Business Intelligence and Analytics in Financial Services

Business Intelligence and Analytics in Financial Services

Data is a source of significant competitive advantage for any organization. Financial institutions need to support business activities and decision making in a fashion that is timely, relevant, verifiable, and personalized to meet a variety of stakeholder requirements. However, it is easy for financial services firms to become overwhelmed by the volume and complexity of unstructured data.

The reality is that, in the digital banking model of the future, data is a financial institution’s most important asset. Banks and credit unions that are able to combine their internal and external data sources to create value will find themselves well placed to thrive in what some have called ‘Banking 3.0′. There is no question that this banking reality is as true today as it was years ago. The difference is that today’s technology is making the task a bit easier.

. Customer analytics has been a good idea for some time, despite being implemented by a minority of banks. Advances in processing, memory, database design, and analytic methods can dramatically improve performance and lower costs for financial institutions. It’s time for banks to take the idea more seriously.

Data analytics is a complex subject and a complex undertaking. In the report,Customer Analytics in Retail Banking: Why Here? Why Now? Senior management examines the growing role of customer analytics (that is, predictive analytics applied to customer data) in retail banking and why it should be a priority for banks. Financial institutions with no customer analytics experience should take the idea more seriously. Institutions with customer analytics initiatives should revisit how things are being done.

There are at least three reasons developed in the report:

1. The new normal in retail banking economics.
2. The imperative for customer centricity in an increasingly self-service interaction environment.
3. Technology advancements in data analytics.

Over the next five years, these factors will advance customer analytics from a project undertaken by a minority of banks to a core competency among the majority of financial institutions.

What is Driving Business Intelligence and Analytics in 2015?

Q: What are the key areas in BI that CIOs should focus on in 2015 and why?

A: Putting the right team together. CIOs need to make sure there is a cross functional team of technical and business skills, and an organizational structure that serves both the centralized needs of the enterprise and the decentralized needs of local domains.

CIO’s also must create a more realistic plan for technology standardizations, for example, logical data warehouse vs. enterprise data warehouse, data discovery as an augmentation to traditional BI and provision capabilities for the big data era.

Q: The Summit theme is “Crossing the Analytical Divide: New Technologies, New Skills”. What is meant by this, and how can organizations ensure they’re on the right side of the analytical divide?

A: Last year’s conference was very much focused on creating a very innovative, data driven business model (transparent, decisive, and personalized). We painted a picture of a digital business, and the advanced analytical capabilities it would require. This year’s theme discusses how to cross the analytical divide to achieve this vision to create a more data driven company, but to do it in a way that doesn’t abandon the old ways.

Organizations are being told they need to invest in all this cool, innovative technology, such as predictive, content, and real time analytics; however, they still need to deliver the traditional management reports and dashboards that run the company. So the theme, “Crossing the Analytical Divide”, is very much from the perspective of the analytics leader who needs to deliver on an innovative vision, while keeping the day to day analytic operations up and running. It’s not an easy task.

Q: How do analytics drive digital business?

A: In some businesses, providing information will become the business. The business model will be about selling data/information. In these cases, analytics is an explicit part of the business model. However, this will the minority.

In most companies, a digital business doesn’t mean directly monetizing (selling data). An insurance company will sell insurance. A retailer will still sell consumer packaged goods, etc., However, to be an insurance company, a retailer, or any company in the private and public sector delivering goods and services, will be required to be wrapped in an information context. For example, that insurance company will collect more granular data than ever to personalize the insurance experience. The same will be true in all industries. Making sense of this information through analytics will be a key aspect of how well one competes.

Q: In what ways do mobile, social and cloud continue to impact BI and analytics?

A: All three have become expected aspects of how Business Intelligence and Analytics projects are delivered. A key focus at this year’s Summit will be cloud and its impact because virtually every new BI and analytics offering that hits the market will be designed to work in the cloud first. The growth of cloud-based business applications will only accelerate this trend.

SMB Technology Trends for 2013

Many of the trends we discussed in 2011, and saw in 2012, were pretty much spot on. Technology like mobility, tablet style endpoints, cloud computing, big data, and virtualization were big in 2012. Even with the languishing U.S. economy, IT spending among the SMB subsector was slightly up for the bulk of 2012. That being said, what IT solutions will the typical SMB entity be putting hard-earned capital into for the next 12 months? For that we'll turn to the leader on all things IT, Gartner Inc.

In early November, Research Vice President Robert P. Anderson discussed upcoming technology trends with a specific focus on the SMB space and revealed several interesting statistics. According to Anderson, "of all global IT spend, 44% is in the SMB category." (Anderson, 2012) I must point out that Gartner classifies organizations with 1,000 or less employees as small or mid-sized; a further break down groups companies with 100 or less employees as small business and 101-999 as mid-market businesses. Unfortunately, there is no standardization on what really comprises a small or mid-sized business and the definitions vary across the board.

 Anderson listed the top three business drivers in the SMB space as "increasing growth, attracting and retaining customers, and creating new products and services." (Anderson, 2012) Not too dissimilar with the trends for 2012, right? Anderson goes on, "the top five predicted technology items on the SMB purchase radar include mobile technologies, analytics and business intelligence, cloud computing, desktop server and storage virtualization, and collaboration technologies." (Anderson, 2012) Other technology trends in the mix include modernization of legacy systems and applications, upgraded security hardware and software systems, and customer relationship management (CRM) applications.

Upon closer look, mobility is essential for all the micro businesses that are springing up as a result of several iterations of this recession. For many of these entities, technology as a consumable resource is vital because these organizations don't have cash on hand to procure expensive office space and all the accompanying utility requirements. These small businesses need to be agile to gain market share and acceptance, so mobile technologies are critical to making this happen.

With the increased deployment of mobile devices comes the surge of headaches with managing it especially as you look at the companies with more than 20-30 employees. This is where rapid growth in something called mobile device management (MDM) is making major inroads and will continue to do so in 2013.

Increasingly, employees want to bring their own devices into company operated network environments, so additional considerations are necessary. Generally speaking, MDM systems allow for the management of worker-owned endpoints such as an iPhone, iPad, or Galaxy Tab. As workers use their personal devices for work functions, additional concerns arise as these devices are not controlled, company-owned equipment.

 What happens if an employee leaves the organization? What if someone gets their hands on the device with malicious intent? What if the device is lost? What happens to all the company data on the device? Some of these issues are similar in regard to company issued laptops and other mobile devices, but it gets more complicated when equipment is not in the organization's inventory. MDM enables organizations to manage employee owned and/or company owned devices.

Functionality includes but is not limited to GPS tracking, remote locking, and remote wiping of corporate data from the endpoint without disturbing private data such as photos. MDM will continue to make large inroads in 2013; however, price and support could remain a concern.

Business Intelligence and analytics have been staples of the enterprise space for a long time. What exacerbates this issue is something called "big data" which is essentially massive amounts of data (structured and unstructured), and is difficult to organize and report on through either standard spreadsheets or database software. This has not been an issue for the majority of SMB organizations, but there is a need for those larger SMB entities that use up to a petabyte of data or over 1,000 terabytes.

Other trends that are here to stay are cloud computing and virtualization. In some ways, the cloud will be the method of choice for application delivery and access for many SMBs. The ability to take advantage of these once enterprise only technologies, without building out redundant data centers or acquiring expensive hardware and software, makes the cloud a very attractive option. Virtualization will accelerate with this shift making shared resources in a colocation space possible.

 While much of the virtualization work in the SMB space, to this point, has been on the server side, 2013 will usher in the new age of the virtual desktop.This subset of the virtualization platform allows for a simple, easy to control user experience regardless of the chosen endpoint. An organization can customize the desktop experience for each user therefore lessening the need for full PC clients to run company applications.

Lower cost options such as thin client terminals with no onboard storage or operating system can be used to do everything an end-user may need. This configuration also lends well to security functionality as less corporate information sits on individual, and sometimes vulnerable, computers.

Finally, collaboration becomes a concern as mobility is added to the mix. When multiple employees work remotely, it can be difficult to synchronize documents, workflows, or other application outputs. Thus, collaboration applications make sense as a growth area for the SMB. Take for example a group I've recently spoken to that produces conferences all across the country. They have no formal office space, and are often in different cities on any particular day.

Sure, making a phone call is one way to communicate, but if you are trying to share documents and other information with a colleague across the country, it can be a challenge. At the very least, the ability to "check out" materials and create versions that are stored centrally would be invaluable to this organization, and Microsoft's SharePoint application is built to do just that. Microsoft's SharePoint application also has a cloud-based option for small business which makes it both user friendly and budget friendly.

As you can see, there is a great many solutions in the hopper for the SMB market space in 2013. According to Anderson, predictions for the coming year include "that tablet computing in the SMB market will outpace that of the enterprise space, desktop virtualization will finally take off, and mobile connectivity to business applications will rise about 25% from 2012 in the SMB toolkit." (Anderson, 2012) There is a thought that the flagging economy and unyielding unemployment numbers in the US will lead to an explosion of a micro-SMB marketplace; entrepreneurs who strike out on their own or form small organizations of between two and five people.

This fact would further push the adoption of cloud applications which are rising much faster in the micro-SMB market than in any other segment. In this day and age, being the trusted technology partner is a win-win for everyone concerned, so focusing on this relationship will go a long way towards enhancing the recovery for all parties in the future.

Looking for business intelligence and analytics, contact Alenu IT Today! at (65) 6884 5030.

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Listening and Understanding With Social Intelligence Tools

When I was a kid, my parents always encouraged me to be a good listener. They wanted me to listen to them, of course, but also to teachers, other adults, my siblings and playmates. Little did they know that one day listening would become a big part of the business I'm in.
Listening is a hot topic in Web analytics today primarily because companies in all types of industries are coming to terms with social media platforms.

Facebook and Twitter give customers a place to talk, connect and share their feelings and ideas about anything and everything, including brands and businesses. Because they don't control the conversation, many companies aren't sure what these new channels mean to their business.

Specifically, organizations are not sure what to do first with social media. Jump right in or keep out of the conversation altogether? Quietly seek friends among the current base? Perhaps advertise a little?

These are tricky questions to answer. Listening is a great place to start, because it helps companies understand who their customers are, what they want, and how they feel about current offerings. Just like my folks believed listening would make me a better person and help me learn, businesses can better understand their online marketing and service opportunities by listening to what people - past and current customers, future customers, advocates, influencers - are already saying about them.

Technology is part of the story. Listening software and tools are attracting lots of attention. A recent Forrester reporter described the evolution beyond "basic brand monitoring tools" and toward technology that can "turn social media data into actionable insight." That's the heart of effective analytics, in our view.

The end game is what Forrester calls "social intelligence - the concept of informing marketing and business decisions with insights found in social media data." To get there, "the technology and analytics infrastructures that mine and analyze social media to deliver insight... become essential tools within the enterprise."

We can't argue with that perspective, but technology isn't a silver bullet here. Just because technology enables you to listen and can notify you when your brand pops up in an online conversation, it doesn't mean you'll automatically have the insights you need to improve your online operations or strengthen connections to customers.

Like analytics more generally, listening means committing resources, opening up to new ideas and perspectives, and being prepared to action on insights. Yes, you need technology to listen, but you need to people to learn and decide the best course of action based on what you're hearing. In our experience, few companies put enough people behind their analytics technology.

Gatorade, for instance, has created a "mission control center" where a number of full-time associates monitor Twitter and Facebook, 24 hours a day, using tools to "aggregate and weigh real-time opinions." They may reach out when customers are looking for more information, but seem to be thoughtful about jumping in too quickly or intrusively. That's good listening. It's also important to note that the effort is focused on the big idea of the business - which is to sell more sports drinks. All analytics efforts should be grounded in the reality of the business.

Here's another example, from the usually very chatty media industry:

News organizations are getting more scientific about studying the value of... social media services... The Washington Post... is looking for patterns that could illuminate whether certain types of stories are more appealing to audiences in social networks... and has started compiling a daily tracking report showing what social networks are driving audiences to the Post and what those users are reading.

Again, that's good listening and, because it's linked to core business objectives, effective analytics.

Both Gatorade and Washington Post recognize that they are just getting started in the listening business. That's fitting because social media users are a constantly moving target. Listening isn't something to be done for a short time or during a one-off initiative. New media requires long-term ears.

One other point about listening and understanding: because social networking is in its infancy and all the hype is distracting, companies may be tempted to overlook the basics of analytics. You must keep "listening" to the activity from your core online efforts, like traffic patterns on your web site and the effectiveness of your email campaigns. Listening to Facebook and Twitter is not a shortcut to analytics success. But, listening can lead to understanding, which can allow you to properly weigh and balance the impact of social media on your web site.

These same principles apply for smaller organizations. You don't need advanced software or daily tracking reports or a huge technology budget, but rather only Twitter and Facebook accounts, maybe a few freeware tools and the willingness to invest some time. In return, you can hear firsthand what people are saying about your company, products and industry. Some consider this an alternative to focus groups. The next step - figuring out the best way to connect with them to grow your business - is what social media is all about. That's why it's so popular with small businesses.

Think about it - if word of mouth is the best marketing there is, you have to have your ears open to understand how well you're doing and how you might get out the right word to your target listeners. It's not a stretch to say that you have to listen before you can say anything people will want to hear.

Or, as my parents would put it, listening helps you learn and then you can join the conversation with something intelligent to say.

Sourcing for business intelligence and analytics Singapore, contact Alenu Group Now! at (65) 6884 5030.

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Reporting For JD Edwards - JDE EnterpriseOne Reporting Solutions With BDA

According to the latest CIO study published by IBM in September 2009,

Business Intelligence and Analytics are the two top priorities for CIOs for 2009 and 2010.

We all know how difficult it can be to get data out of any ERP system for meaningful reporting and analytics. JD Edwards EnterpriseOne offers a choice of databases (SQL-Server, DB2 and Oracle), operating systems and hardware. It offers 70 application modules to support a diverse set of business operations.

There are several report options within EnterpriseOne which may satisfy power users and analysts. Oracle suggests its JD Edwards Enterprise One users to use their BI Publisher for enhanced reporting and BI functionality.

The following paragraph is directly taken from the Oracle Datasheet for BI Publisher and explains the integration overview:

To generate process driven reports, a customer will create or use an existing JD Edwards EnterpriseOne report to generate XML. A BI Publisher template will be created, uploaded, and associated with a JD Edwards EnterpriseOne report. This new report definition allows users to associate different templates and translations to the existing report. This report definition automates the reporting process from the initiation of the report to the delivery of the final output. For analysts initiated inquiries, these queries can be developed directly in BI Publisher using the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne driver. This allows users access to the JD EnterpriseOne data and execute the reports using the BI Publisher interface without the need of an EnterpriseOne UBE.

So, does this sound easy enough for you to create a business intelligence solution for your company, particularly if you do not have internal access to this expertise or do not want to pay huge amounts of consulting fees for external consultants and other costs involved with such a process? I don't think so.

This is the reason why there are several third party reporting and analytics tools available for JD Edwards. We always recommend a solution which includes proper ETL functionality to build a data warehouse or data mart, programmatically creates OLAP cubes which can be used by any front-end tool.

BDA (Business Data Analysis) is such a reporting and analysis tool which offers a data warehouse with pre-defined interfaces for many JD Edwards applications and it comes with a fantastic front-end analysis tool. Analysis applications like sales analysis can be built in a matter of days and the pricing is very attractive and fits into the current economy where budgets are tight, but better information is needed.

Spreading Business Intelligence in 2010 and Beyond

It's a new year, a new decade, and in a previously shaky but hopefully on-the-mend economic climate, businesses and organizations in every industry are finding themselves more pressed to find a competitive edge within their markets in order to not only succeed, but simply survive. New times bring new realities, and thus, new business models and concepts. Business Intelligence, or BI, is one such concept.

In 1989 Howard Dresner (later a GartnerGroup analyst) proposed this umbrella term to describe "concepts and methods to improve business decision making by using fact-based support systems." The term was not popularized until almost ten years later. Its usage is now widespread, but still in its infancy as far as implementation.

Business intelligence, defined in other words, is the set of processes, skills, technologies, practices and applications used to support decision-making within a corporate or industrial framework. Prudent executives familiar with this relatively new concept are, more and more, implementing projects to leverage the kind of usable information that supports better decision-making in their own corporations and industries.

Also referred to as competitive intelligence, BI is one model executives and managers can use to help them strategize after they have gathered information - in ways that are ethical and legal - from the external business environment (i.e., analyzing the competition) and converted that information into usable intelligence to help them raise their own competitive standards. It's important to recognize, however, that competitive intelligence is about more than just analyzing competitors, it's about channeling data-gathering efforts toward the end goal of making the organization more competitive relative to its environment.

Business or competitive intelligence projects can take many forms. Some of these projects might include the implementation of industry-specific analytic applications delivered via software with business intelligence capabilities. According to a paper entitled "Gartner Reveals Five Business Intelligence Predictions for 2009 and Beyond," by 2012, business units will control at least 40% of their total budget for business intelligence.

Other BI projects might include implementing events like summits and conferences to encourage the spread of information and the enforcement of data access for the entire organization.

The following are just a few critical factors needed for the successful implementation of a business intelligence system: a clear vision & planning, committed management support & sponsorship, business driven methodology & project management, data management & quality issues, performance considerations, mapping the solutions to user requirements, robust & extensible framework, brain-storming and information gathering. A business event such as those coordinated by corporate hospitality and production specialists is one such medium which can be highly conducive to the dispersion of such knowledge throughout the ranks of an organization.

According to the same Gartner paper previously referenced, through 2012, more than 35% of the top 5,000 global companies will regularly fail to make insightful decisions about significant changes in their business and markets, simply because of lack of information, processes, and tools. First, companies must appoint "enterprise architects" to head up intelligence gathering and analytic efforts. Then, it's up to decision-makers to form strategies based on this information, ultimately dispersing them through appropriate channels via business events and gatherings.

Looking for business intelligence and analytics, call Alenu Group Now! at (65) 6884 5030.

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Who's In The Driver's Seat When It Comes To Analytics Projects

You know, for years and years we've talked about trying to align business and IT and yet we never seemed to make much progress. Well I've got some good news for you: the arrival of analytics projects where large amounts of business data has to be crunched in order to get the answers that the business needs is driving IT and the rest of the business closer together than ever before. However, even though we now understand the importance of information technology, we still have not worked out the rules for how this is to be done.

It's All About The Data

The reason that analytics projects bring the business and IT together has to do with the raw material that any analytics project needs: data. One of the most important issues that the CIO has to help his or her company with is to determine which direction they want to use their analytics projects to look. It can be very easy to start to look backwards as you process the data - after all that is the story that the data is telling you. However, no matter who is running the show you have to push to get the company to use the output of your analytics project to look forward because that is where the real value is.

As the CIO you are going to have to set up new processes to guide the company's analytics projects. Let's face it, some very sophisticated tools are going to be used to crunch all of that data. This means that the IT department is going to have to develop the expertise that will be required to operate the tools that will be used. As the results of the project start to show up, you are going to have to take charge and coordinate how the information flows from IT to the rest of the business.

The value of the results of an analytical project leads a CIO to the really big issue: who owns the analytics project? Who gets to make the decisions about what gets analyzed and when? This is where things tend to get quite interesting. From a CIO's point-of-view, most of us realize that we can't do this all by ourselves. We really do need a business partner to help us out. However, what tends to happen in most companies is that instead of splitting responsibility between the CIO and a business partner, all of the responsibility is placed somewhere outside of the IT department.

CIOs Are Looking For A Better Way

If the current management of analytics projects is not ideal, then how should things be done? Once again this is where things get interesting. I think that most CIOs would agree that the business side of the house has the best grasp on where the company is trying to go. For this reason, most CIOs believe that the business side of the house is the one that should be in the driver's seat when it comes to deciding what analytics tasks the company should be working on.

However, that doesn't really answer the question about who is really running the show when it comes to the company's analytics projects. What most CIOs want is clear direction - these projects can cost a lot of money and it would be nice to have clear directions from senior management that shows that they fully support the effort. However, in many companies what happens is that analytics projects are driven from the bottom up by teams of IT and business members who score quick wins in an effort to get top level buy-in.

Ultimately what you are trying to do as the CIO is to create a culture of analytics within the company. Since this probably does not currently exist, you have a real job in front of you. This new culture is going to have to include both members of the IT department and from other business departments. This is not going to be an easy task. However, for your company to get the full benefits of its investment into analytics projects, you will need to be successful.

What All Of This Means For You

The good news is that the business side of the company and IT are finally working side by side on analytics projects. The bad news is that neither of us is really sure how this all works. As the person in the CIO position, you need to step up and show the company how it needs to be done.

The big question about analytics projects is who should own them: the business or IT? The answer probably lies somewhere in the middle. The data comes from the business however the analysis must come from within IT. CIOs are dealing with the challenge of looking for a better way to make analytic projects a part of the way that the company works. How to create a culture of analytics is a big question that CIOs have to deal with.

I think that we should view the arrival of large analytics projects as being a good thing. They are driving the business and IT closer together than they have ever been before. However, it's going to take a steady hand from the CIO to make sure that this work gets divided up properly. Work with the business side of the house and see if you can create a solution that both of you can live with.

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Business Intelligence - How It Transformed the Business World

Business Intelligence (BI) is a set of tools and techniques that process raw data into meaningful information and useful statistics for analytical purposes, that can help achieve greater and more beneficial results.

If we are to really understand the term 'business intelligence and analystics', perhaps this little piece from history will help. The term was originally put together by Richard Miller Devens in 1865 in his reference to Sri Henry Furnese, the prominent government financier in England between the years 1705 and 1710. Describing Furnese's business acumen and his accurate reading of monetary situations, Devens wrote that "he maintained a complete and perfect train of business intelligence". Here he was, of course, referring to the ability of Furnese to collect information, correlate the information and react accurately based on the information retrieved and collated. This is the essence of true "Business Intelligence".

In today's highly advanced and competitive business driven outlook, BI allows easy handling and interpretation of unstructured data or input of large amounts of information to help identify, create and develop strategic and long-term business opportunities while at the same plugging loopholes and strengthening systems. For commercial businesses world over, this is the key to implementing effective strategies based on the insights provided to gain competitive advantages in the market and gain long-standing stability.

Business Intelligence technologies provide a wide range of informative views in business operations - current, historical and predictive. Common functions of BI included:

• Analysis

• Benchmarking

• Business performance management

• Complex event processing

• Data mining

• Online analytical processing

• Predictive analytics

• Prescriptive analytics

• Process mining

• Reporting

• Text mining

Business decisions that are supported by BI techniques include operational, strategic and many others.

• Operational decisions cover market positioning of products and services, and pricing

• Strategic decisions include directions, goals and priorities on a broad level

In all, Business Intelligence can be most effective only when it involves combination of data derived from the market segment in which the business operates, which is classified as 'external data' along with data from internal company areas such as finance and operations, which is classified as 'internal data'. No single set of data, either external or internal can create the 'intelligence' that is required to provide a complete analysis of business functions and results.

Business Intelligence Software

BI software refers to programs that can analyze data and organize the information for better decision making. Since first being introduced in the 1960s as 'decision support systems', Business Intelligence software has quickly gained traction in the business world with several software companies producing business intelligence tools for specific types of data gathering.

One of the most happening trends in the Business Intelligence domain is the prominent shift in software architecture and design that are seeing more user-friendly applications. Business users are increasingly using these applications to analyze and review specific sets of data pertaining to departments such as finance, business operations, marketing, procurement, retail etc. The growth of technology and the Web have increased demands for BI tools that are able to analyze large mountains of data.

To be a successful data driven organization, a business needs a combination of analysis and predictions. Over the last few decades, 'data' has moved from being a customer-based requirement to one that enterprises need to stay ahead of competition. The year 2015 is predicted to see big changes in enterprise information management, as analysts and vendors try to predict what the market will need next.

Business Intelligence - The Need of the Hour!

Business intelligence is the set of techniques and tools for the transformation of raw data into meaningful, useful information for business analysis purposes. Do small businesses need it? Earlier, only large corporations had the resources and manpower to crunch the numbers and utilize the software.

Business intelligence and analytics are now no longer expensive and resource hungry. The technology has evolved to be lightweight, powerful and accessible to small/medium enterprises. These advances have provided business intelligence solutions that don't require coding knowledge to build dashboards and explore data. It's not realistic to expect small business owners to fret over the technicalities when there are other more urgent matters like attending to customers and managing staff. These business intelligence tools have analytical functions that can be accessed easily, displaying data that matters.

Many intelligence solutions are also provided by outside firms that specialize in data analysis. This can greatly reduce costs, with priorities and capital diverted to other business investments that matters. The advances in intelligence software have also made it faster and quicker to process data.

Business intelligence can help smaller businesses to compete with larger corporations. In the long run, it might even be able to help small businesses increase market share and generate revenue from unexpected avenues. The analysis of data help business owners make informed decisions that could impact the well-being of the business. Data includes the analysis of market trends and changing consumer behavior and appetites.

A greater host of these solutions are now geared towards a younger crowd. It is tailored for collaborative decision-making, visualization, and iterative scenario analysis. Younger entrepreneurs want business intelligence solutions that are easy to use and don't require extensive training.

However, to use these solutions effectively, there has to be enough quality operational data to actually process. If the pool of data is small, all you need to do is just look at it to determine the results, then business analytics tools are not for your business.

Cloud computing is a word many people use nowadays. But it is a reality. Business intelligence solutions based on cloud computing has gained traction among small businesses due to its self-serve analytics. It requires minimal IT intervention.

Before embarking on these intelligence solutions, it's important to determine the data that you want to procure. You need to know the questions you want answered, not just getting the latest fancy software. Otherwise it is a monumental waste of time and resources as you grapple in the dark.

Business Intelligence Strategy

Why a Business Intelligence strategy

Developing your Business Intelligence Strategy involves first considering your organizations vision and mission. Melding the corporate strategy with your business intelligence strategy will make a winning combination.

Business Intelligence Elevator Speech

To get key players on-board with your BI initiative you need an 'elevator speech'. This allows you to quickly give stakeholders your idea. Your elevator speech should be: "Business Intelligence allows data to be transformed into knowledge that fuels business growth. Business Intelligence allows better, more informed and faster decisions."

Key players

There are a number of key players to include in your Business Intelligence strategy and initiatives.

- Leadership Key

- Decision Makers

- Business Analysts

- Information Technology

- Other stakeholders

Essential Elements of Business Intelligence

- Good information

- Secure information

- Accessible information

- Analytically structured information

Goal of Business Intelligence: enable better, more informed and faster decisions

How do we enable better, more informed and faster decisions

Different business intelligence tools address these factors in different ways. Reporting delivers regular, timely information, with the ability to author reports or queries to get specific details. OLAP analysis, with its multiple dimensions, allows you to compare and contrast information against time and other factors to uncover trends. Scorecarding presents your key performance metrics and whether you've cross pre-determined thresholds. Executive (Data) dashboards put information in context, and in an easy-to-understand format.

Precursors to implementing BI

The underlying pool(s) of data need to be trusted. For companies to realize successful business intelligence user's must trust the data. Many companies have pockets of data that are considered trustworthy. This trust can be spread to other data by instilling data quality methodologies and also by implementing granular data security. This can be accomplished by mapping key information/data. Then creating data integrity rules/processes on this key data. Through this mapping of key data you will identify security rules which can be programmed at the source of the data, rather than the individual applications and reporting systems that ride on top of the data. Define it one time, one place.

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Implementing Business Intelligence Solutions

Organizations are increasingly becoming dependent on accurate and timely information to remain competitive in their core businesses. Real-time data marts and business intelligence solutions are focusing on getting the right information to the right person at the right time. The choice of a real-time business intelligence solution requires an analysis of your requirements so that you get the one most suited for your business.

Relevant Factors:

Implementation of a real-time business solution is more than just the tools or technologies associated with the solution. You have to consider:

o The system must provide the required outputs while being able to refresh the data marts real-time.

o A cost -benefit analysis of being able to extract real-time information

Business Intelligence Solution Capabilities:

1. Defining Real-Time: The definition of real-time will depend largely on the information needs of your organization. Some organizations, like banks, require responses within a few milliseconds. In others operating under a different set of conditions, responses in minutes may be acceptable. Of course, you have to factor in the time to update the data. Considering this additional time, solutions are mostly known as near real-time and meet the requirements of most businesses. All users of the solution should be made aware of the system capabilities. Businesses must differentiate between information that is required in real-time from that which is acceptable in a later timeframe.

2. Sourcing Data: Various options are available, depending on your requirement of accessing information:

o Real-time integration tools come with a real-time data replication engine that is separate from the batch integration engine. The data replication engine does its work by leveraging the database logs. The cost of such a system is correspondingly higher. A simpler and more cost effective solution is to have database native replicators.

o Database triggers are an alternative to real-time systems.They cost less and are low on maintenance. They work by posting changes captured in the source system into a separate staging area, from where the real-time integration engine reads it continuously.

o Display: Graphic visuals are the preferred as they provide an overall view of the business or the desired function. Analytic dashboards are now essential and d supplement numeric and statistical information.

o Information Delivery: In addition to providing the right information at the right time, it is equally of consequence that this information is delivered at the right place where it is conveniently accessible. Gadgets and technologies in the market make this eminently feasible and dashboard reports or exception alerts can easily be routed to PDAs or other web-enabled devices.

o The system must deliver information to meet both operational intelligence and analytical intelligence needs. Top management not only needs dashboards and alerts. Middle management is fact the more prolific user of operational and analytical information. This aspect must be ensured during the design phase.

Attention to the aspects outlined above will ensure that your solution meets your business needs. Having planned and designed the system deliberately, entrust its implementation to an experienced and qualified solutions provider so that the benefits translate directly to your bottom-line.

Learn and know more about Business Intelligence And Analytics.

The Importance Of Business Intelligence Reporting

Business intelligence analystics generally pertains to computer-based techniques utilized in identifying, extracting, and analyzing business data. BI solutions are a series of technologies, applications, processes and methods that help in translating data into useful and meaningful information. This information is further used to gain effective and intelligent insight into the processes and thereby facilitate in making informed decisions. Business Intelligence software also includes technologies such as data quality, data integration, data warehousing, content analytic etc.

Role of Speed and Flexibility to Reporting on Business Intelligence

In every business intelligence solution, reporting plays an important role in using these business data properly in order to improve its competitiveness in the market. Because of this, most companies are in dire need of specialized BI software such as data mining technology, such of which would enable users to manipulate the data or quickly find solutions to their queries.

With most enterprise business intelligence, reporting is only trouble-free when the per-defined reports satisfy what is needed. However, when you have questions which are beyond what the per-defined reports can handle, you have to gather the data again, reorganize the report and create a new report by merging the data from the other reports to be able to come up with a make-shift spreadsheet. For companies that need to move swiftly, these restrictions in BI reporting are intolerable.

Use of Superior Analytic to advance business intelligence reporting

To be able to meet their business intelligence reporting needs, most companies all over the world are using the BI data mining software. This particular BI software offers advanced analytic capabilities that allow users to easily navigate through the numerous data available in real-time with interactive visualizations. Any type of question may be asked by the navigator. They are not solely restricted to any per-configured business intelligence reporting structure.

Imparting knowledge throughout the industry through interactive and visual reporting

This analytical BI application has been beneficial to most engineers, researchers and other information personnel in nearly 1,000 companies around the globe. It has played a significant part in obtaining faster speed in market, solving manufacturing problems faster, and improving performance in sales and marketing. Such is the highly competitive business environments where decisions must be made promptly and with assurance and this objective is achieved through appropriately calculated BI reporting and through the implementation of BI tools.

BI tools for reporting are utilized in order to advance business and financial analytic. Through interactive and highly visual analytical environment, attaining this advancement is within reach. Its self-configuring visual data analysis environment allows the users to ask, visualize and explore data in real-time. When data is imported, the BI environment is generated automatically. This is achieved even in the absence of programming or complicated configuration. A wide variety of BI visual representations, including map based data can be selected and maneuvered by the users in order to review business intelligence reporting results in a number of different ways.

The visual representations can be manipulated to view BI reports according to different parameters including geographically as well as view them statistically, bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, profile charts etc. The utilization of web-based interactive reports gives support to the collaboration of users in the business. In conclusion, the best practice of business intelligence and research guides are easily shared using a Guided Analytic component.

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Beginners' Guide to Business Intelligence Tools

What is Business Intelligence and what is the utility of BI Tools?

Business Intelligence (BI) is defined as any real-time, current or past information that helps various business professionals including managers analyze current/past activities to help in predicting future course of the company's business. Business Intelligence is thus a stream of data and hence it requires sorting as well as analysis before it is suitable for use in a company's decision-making process. Such sorting and analysis of relevant data is usually carried out by software solutions, to ensure superior speed and accuracy of the data collection and analysis procedure. Any and all software solutions aiding the process of generating Business Intelligence for an enterprise are termed as Business Intelligence Tools. So BI data can help an enterprise rapidly adjust to changing business environment, while BI tools ensure that the changing business environment is rapidly as well as correctly identified and reported to facilitate a streamlined decision-making process. In case of historic data, BI tools usually sort and analyze data, which was previously stored in the enterprise database.

Commonly Used Business Intelligence Tools

BI tools are commonly classified into the following categories:

• Local Information Systems
• Business Performance Management
• Process Mining
• Dashboards
• Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)
• Data Warehousing
• Data Mining
• Reporting and Querying Software
• Spreadsheets

Most of these Business Intelligence technology and tools apart from spreadsheets are available as part of software suitable for a specific industry, standalone solutions, ERP system components or as a BI software suite. These solutions are often developed by a custom development company in response to requirements specified by a client or detected after a thorough analysis of the company's business model. A few open-source business intelligence tools are also available, however most enterprises prefer to use proprietary business intelligence technology to ensure adequate protection of critical data. The type of business intelligence architecture implemented by an organization varies on the industry, market conditions as well as specific market requirements. Some of the commonly available BI tool categories are described here:

Local Information Systems

The term Local Information System (LIS) originated from its use in the public sector of the UK; other terms used synonymously with LIS in different parts of the world include - Data Observatory and Community information systems. In the global business intelligence technology market, LIS applications are usually limited to providing support for geographic reporting of enterprise operations. The functions supported by LIS tools often overlap with some of the features of Geographic Information Systems and Knowledge Management tools. Unique functions of LIS include providing a region-specific database accessible by citizens, policy makers, managers as well as data experts. LIS statistics are usually compiled with respect to a small area such as the National Neighborhood Statistics projects in the UK. Currently operating Local Information Systems include the DarlingtonLIS, UK; Newcastle Council; New Zealand Ministry of Health and Fife Council, UK.

Business Performance Management

Business Performance Management (BPM) refers to a set of management as well as analytical processes designed to facilitate improvement of a company's processes in accordance with the preset goals of the organization. Such tools are capable of handling large amounts of data and help managers in determining fruitful interventions designed to improve the functioning of specific business processes. Currently available tools for BPM are based on the balanced scorecard framework and queries supported by BPM tools include metric-related queries, customer/stakeholder queries, goal-alignment queries, cost/risk queries as well as much more.

Process Mining

Process Mining is commonly defined as a process management technique which allows decision-makers to analyze business processes on the basis of available event logs. These event logs are automatically generated by the enterprise event system and the aim of Process Mining is to facilitate improvement of overall performance by providing tools and techniques designed to identify social, organizational, control and process structures by using the event logs. The technique is preferred if other conventional techniques fail of provide adequate insight into an enterprise process. Process Mining features in certain contemporary management techniques such as Business Process Intelligence, Business Operations Management and Business Activity Monitoring. Current Process Mining techniques are classified into the following categories: extension, conformation analysis and discovery.

Dashboards

Dashboards are defined as an easily read, real-time interface, which provides a snapshot of the current status of key business processes as a chart or graph. Dashboards are one of the most prolific and widely used tools for supporting informed and instantaneous decision making. Dashboards are capable of displaying a wide variety of user-defined key performance indicators significant for different departments of an organization. A production dashboard can display the total number of units produced, the average rate of production per hours, number of produced units which failed inspection during a one month period and so on. The key benefit of a dashboard is its capability to be customized to show only the relevant data, which results in significant time savings during the process of decision making. Currently available dashboards are commonly classified into three categories- desktop widgets, web-based applications as well as standalone solutions, which feature spark lines, bullet graphs, pie charts and/or bar charts to represent the data. Dashboards are also capable of being integrated into mobile business intelligence solutions to ensure seamless connectivity irrespective of the user's location.

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)

OLAP tools are designed to help users interactively analyze multidimensional data from multiple perspectives. OLAP as a business intelligence method includes various aspects of data mining and rational reporting. The term Online Analytical Processing is a derivative of OLTP (Online Transaction Processing), which is used in reference to traditional databases. Key analytical operations performed by these tools are- consolidation, drill-down and slice 'n' dice. The consolidation process refers to the aggregation of data to enable its analysis on multiple dimensions. The drill-down technique enables users to navigate through large quantities on data to sort out the relevant data. The slice 'n' dice technique allows users to remove (slice) a particular data set to allow closer inspection (dicing) of the selected data set. Databases with OLAP support utilize a multidimensional data model for supporting rapid execution of both ad-hoc as well as complex analytical queries.

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