BIntel

I have posted the same article on my blog here. you can also read my other articles. Recently I went through the website of Qliktech and read where it says "And unlike traditional BI, QlikView delivers immediate value with payback measured in days or weeks rather than months, years, or not at all.". It made me think for a while. what are they referring to ? Do they mean Qlikview as a BI solution can be implemented in weeks? Are they talking only about small department level deployments or just the development phase of the BI project life cycle or is it just a sales pitch? I am just wondering how much part a tool plays in a BI project Implementation life cycle and how does a tool effect the...

align="center"> You’ve likely heard the term dashboard as it relates to your car. However, it is also a term that is used in business to describe a web-based technology page which provides a real-time analysis of a business operation. In the same way that your car dashboard displays how your vehicle is performing, the dashboard of a business shows how it is performing. Well, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has its own dashboard now and it allows them to track how much is spent on Medicare patients in hospitals. The expectation is that more data will eventually be added, but for now this new interactive CMS dashboard is geared toward helping the public visualize and analyze...

A true "enterprise" system should handle virtually every operational, financial and clinical aspect of a provider's business in one fully integrated database. The system will handle all of the Provider's service and product lines including HME, respiratory, nutritional, infusion and/or home care agency, providing one common patient record, common financials and enterprise-wide reporting capabilities. An enterprise system should be able to manage every aspect of the business, from patient intake right through the delivery of the product to the patient's home. This should include the various steps that it takes to make it all happen such as purchasing, inventory control, equipment maintenance tracking...

Performance dashboards are very advantageous to companies that are utilizing them. This is because with just a single tool, owners can measure, keep track and manage the business. By simply glancing at the data being provided by the performance dashboard, it is possible that you will get the idea of how well your business is performing. There are various programs that you can use so that you can start designing your dashboard. However, even professionals get stuck at one point in time when creating the corporate performance measurement system. This is why this calls for dashboard coaching. There are three main types of performance dashboard and they are the executive, the analytical and the...

Basic BI Reporting In my previous articles I hinted at the breadth and value that BI reporting can deliver and how this can revolutionise your business. Even businesses with existing BI can benefit from a BI overhaul if some time has passed since the initial implementation or there has been a significant change in the trading climate (e.g. a recession). Joe's Garage has flourished, despite the tough climate, and is the most successful garage in his part of the city. Joe has used BI to aid his decision making and has reaped the rewards. He has worked closely with a BI consultant and together they have developed a comprehensive suite of reports that Joe now considers as useful as any tool he uses to...

ign="center"> The outsourcing industry will feel the result of the economic crisis in the next two years, based from the observation and study of Frost & Sullivan in it's Contact Center Outsourcing Trends in the Asia Pacific Market. With this reason, outsourcers must have plans of business strategies to maintain their business growth in times of global economic predicament. The estimated proceeds of The Asia Pacific contact center in 2009 was US$13.7 Billion. Most of the profits came from the markets of Philippines, India, Malaysia and China, which contributes more than 54% of the total market revenues. Although outsourcers in countries like Philippines, Malaysia and China have achieved momentous...

An enterprise application means an application which supports any multi-divisional organization. A multi-divisional organization stands for an organization with data and services that enable business oriented and certain specific functions. Such applications use to integrate multiple technologies like database access, mail services, business processes and many other enterprise level applications. Several interacting departments of any entity which performs different functions make an EA. This entity may compose of several departments such as sales, human resources, marketing, development, customer support and Information Technology. .net developers use to develop such EA software because of the...

The data is in the system! Yes, that's right. Whatever you want to know about your business, your customers' spending patterns, your stock level, your financial performance, your customers' profile, and many other questions you want answered. Citibank, in an article published in 6 Dec 2005 of Singapore Digital Life, reveals that theyuse the data in their system to identify customers who fit their assumptions of the potential customer base like age, salary and spending behaviour. Business Intelligence is not confined to BIG companies. A specialised system normally can cost tens and hundreds of thousands. But there are always alternative and the solution is right in your computer. Excel is a powerful...

All human behavior is founded in attitudes, which in turn is formulated from thoughts. It is reasonable therefore to derive that the style of thinking adopted by an organization ultimately leads to its behavior, and its outcomes. There are three main thinking styles: 1. Vertical Thinking - an outmoded linear deductive style of thinking that presumes that what is not proven right, is wrong, and to be right, everything else must be proven wrong. 2. Parallel Thinking - a term introduced by Edward de Bono, is a more collaborative style of thinking, where multiple streams of investigation are carried out in the same direction, seeking the most acceptable outcome. Agreement between multiple parties is...

This article will provide a top-level overview of data visualization, and is divided into the following sections: 1. Definition of data visualization. 2. Purpose of data visualization. 3. The role of data visualization within the business intelligence stack. Definition of Data Visualization: The term "data visualization" is self-descriptive, in that it literally means the visualization of data. Information is displayed in a clear, graphical manner to a user, who can then assimilate and interpret that data quickly. Of course, how efficient this interpretation occurs depends on how well the data has been analyzed and then visualized. Purpose of Data Visualization: The purpose of data visualization is...

To combat Wal-Mart's dominance, grocery chains are starting to merge, which could pose a problem for IT departments. According to a report from the IHL Consulting Group, grocery chains are struggling with the lackluster performance of many loyalty programs due to the amount of legacy hardware and software at the store level. The report says point-of-sale hardware is a good area for grocery IT spending. Read this article on how business intelligence could help in the way customer data is viewed. Retail is an industry where the old 80/20 rule certainly applies. Many retailers make most of their money from a relatively small group of core customers. Loyalty programs were created as a way to make those...

A company that takes too much time to respond to a change in the business environment is susceptible to a shortfall of profits. Sometimes it may result in loss of market share due to a competitor already in the process of implementing the strategy which was being planned by the company. It may also happen that the company may have to shut down or prune some of its business lines due to the inability to oversee changes in market behavior or a breakthrough in technology leading to the current technology capabilities becoming obsolete. Companies following stringent procedures, in terms of having a strong research capability, a strategic planning system in place, proper business intelligence tools to...

Every single day, tons of data pour in for your business. This is why you have to manage them well. Otherwise, it could lead to problems such as data loss and even leakage. Planning out the processes will improve the performance of your company. In order to do this, you need to review all the information that you have gathered. This can be quite difficult especially for those who are running a large enterprise. However, everything can be simplified when you purchase dashboard tool. Having your own dashboard solution that is appropriate and effective for your company will eventually lead to the attainment of your goals. If you are wondering whether you need to purchase dashboard tool, the answer is...

You may have heard about many organizations using dashboard solution company, which they believe really helps them in their business. Do not rush into buying such when you still do not know what this is all about. This is important so that you will become aware how you are going to use this for your company. So what exactly is a dashboard solution company? This is an intuitive, customizable, flexible and web based software that allows you to get information about many facts about your company. If you implement the dashboard software company into your organization, you will be able to view the performance metrics as well as the other critical measures in a dashboard setting. This also has the skill...

Construction Management Software systems are typically designed for Enterprise configurations, which usually include Executive Dashboard modules geared for quick views of every facet of the business; generally in real-time data. Executives of large companies and corporations do not want to be bogged down with a lot of confusing details, so Executive Dashboards most often include the primary business indicators; either specifically designed for the business, or from preset module component preferences built into the software. For example, executives at very top levels might need to see only the rolled up Profit and Loss indicators; sales reports; yearly or monthly comparisons, and perhaps current...

ign="center"> Some people understand things quicker when it is visually attractive. If your boss also falls into that category then use SharePoint Visio Services to present your complicated data, network diagrams, or process flows, in a visually attractive way! Yes, briefly speaking, Visio Services can complement your existing Business Intelligence tools through visualizing your data processes. Take advantage of SharePoint Visio Services and other useful features of SharePoint 2010 hosting, SharePoint Foundation hosting or SharePoint Server 2010 - with shared or dedicated hosting by a SharePoint 2010 hosting provider. Visio Services resolve the problems such as information overload. Visio Services...

If you believe that performance management is one of the most important activities that your company should accomplish, then you will need a good system that will enable you to do so. One of which is the web-based dashboard solution which is a piece of software that allows you to keep track of the efficiency of the processes performed by the staff and the procedures that are included in the business strategies. In today's world, you will notice that almost everyone would like to have their own business. This is why even though you have been in the industry for quite a long time, you should not be overconfident that your rivals will not surpass you. There are quite a number of companies that are not...

"We just invested more than 200,000 Euro into this new IT solution, but we didn't get much in return!" is a typical phrase of our clients. My list of IT projects that companies invested while failing to achieve planned benefits is getting longer and longer. For many companies, promising IT initiatives started with beautiful sales presentations which made decision makers become excited and hope that the solution will address many of their problems. But in the end, the ambitious initiatives became a taboo topic within the organization because original objectives haven't been met and the new system is underutilized. After failure employees may blame limitations of the system, but if we look deeper into...

You are familiar with the expression, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste". If you have a business oriented mind, in order to be a huge success, you must be up to date on your business training. Whether you are already employed in a business career field or whether you are seeking employment, you could use some business courses to pick up added skills. Now, there are business courses offered both online and classroom based for students in the UK, France, USA and elsewhere. The online training offers business videos which make it a lot easier to get an education--especially for some students who would have a difficult time with the transit from home to school an is unable for whatever reason to live...

You've decided to measure your customer satisfaction (smart choice) and now you're wondering what you should include in the survey. Obviously, selecting the right questions is essential if you want to get meaningful results for your efforts. In this article I won't be able to give you a magic recipe for building your specific survey, but I will outline the essential components. My objective is to offer you some basic guidelines which have been proven over many years of experience. Hopefully that way you won't forget anything important along the way. At the end I will also try and give some advice which should significantly improve the return on your customer satisfaction investment. Every well...

Project Management is not new. It is as old as we are. The projects such as the great pyramid of Giza, a monumental structure and Architecture structures during Greek & Roman era shows that people were using project management many years ago. They might not use the latest and greatest tools we have today, but that shows that they have used some sort of mechanism to complete their projects. Organizations regardless of their size perform projects. These projects are planned, executed and controlled to realize the business objectives. This might be to develop a new product or new service or to develop a new business or to meet Legal needs or even to address social problems. In simple terms, we can...

We cannot deny that reports are important for businesses. This is why there are several companies all over the world that strive to ensure that they are able to use the correct solution for the creation of their reports. For those that are using the Windows Forms appellation, they can utilize the Windows Forms report tool. As the name implies, this is a piece of software that is generally intended for the process of designing, modifying and creating the reports for the business. Aside from this, you can also customize the options and the appearance of your project when it comes to printing Windows Forms reports. It is easy to utilize the Windows Forms report tool because there is the fool proof...

Oracle Reports, Oracle Discoverer, Oracle XML Publisher, RXi Report, FSG Reports, Business Intelligence System In this article we are going to show some tools that can be used to develop reports to Oracle e-Business Suite. Most of organizations that have installed Oracle Applications have their data base systems with a lot of data about their business. However their data is trapped inside the database, being very difficult to find it and to convert into valuable information, very important to make decisions to run the business. Knowing all the problems regarding reporting, Oracle has a number of offerings helping organizations to solve the reporting needs they have. Some of these tools are part of...

lass="bottom-link"> Oracle Applications, in the eve of Oracle Fusion, is very efficient platform for being supported remotely, sometimes referred as offshore, nearshore or outsourced. The majority of Oracle E-Business clients have basic set of modules, also referred as Oracle Financials. Let’s take a look at outsourcing options and pitfalls Oracle Applications, in the eve of Oracle Fusion, is very efficient platform for being supported remotely, sometimes referred as offshore, nearshore or outsourced. The majority of Oracle E-Business clients have basic set of modules, also referred as Oracle Financials. Let’s take a look at outsourcing options and pitfalls. - Central Worldwide...

The HCAHPS system isn't just designed to compare and inform about hospitals. The truth of the matter is that medicare has incorporated the HCAHPS results into their value based purchasing system, which directly links hospital's reimbursement payments to their patient experience scores. For most hospitals in the United States this represents between $300.000 and $2.000.000 a year in revenue received from medicare. As you can see, this is not a trivial matter for hospital management. The truth is that improving HCAHPS scores is a major priority for healthcare organizations. If your objective is to establish your organization as "Hospital of Choice" in your area, it is essential that you launch a...

Automatic Forex trading technology is the latest trend on the market. This software actually acts as a real human being that does trading job. It can be labeled as one of the business intelligence system that is capable for decision making. FAP turbo system does not just assist but also helps decide on trades. You do not need to have an in depth knowledge about trading because this technology can work on its own. In just a matter of plug and play, you will be able to enjoy trading without giving so much effort. Since its release last July 14, 2009, it has already been one of the much talk about technology in the trading market. This was by the way developed by the renowned software designer Steve...

any times does this happen in your company? You go to a meeting about sales performance, and Marketing says they think sales are up 3.5%, but the merchants disagree and say sales are up 6.3%. The specific numbers in this example aren’t important; the point is that the two figures aren’t even close. That’s the reality in most companies today. Or, say management has tasked you with developing a report and you try and go back to prior results, maybe from a season or two ago. How many different versions of the sales, purchase and inventory plans are there? Which ones are the actual and which were prior versions? Some readers might say we could do a better job of controlling and...

The branch of science dealing with performance management is called CPM- corporate performance management. In order for any business to be able to effectively starting managing KPI (key performance indicators) they must first decide what these are actually going to be. However when selecting them a business should limit themselves to those factors which they consider to be essential to the business in order for it to achieve its goals. Another important thing when choosing your KPI's in order to manage them effectively is a business should keep them to a very small number. By doing this a business is more likely to be able to keep everyone who is involved in the business attention focused on what...

Over the last 5 or so years, there seems to be an ever-increasing number of organisations that are creating a new role in the corporate office: the Performance Measurement Officer. Actually, the title of this role varies from organisation to organisation, and where exactly in the organisation structure that role is placed also varies. Titles for performance measure facilitator positions have included Performance Measurement Officer, Performance Measurement Director, Manager Performance Measurement, Corporate Planning and Performance Reporting Officer, Corporate Performance Management Coordinator and Manager Planning and Performance. Most often the person in this role of performance measure...

In the spirit of Web 2.0 organizations worldwide have begun charting their performance for all to see, using online interactive dashboards replete with pie charts and color-coded diagrams that measure and track progress in different parts of the enterprise. Interactive mashups, dashboards and data visualizations increase visibility into every part of the enterprise from human resources, to finance to strategic initiatives. Enterprise mashups and data visualization are becoming increasing popular because of their ability to support new "Web 2.0 like' application requirements instead of traditional HTML-based web portal software resulting in faster development and a rich, interactive, user driven...

"Trust, but verify" This is a quote from Horatio Caine (played by David Caruso) in the popular CBS series CSI Miami. It was also the signature phrase of President Ronald Reagan when discussing relations with the Soviet Union. As small business owners, many of you tend to rely on gut feelings to make some important decisions. A less charitable way of looking at it is that you are making those decisions based on emotional feelings such as ego, insecurity, fear and greed. Some of those decisions can make or break a SMB such as yours. It is prudent to challenge those decisions by collecting more facts and figures. Decisions, decisions Let us take an example. If you need to make decisions about where and...

Opportunities for finance The finance department sits at the heart of any organization. Part of its job is to collect, disseminate and analyze financial and non-financial information - a somewhat time-consuming and laborious process. Finance can therefore be a powerful agent of organizational change. It can use the information that it collects to assist decision-making, achieve objectives, and avoid problems. However, a lot of finance departments are spending too much time and effort creating financial documentation, and not enough time analyzing their data. This is where Business Intelligence comes to the rescue. Adopting BI practices frees the finance team from manual data collection and report...

What should you look for in IT schools? Start with these five criteria, based on 2006 IT education trend predictions by the National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies. Educational podcasting Podcasting delivers audio content on demand. The beauty of this emerging technology is that it allows you to save content digitally and replay it at your convenience, even when you're not online. When you're researching IT schools, look for those that offer podcasts so you can listen to lectures, notes, and interviews wherever you go. Several well-known schools offer podcast series, including Duke University and Stanford University. Hybrid IT education Though many with IT degrees choose to work in IT...

Getting Arrow up and running was a simple and straightforward process. In about a half hour we installed and configured the 35 MB single MSI file by following the free online documentation. We wouldn't have thought free documentation was a big deal until we discovered that some other companies charge for their documentation. The instructions guided us step-by-step through copying the SetupArrow.msi file to our SharePoint front end web server and executing the MSI. We then added Arrow web parts just like any other web parts, and there were a total of eight under the category Windward Web Parts. After this we installed AutoTag which automatically detected the components that were already on our system...

"Dimensions, measures, slicers? What are you talking about?" If you are licensed for Dynamics GP Advanced Management, you have access to a powerful analytical reporting tool; Analysis Cubes. Analysis Cubes has been part of the Great Plains systems for several years. It allows you to quickly access information and analyze it in ways that you previously may have not considered. It also provides a strong link to live data through Excel, so you can create reusable reports and refresh the data with one click. Analysis Cubes is easy to install. You just need to install Analysis Services on your SQL Server, if you have not already done so. Then install the Analysis Cubes software (there's a server piece...

The .net report tool is not as complicated as most people think. It just presents a more elaborate report on the business's statistics. The .net report tool is an enterprise reporting system that encompasses the processes when it comes to designing and generating the distribution of reports. As long as these are simple ways used to represent the company data, then the invoices that are included in the reports are considered to be very important for the net excel report. The inventory tallies and financial statements are also considered to be the basis of the net sql server. Along with the customer account summaries and the product usage reports, the certificates and letters are the effective...

As any company or person working in the Middle East /Africa region will tell you, customer service can be extremely frustrating, or at times even none existent. However as the region is experiencing an explosion in growth and Direct Foreign Investment DFI, the government as well as companies are realizing more and more the importance of improving its customer relationship standards. Market factors such as liberalization and increased competition, coupled with growing populations around the region, mean that services and the concept of customer service are coming under increased scrutiny. In its deliberation around services, the Middle East can look to European market analysis for some compelling...

Running a business is a lot easier and can be more effective by using powerful tools or applications. On demand business suites and Office Desktop application are some of the tools you may need to make it happen. Both applications are proven to be effective tool to expedite and organize your business. But if you were thinking which is more effective, I have listed several features of each application to help you decide which way to go to. On demand Business Suites Efficient operation is essential to your customer. This is one feature that On Demand Business Suites offer; it will help you streamline your operations. Automate your business process across your entire business. Consolidate entire...

div align="center"> If your team has difficulty managing and maintain Excel workbooks developed over the years for your business, then it can benefit from the convenience provided by SharePoint Excel Services. SharePoint’s Excel Services, first introduced in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, is a service application that enables you to load, calculate, and display Microsoft Excel workbooks on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. Excel Services help you to reuse and share Excel workbooks on SharePoint Server 2010 portals and dashboards. For instance, financial analysts, business planners, etc. can create content in Excel sheets and share it with others by using a SharePoint...

Stop and ask yourself if your IT infrastructure systems are overloaded and maxed out with an excess of agents, tools and databases from all your various clients and vendors? Are you even aware of the precise amount of IT assets that you even have? Where are they and just how are they being used? What about your systems outside your firewall protection? How are they being managed? Perhaps the systems and technology you are currently employing has become obsolete or you may have simply outgrown it. In either case, LANDesk offers a solution in the form of the simplicity and sensibility of a single console configuration management software tool that will allow you to lessen the quantity of client and...

To become a good data warehouse expert with MS SQL server 2008, we need to first understand the roles and responsibilities of a person in this job. That too, when it comes to Microsoft SQL server suite, we need to first understand the various set of tools that come under the scope of MS BI. The basic features required for implementing business intelligence are the SQL server database engine, MS SSIS, MS SSAS, and MS SSRS. A data warehouse (DWH) is a collection of data, structured and designed for further querying, decision making, data mining and knowledge discovery. A DWH consists of one or more data marts, the data in data marts is brought from online analytical transaction system or any legacy...

Upgrading the platform (on reporting side atleast, not to mix with ETL side) is often straight forward and easy. You may encounter a bug or a minor glitch which will either have a bug fix or at least a work around solution. Its often a good idea to wait couple of week after release of upgrade platform so that most common bugs are reported and a solution available. That being said, same may not be true about upgrading the pre-built business intelligence applications. We recently performed upgrade from version 7.9.2 to version 7.9.6.1. The process is complex and time consuming, can take weeks if not months depending on magnitude of customizations and scope of existing implementation. We had to upgrade...

Advanced Business Information & Analytics Pvt Ltd , a premier name in Business Intelligence solutions launched their B2B information portal Dataguru.in is a one-stop-shop for all the information needs of the new age Sales/Marketing & Research professionals who are on a constant lookout for innovative and reliable source of accurate & insightful business information on the Indian market. Dataguru.in is a "Resource Suite" which gives instant access to Detailed Company profiles- Background, Business Desciption, Products & services , contact details ; Executive information- biographies,contacts and corporate email ids; Business Analysis- Detailed company financials, Key ratios, Peer...

SAP NetWeaver is an integrated technology platform which provides seamless integration of different systems and business processes reducing the overall cost of ownership of information technology for an enterprise. To better compete in today's brutal markets, it is important for companies, to constantly evolve their business processes for efficiently serving their customers. SAP NetWeaver not only helps build efficiency in business processes, but also helps them make reliable and robust. The best part of SAP NetWeaver is that it integrates business processes and applications from any source. SAP NetWeaver makes this possible through application integration and development in both ABAP and JAVA. SAP...

There are 3 main approaches for managing a company. The first approach is based on planning for the short term. The organization that plans it's steps for the short term survives mainly from it's current customers. It tries to improve it's products or services by modifying them a bit according to demands come from potential customers. However, it doesn't put too much effort on it. The second approach based on planning for the medium term (not longer then one year). Organization that plans it's steps for for the medium term survives from it's current customers and customers referred to it. Such organization conducts market research to see how to adapt the product or the services to the changing...

Taking our inspiration for a post from a discussion on the Business Intelligence & Analytics Group on LinkedIn, we thought about whether Business Intelligence should be controlled primarily by the IT department or people from business functions. Divided opinions First of all, it's important to remember that the answer to this question depends on the type of BI provided. For example, in house specialists are vital for traditional BI software, which require code to be written for each query as well as servers to be maintained and software to be integrated. SaaS BI is delivered over the internet so there is no software to install, no servers to maintain and no integration to be done. It is intuitive to...

ign="center"> With so many dashboard tools available in the market, how do you find which one works best? What are these .Net Dashboard tools? Everyone who is updated with the recent business tools and terms are well aware of what dashboards are. For those who don’t know however, these are visual presentations in the forms of graphs and chart which are combined in order to produce a real time result. A company’s dashboard can be compared to that of a car since it displays important information which are easily and quickly understood how the vehicle is operating. As such, company dashboards also do the same task and in addition, they let the business owners know what it is that could be...

ign="center"> In recent years, it has become easier for business to set up, establish, and expand. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is that there is a wealth of financial resources even to small and medium sized businesses. It is no longer a requirement to invest large sums of money or excessive manpower in order to achieve certain business goals. One example of this is in the area of financial planning and budgeting. This is of a particular advantage because there is too much information lost within the business system using normal practices and methods. As a result, there are opportunities missed out by the business simply because they went undetected. It is also very difficult to sort...

> With its purchase of the New Zealand-based Weka open source data mining project, Pentaho demonstrates its commitment to providing a comprehensive open source business intelligence suite, according to a company spokesperson. A Ventana Research analyst confirms that the move is a good thing, noting that data mining is one of the top BI capabilities that users look for. Weka team members aren't disappointed either, according to this piece, which says the project has grown such that it needs commercial-grade support and resources to continue. Open source business intelligence software vendor Pentaho snagged a customer from SAP Business Objects recently when Delta Dental of Virginia agreed to use...