Reporting Solutions and Business Intelligence - How to Avoid Implementation Pitfalls

Budgets and resources for improving or implementingMicrosoft Dynamics or other.
a better business intelligence system are tight and willIt should include the back-end (data warehouse),a
be tight for a while despite some signs of an economymodern zero foot print, web based analytics system
recovery.and pre-packaged business solutions to enable you to
On the other hand, senior management and operationalimplement one reporting solution (e.g. sales analysis)
manager need better and faster information,within days and not weeks or months.
preferably with a web based (true zero foot print)You may not get this from the Tier 1 business
analytics and reporting system, particularly for salesintelligence players, as their goal is to sell you as many
reporting and sales analysis.services as possible, some of them are even heavily
So, should you be faced with one or more of thesubsidizing their license fees or even gave the license
following challenges:away for free. DO NOT fall into this trap, you will pay
- Your management is asking for better and fasterlater bitterly for services and maintenance.
sales reporting.Go for medium sized BI vendors who know your
- You want to have better control of your profitERP-system and can provide real value for your
margins.money. To be on the safe side, ask them for a free
- Your existing reporting solution is too static and isPOC (Proof of Concept) with your own data.
missing the flexibility you and your users are looking for.You can get a brilliant BI system like BDA which can
- You would like to introduce web based businessbe implemented in less than one week for under
intelligence and analytics but you do not have the$50,000, so do not spend too much money, only
resources and the budget.because your hardware/data-base provider tries to
- The TOC (total cost of ownership) of your existingsell you their BI-system.
business intelligence or reporting system is too high asBDA includes a modern SQL-Server based data
you need a lot of external and internal resources towarehouse, pre-packaged business applications for a
maintain the system?variety of ERP modules like sales, financials, inventory
The only way to successfully beat these challenges isetc. and a great analysis front-end tool with unlimited
to look for a business intelligence solution whichamount of users with a price point under $50,000
provides out of the box business applications for yourinclusive the implementation of one module like sales
specific ERP system like JD Edwards, SAP, BPCS,analysis.