Tuesday, May 25, 2010

BI Tools - Best Practices

A majority of business intelligence projects tend to fall short of expectations because of a lack of understanding on how to utilize business intelligence tools to their maximum potential. By leveraging bi tools with understanding of the industry trends, the amount of data that can be analyzed by these tools increases tremendously.

Business intelligence software was created to allow individuals in companies to generate powerful decision making by leveraging accurate and timely information. To make sound business decisions, having the proper data in a timely fashion allows companies to make rapid decisions on the fly and also allows them to change direction very quickly because the information is widely available to all the members of the organization in a universal format that is readable to all.

It use to take months for reported data to show up on the desk of a decision maker. Now with software business intelligence, the data is available 24 hours a day and shows up in real time. Given this new ability, departments can now make decisions themselves and also adapt to the ever changing business landscape right away. They can also generate reports themselves and send them over to other departments in real time to help take immediate action.

This actionable information is vital for a company to keep up with rapidly progressing business environment. BI tools can potentially give the upper hand versus competitors because of the quick flow of information to decision makers. But there is a drawback to business intelligence and that is because it is not suitable for every type of company.

The main problem is the complexity of data that top decision makers must check to verify if the action that they are taking is suitable for the companies long term goals. So what’s the solution? Basically, not every company needs to aggregate complex data to get the job done. Sometimes simply following the traditional pattern that has been bringing in consistent results is more than enough to keep the company on its path for its future horizon.

Overall, business intelligence tools are here to stay but they might not be the best choice for every type of company. Certain industries such as technology industries, it is vital to be able to change at a rapid rate and make decisions on the fly. In these cases, it is very important to have the proper data in front of them at all times to make actionable plans and implement them as soon as possible.

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