Something I find many folks don’t know, at least on one level or another: most of today’s business intelligence (BI) solutions have been designed and built with integration into Microsoft Office in mind. Arguably, Excel is the main medium to which most BI information is exported (or in some cases, it can be the BI
Read More...First off: wow. I wouldn’t have guessed that Business Intelligence (BI) requirements gathering was such a popular topic. I say this becuase since I wrote my first post on the subject, about 20% of this blog’s daily traffic comes to us via search strings related to BI requirements gathering. Clearly, people understand the importance –
Read More...But don’t let the title fool you. I am not one of those Business Intelligence (BI) consultants who thoroughly bashes and discounts Excel. I think Excel is a flexible, powerful tool that has almost limitless uses and value. In fact, before becoming a convert to enterprise BI, I used Excel to create the world’s greatest
Read More...(click to enlarge) Requirements gathering. So many organizations don’t realize this is often where success in a Business Intelligence (BI) deployment lives or dies. When it comes to BI, we have all heard that BI is more than just simple reporting. That’s become the BI vendor’s mantra. However, the challenge we see all the time
Read More...We previously discussed the basics of business intelligence and why companies – even in a down economy – should choose a BI tool. Today, we will explore a scenario that’s commonly talked about: having PeopleSoft ERP and Oracle BI applications happily coexist and thrive. First, the ERP side. PeopleSoft is a world-class ERP system and
Read More...For many, the notion of Business Intelligence (BI) is simply means a reporting tool or the ho-hum ability to extract data from a source system. However, with today’s technology having moved way past BI’s introductory stigma, enterprise BI is another animal entirely. Certainly reporting is part of the equation, but there are key differences between
Read More...In my last post, I tried to lay the foundation for the value of aligning business metrics to make all areas of your business more strategic and value-rich. Let’s see if I can take it a step further by way of illustration. Let’s assume a scenario involving a roadway construction company. The top priority corporate
Read More...In last week’s post, we discussed embedding Business Intelligence (BI) into the business process in order to create a workflow that is more value-add and beneficial. Now that we have explored that concept, I want to look at BI as a mechanism to make all areas of business strategic and value-add. So, work with me
Read More...In my last post, we took a look at what BI is and isn’t and how it can really be used to make real-world business decisions. I promised you an example to help illustrate my point, so here we go. Let’s take a buyer of raw materials in a production facility. If that buyer is
Read More...There’s mainly one question being tossed around these days, at least as we hear it: how do companies not only survive but improve during times of economic recession? One tool that can certainly assist is Business Intelligence (BI). When one says BI, there are many reactions from “what is that?” to “oh right, you mean
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