Business Intelligence

There are many ways to improve the performance of your business. One of the most popular ways today, is to make use of the whole plethora of tools known as BI or business intelligence. Using business intelligence gives you the ability to be one step ahead of the competition. This short article covers some of the issues surrounding implementing BI.

By Graham Baylis

There are many ways to improve the performance of your business. One of the most popular ways today, is to make use of the whole plethora of tools known as BI or business intelligence. Using business intelligence gives you the ability to be one step ahead of the competition. It is of course vital that you have a properly thought out business intelligence strategy in place before you begin.

Preparation is the key to success in anything and this is especially so when setting out your business plan and future goals.

How Can BI Help Your Business

So how can business intelligence help your business? At some point in their careers, most business owners have found themselves completely in the dark about facts and figures of how the business is going, how much stock there is and what state the cash flow is in. The problem is that the business is growing, you are working ever more hours just to keep everything moving and you haven’t got the time to spend going over all the facts and figures, so it is all a bit vague and approximate until you find yourself either with too much stock and not enough cash, or not enough stock to fulfil an important order.

Know The Facts and Figures

You need to be able to have all the facts and figures available whenever you need them so that you are fully aware of what is going on at any time. This is where dashboards, analytics, CRM software, performance management, olap, data mining, data warehousing etc come into their own. All the information you need will be at your fingertips when you need it. You will need to find a good business intelligence company to help you set up exactly what you need to operate your business. They should be able to tailor the correct software to your requirements and only give you what you actually need.

Know Your Data and Keep Your Business Ahead

By having all the data to hand, you have a greater chance of getting your business ahead and staying ahead. All the information can be broken down to whatever you want, so if you need to see how certain lines are selling, how a particular branch is doing or how your customer services are coping, you can find this out with ease. That way, you can promote slow moving stock, further train staff where needed and make sure that all your customers are kept happy.

Up to date information and data is vital to the running and management of any company, now with business intelligence, you can have the tools that will make this easy for you. This will give you more time to devote to running the company rather than chasing facts and figures and better still will allow you to make decisions based on fact and not on gut feel.

Graham Baylis has been in business for many years now and understands the importance of Business Intelligence. BI is all about making sure that a business owner knows what is going on in their business. This is just what Contemporary a leader in the field of Business Objects offers. Training, hardware and software can all be provided. See http://www.contemporary.co.uk for BI advice and information.