Indeed, in 2009 business confidence plummeted. While IT overall spending was negative during that time, the BI market still managed to grow 4.2 per cent in 2009. In 2010, the global resurgence from stimulus packages, general improvement in the macro-economy and new product releases contributed to a surge in spending. As a result, 2010 BI software growth accelerated to 13.4 per cent. This sentiment is continuing to be reflected locally with iStart’s 2011 IT investment intentions survey showing BI is under consideration for investment in 45 per cent of businesses.

So why is it that, with CAPEX freezes and drives to slash spending, businesses are investing in BI? It stands to reason.

BI provides businesses with the tools to take all of their corporate data – sales, inventory, finance, customers and production – and turn it into actionable information.

In challenging times, budgets are tight - according to Statistics NZ, between the 2008 and 2010 financial years domestic sales of ICT goods and services remained stable - yet managers still need to ensure that sales quotas are met, production numbers remain constant and that additional expenditure is absolutely necessary.

Increasingly, BI is providing a solution to today’s ‘do more with less’ mantra. BI is all about being smarter and making better business decisions. To inform decision making in a fast changing environment you need:

• Timely, good quality and accurate information
• Fast, easy and intuitive ways to view and analyse that information

Accurate, up-to-date data is available but often in disparate ERP (enterprise resource planning), CRM (customer relationship management), POS (point of sale), finance, asset management and eCommerce systems. What is missing is the ability to query and report on all of this data in a meaningful context, and this is where a BI solution comes into play.

Big BI
“If you put quality information in front of smart people they will make the most prudent decision every time,” says Asj Smith, General Manager - APAC at iQ4bis. “But today’s line and C-level managers neither have the time to do their own searches for data and then crunch the numbers, nor do they have the specialised knowledge to delve deep inside the arcane procedures that characterise too many decision-support systems. To make the best decision in the right timeframe, management needs information served up in an easily-accessible format.”

“In fact,” continues Smith, “that was the overwhelming message that we heard at the recent Microsoft Business Intelligence Summit. We had a booth at the exhibition and had a chance to interact with a number of BI users. The theme for the Summit was ‘transform your data into intelligence.’

Many of the people we spoke with were not BI novices.

They had already invested significant resources into what we characterise as ‘Big BI’, packages that require months and months of implementation services, endless workshops and training sessions and then continual on-going customisation.

And at the end, if indeed there is an end, managers still have to call up the IT team and request static reports which, by definition, contain stale information. Ideally, the most effective BI solution is the one which managers can drive themselves and is fuelled with the freshest information. BI should be able to deliver information at the speed of thought.”

Agility delivers
“If you can measure it, you can manage it.” It’s an old adage that is as true today as it has ever been.

Measurement of dynamic metrics such as daily, if not hourly, sales, production numbers or the number of hours stock sits on the shelf is critical to business success.

The internet has changed everything. The second a customer purchases an item at outlet A, the point of sale system records the transaction, the loyalty programme adds details to the customer’s record, the EFTPOS system takes the funds from their account to your account, stock is deleted from the inventory and a replacement is ordered.

This happens in seconds. What good is a ‘Big BI’ package that summarises the transaction on the 20th of the month when you need that information now?

With BI, inventory can be managed more tightly, special promotions can be assessed for impact at a glance, and the popularity of new colours or models measured to adjust ordering as appropriate. Sales forecasts can be measured with metrics against projections and further refined into business process improvements.

“You need to be looking very carefully at the type of information your managers need to do their jobs more effectively,” concludes Smith. “Chances are you already have the data floating around in your various enterprise applications. Then you need to look for a BI platform that can access, collate and deliver that information to your managers in an interface that they can drive themselves.

And if your ‘Big BI’ application isn’t set up for self-service, then you should be looking for a more agile solution that sits on top of your current system and provides a clearer window into your databases. Those solutions exist…you just need to know where to look.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION//

Asj Smith            
General Manager- APAC
iQ4bis Management Software Limited
+64 9 366 2635
Visit our website www.iQ4bis.com


 








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