| The data is in the system! Yes, that's right. Whatever | | | | capture has already changed. Therefore, a lot of |
| you want to know about your business, your | | | | people resort to using Excel to present the information |
| customers' spending patterns, your stock level, your | | | | they need to their bosses. And without good Excel |
| financial performance, your customers' profile, and | | | | Skills, it is going to be a painful process for them. |
| many other questions you want answered. | | | | You can make use of readily available worksheet |
| Citibank, in an article published in 6 Dec 2005 of | | | | functions to transform those raw data from the |
| Singapore Digital Life, reveals that theyuse the data in | | | | system, present them as useful business information |
| their system to identify customers who fit their | | | | used for making critical business decisionand planning. |
| assumptions of the potential customer base like age, | | | | For those working in big corporations, you do not have |
| salary and spending behaviour. | | | | to rely on your IT department to generate the reports |
| Business Intelligence is not confined to BIG companies. | | | | for you. You will learn how to analyse those data using |
| A specialised system normally can cost tens and | | | | readily available function provided by Excel. |
| hundreds of thousands. But there are always | | | | For SME, you do not need a powerful BI system to |
| alternative and the solution is right in your computer. | | | | get what the big companies are getting. Using Excel, |
| Excel is a powerful BI tool that is commonly used in | | | | you can make the data become valuable to your |
| Europe and US. The question is: Do you know how? | | | | business without the need to purchase any software. |
| Using Excel, a travel agency was able to profile their | | | | All you need is to make Excel comes in power and |
| customers using the data they have diligently captured | | | | you will be able to gain insights into your business like |
| into Gilboa, a travel management system. They were | | | | never before. |
| able to identify their niche and to allocate the optimal | | | | A combination of Excel and MsQuery provide the |
| amount of resources to grow their customer base. | | | | most direct way to tap into databases and retrieve |
| And they spent only a fraction of the cost big | | | | those information real-time so that you could prepare |
| companies are paying because they use tools they | | | | your report with ease. I used to use Excel to tap into |
| already owned, that is, Microsoft Excel. | | | | our accounting database server directly and create |
| For big companies, an expensive system does not | | | | my financial statements. When it is set up, I just need |
| necessary mean they are able to get the data they | | | | to open the file and the statements will be refreshed |
| want. From system design to implementation will take | | | | without me having to do anything. It makes closing the |
| at least 6 month and as long as 2 years. By the time | | | | account a breeze for me. |
| the system is launched, the business environment | | | | Is the evidence strong enough for you to use Excel as |
| would have changed and the information they need to | | | | a tool for business intelligence? |