Business Intelligence is all-encompassing term used to refer to a wide range of software applications that are employed to detect and raw facts and figures of the association. It consists of several components such as data warehousing, data management, BI reports and dashboards, online analytical processing, communication, modeling and reporting.
BI is used by companies to decision making, budgeting and evaluation of new business opportunities. BI is not just a tool to analyze corporate data. It is used by management to identify inefficient business processes as well as require a re-assessment and re-move.
Quite BI tools that are available in the market today are quite user friendly and simple so that even basic users can employ them successfully without knowing any technical knowledge. You can depend on it to run any complex reports. This allows business users to access the information on the basis of hard figures facts instead of gut instinct. Some of the popular ones would be Oracle BI, MSBI, QlikView and IBM.
While BI can significantly bring about a change in how the company analyzes the data and makes decisions, ill-suited implementation can waste the efforts of the organization. It is necessary for the company to make an accurate assessment of the Business Intelligence ecosystem that would suit their needs. It needs to take care of factors like everyone wants it to be accessible, what all functions such as HR, marketing, operations, etc. need BI, numbers and figures are to be paid and what are the kinds of reports should be generated, the amount of money it is willing to spend on BI infrastructure.
A good way to go about it would be to start with senior management who are the primary decision makers. But it should also include the next level of management they participate in daily operations and bring this information well to them.
The next step could be to analyze how decisions are made in the organization and to make note of the information managers need to facilitate rapid decision making. Another factor in evaluating the information, how they would like to make the information as stated in the graphs, pie diagrams, Excel, charts, etc. Good BI systems not only to extract information but also give a reason for it.
A lot of technical projects often fail if the user is not satisfied with the technology and are not able to interpret it. The Agency shall ensure that users are not skeptical or afraid of the technology. As BI plays an important role in determining the way the organization does and the impact of the reviews, it is important to make healthy choices while going for Business Intelligence ecosystem.