters, simply because the bigger picture can finally be seen, by pulling the company apart at the macular level and expanding each core function for further understanding. An organization is placed under a microscope and put into focus until each function is clearly visible, such as over-committal to massive projects that are well outside of projected budgets.
Being able to dig deep into the corporation’s figures and determine expenditure versus actual costs allows the business to view all financial activities in the exact context they are required to be in. This expenditure can be measured against any current progress and expected progress, this in turn creates forecasting models for various sections of the company. Minimise risk and plan ahead without blindly following uniformed statistics.
When BI combines with Corporate Performance Management (CPM) a true model of performance excellence can be mapped out. Companies need to be in the know, and being in the know means running the correct campaigns at the correct time. With BI, customer relationships can be analyzed and promotions run prior to a rival opposition’s efforts. BI leads to the stages of CPM that incorporates budgeting, implementation, project monitoring and other venues for improvement.
The quality of data is of utmost importance and collated data must be both precise and accurate. BI relies on accurate data collection from various systems; therefore any erroneous data can become a barrier to project success. Tools are required to piece together a BI project, but without user intervention even the most successful tools will lead to project failure. Live or die by this rule: data must always be captured correctly.
The quality of captured date is of extreme importance, and many BI project managers have a saying that goes, ‘If garbage goes in, garbage comes out’. Quality always matters and will assist the business as it expands its circle of trust within the business intelligence project groups. Do not postpone BI integration into any company, as the time and money spent will lead to a calmer economic climate for any company.
Tips to avoiding Business Intelligence project failures
With business intelligence (BI) projects, it is prudent to avoid pitfalls that may potentially lead to disastrous situations. More often than not, it is not the software to blame as user error can circumvent even the most foolproof of systems. Learn from the mistakes of others and strengthen your project internally before errors rear their nasty head. The top failures and how to solve them include:
A lack of a technological roadmap
Multiple projects will be strung together in order to create a cohesive system – therefore you must have the architecture in place which becomes your roadmap that can ascertain how each part of the project will contribute to the BI project as a whole. A lack of a roadmap creates chaos, which can lead to a frenzy of reporting databases.
Project Mentality Shortfall
You cannot build a singular BI application, the success of the project is wholly determined on the users who build an environment which other business users can employ for suitable project decisions. As each part of the application is built, that piece of the project must be able to reprocess itself for various stages of the project. Templates must be created for data models and compliance must be ensured in order to meet the required standards and procedures.
Data Quality Procedures
The community who will pour their hours into this project must be assured that the data in the BI systems is first-rate; this can be achieved with metrics that accurately measures the quality of all warehoused data. With concise information measured to exacting standards, the BI systems teams will have the confidence they need to input the critical data.
A need for Audit controls
Once a project goes live and does not measure up to the projected data, failure is sure to follow in its wake. Always consider the project as ‘live’ and measure the numbers against projected performance levels with various auditing tools. Dissimilar figures versus real-life expectations can then be explained with a history trail of thorough auditing.
If a pitfall is detected always stop, reassess the situation and follow the best course to success – it can soften the impact of project collapse and lead to possible success.
Growing short term business intelligence solutions into long term success
There is no more daunting and complicated a task then correctly implementing business intelligence (BI) solutions for a chosen company. This information, if interpreted correctly can take a company from the brink of failure to the pinnacle of success. Therefore, in order to grow a short-term solution into a long-term success, the following principles can be followed for maximum development:
- Realistic goals must be set, and then executed in a timely manner. Each goal factors into the individual success of specific subsets within the BI divisions. Each employee’s skills and what they can achieve in their department is critical to the alignment of business decisions. Overall, the potential functions of BI in each department must be nurtured towards a scaling economic model of the company.
- As the BI solution continues to grow, it is often the end-user who is left in the dark as they muddle with an overly complex application that is built more with a programmer or developer in mind. User adoption rates plummet as the BI system grows in complexity without an interface that is functional enough for any team-member to utilize. Once the BI solution grows to a certain level of complexity, then it is time to invest in a user interface in the form of an intuitive dashboard that can be ramped up in complexity according to user specification. Keeping the UI simple is the best advice.
- Map out each phase of the project in manageable chunks, instead of creating a behemoth of a project that ultimately fails due to poor planning. If each phase of the project is assigned to different teams, this will actively encourage user adoption across the board instead of alienation due to an overly complex application. Start small, and grow piece by piece.
- Ramp up the organisational structure, building a strong support base with a strategic programme that eventually envelops the simple project that the BI started out as. Pulling together a strong team with key members is step one; step two is to grow the team within each department of the BI project. Treat the BI solution as a small project that will ultimately grow into a massive, dynamic development.
Tips for successful Business Intelligence data warehousing
Business Intelligence data warehousing
Keeping a steady grip on business intelligence (BI) data is vital to the success of any business. By using a series of collated information, correct business data will enable continuous scrutiny of all operations from year to year. Benchmarking performance indicators, utilising predictive analytics and mining data are all various functionalities that business intelligence data warehousing can provide. Listed below are certain techniques and strategies that can be readily applied to a company’s data warehousing solutions for further success:
- Selecting the correct software or series of applications that will work in harmony with the needs of the company is the first step in creating a BI data solution. Small to medium –sized businesses can make use of spreadsheets and basic databases for a cost-effective solution. Large companies can grow as the data warehousing requirements expand, with a web-based system that can be expanded via new modules and features.
- The primary function of data warehousing is trend analysis. Common uses include analysis of business operations on ad-hoc basic. Concentrate all efforts on a long-term examination and eventual operational forecasting. These reports should be set to read-only as user input can muddy the data prediction, with new queries being created in order to keep current data intact.
- Accurate creation of data is critical when building an overview of any business. Useless data will provide inaccurate reports and ultimately, poor choices for the various directions of the company. Leading business intelligence experts knows that the systems deliver reports based on the quality of the information; therefore the correct data must always be inputted into the central data repository.
- Precise reporting is made possible (or at the very least, easier) with the inclusion of data quality teams. Quality control teams review all data, as well as the process of capturing the data itself. These auditors are solely responsible for BI data strategies.
The needs of the company determine the growth of the BI data warehousing solutions. Additional functionality keeps the software fresh and relevant to the specific requirements of the business and as goals are met, the software grows almost organically to match the demands of the end-user.
Business Intelligence in Organisational Effectiveness
Business Intelligence in Organisational Effectiveness
Effectiveness is everything in an organisation, but as businesses grow larger, one particular problem comes to the fore – data management. If you run a business then you’ll know that it’s not easy to keep track of the vast amounts of information in a business system. This problem can be solved with business intelligence.
Business intelligence – what and why
Business intelligence is exactly what it says – putting intelligence into a business. Consider a business that is split into twelve departments, each department running at full efficiency. If the health of the business is to be checked, one would have to generate a report. For the structure described, it would be an extremely complicated and time consuming job, something which could have been avoided with the right tools.
Business intelligence tools like Oracle Hyperion combine the various departments into a seamless whole.
The following two strategies are most commonly used in business intelligence:
- Data warehousing – This strategy refers to creating databanks so that information can be worked on quickly and efficiently. This means that all departments are connected to a system that dynamically processes and stores their information as it generates. When you need to generate a report about the business status, it can be made available quickly and reliably.
- Data mining – This approach comes close to putting real intelligence into the system. It tells us that all the past years’ data about customers and clients is not useless. In fact, if correctly analysed, such data could reveal flaws and recommend what needs to be done in the future. However, this is only possible with the use of the right software and tools deployed by an expert.
Business intelligence tools in South Africa
We provide the best business intelligence tools to all types of businesses. If you need more information about making business intelligence work for your business get in touch with Intellient, an EOH Oracle Services company right away.
Deploying Business Intelligence
Deploying Business Intelligence
Business intelligence is catching up fast with all types of modern businesses. Not only does it help companies deal with data management in a better way, but it assists decision makers in forming business strategies too. However, it’s not a decision that can make in a hurry. Before going forward with business intelligence, there are a few things to consider.
Deploying Business Intelligence soon?
If your company has decided to use business intelligence, now is the time to have a clear idea of what it should be looking at. Broadly speaking, business intelligence involves the use of the latest technologies and practices to assist companies in integrating more information flow within the business. The two main strategies in business intelligence are:
- Data warehousing – If you have many departments across which information is scattered, then it can become difficult to generate a meaningful and concise report. In fact, one of the biggest problems is getting a high-level view of the company. This is where business intelligence tools like Oracle Hyperion help you bring order and centralisation to the flow of information.
- Data mining – Another very important strategy that assists you with tremendous amounts of data. The aim here is not only data management, but also extracting meaningful information and patterns so that you can use it as an effective business strategy.
Questions to ask
There are some important questions you must ask before you consult a business intelligence expert. These tips will help you go for the solution that is most suited to your requirements.
- Decide what level of business intelligence your company needs. If you are not a blue chip company, your problems can be solved with lightweight software.
- Try to predict what the future might hold. Would you like to add some extra features that may help you in the future?
- Decide on how much of the business you want to leverage with business intelligence. Are there some areas that will likely make very little difference?
Need more help?
Understandably, you will need to do more research before you arrive at the right solution. Get in touch with Intellient, an EOH Oracle Services company, right away to remain informed and updated about the best business intelligence services in South Africa.
