Business Intelligence & Software - The Complete Guide
Are Information technology solutions for your Business what Spice Boxes are to Chefs ?
DATA is like the Oil for your business, so imagine what would happen if you were to use bad quality oil for cooking, the platform you store and process them aka on site servers/cloud etc. which are the backbone that keep the gears of any business in motion are not the right fit?
Hence the way you capture, treat, and utilize this very drop of DATA from inception to completion, decides the fate of your journey !
Menu crafting : It all boils down to what IT Solutions , the Integration , end product deliverance expectations.
Usage and Applications: How much of each ingredient / tools are we using i.e. are we making the optimal and right Usage of them all, Workflow Process Maps, Data Capture, Processing.....? Finally are we aptly applying final production i.e. the premium dish of the menu aka reporting, analysis and analytics of your business that churns out from the systems to make those big turn around success story in the market and make an impact on the economic cycle?
Now first let’s start making sense of these reputed Jargons, although by now every task you perform is plugged onto some form of technology to run it and you also may be familiar with the age-old term ERP solutions like the SAP, Oracle Financials or Accounting Solutions Tally, Focus, Quickbooks, Social Media Marketing tools and CRM solutions like Salesforce, etc...so a rewind into what they are, the challenges that we face imbibing and advantages ?
ERP-Enterprise Resource Planning: ref. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qys-562kp4
Although most comment that the full form of ERP makes no sense to what it actually delivers, somehow it does, how?
Well, to start with, it’s a complete end to end umbrella solution for your business operations connecting all departments administrative functions e.g. Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Sales & Marketing, HR, Finance, Point of Sale, Procurement, etc. making them talk to each other sharing a database giving a cohesive, interrelated, homogeneous vision of Operations, improvising the way you conduct and manage your Business including Internal Controls and Compliance management. Hence, it is guiding you in planning the resources be it human, time or kind needed to get a particular task order executed Vs having no clue to gauge the actual time, manpower, resources needed to process a task and going by your gut nor have the real-time view on progress status until the customer calls and complaints or questions?
ERP is an exciting business tool, a data warehouse for any company sharing information amongst business functions across the entire organization ,creating a Centralized Data Architecture for real-time smooth-running operations and controls on due diligence.
Ref. link for SAP/HANA
As we have discussed above that day to day business functions workflow processes creates an overwhelming amount and variety of data. The reason why we capture data and store it is to use it for analyzing what is happening in your business, what worked and did not? What needs to be fixed and make those strategic decisions for a profitable business .
Now in order to do this you need advanced tools like BI to rotate this information collected into actionable insights.
Ref. video that sum it up well! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDJdkcdG1iA
Business intelligence (BI) and its extensions—business analytics and data analytics—are all data management solutions , the tools that help you comprehend historical and present time data .
It is the foundation for strategic decision-making , a comprehensive view of your organizations DATA that assists you to steer the gears for change, eliminate inefficiencies, and quickly adapt to market or supply changes.
It aligns along with the Data Centre or ERP collecting, and analyzing the data to optimize performance through the performance benchmarks, spot market trends,and closer look on existing compliances and internal controls.
However, what is the difference between these solutions and which one is right for your business needs?
BI - Business Intelligence Analysis focuses on descriptive analytics- Past and Present
The data sources used to build BI include Customer relationship management (CRM) systems, Supply chain information, Sales performance dashboards, Marketing analytics, Call center data, etc. on one dashboard giving you the necessary insights and analytics to see ‘what’ and ‘how’ happened and is happening now for you to either recreate what worked for your business or change .
So for example let’s assume you sell Ayurvedic medicinal products through an online store . BI provides helpful reports of the past and current state of your business giving you deeper insight that the sales of the immunity booster have spiked in Europe the past three weeks and a slow moving trough trend down Southeast Asia . As a result, you decide to focus the demand and supply looking at both areas and leverage out your production line.
BA- Business analytics focuses Predictive Analysis, Future based on past :
ref. video https://youtu.be/aeHqYLgZP84
It refers to the practice of using your company’s data to anticipate trends and outcomes.
BA includes data mining, statistical analysis, that help make more informed decisions giving you insights on what will happen . It drives the data-driven changes to the business, providing actionable recommendations for the future, focusing on how to apply the insights derived from data into your planning and forecasting for the future.
So looking at the same example if an online store, BA will ask why did sales of immunity booster spike in Europe and what caused the slump down SouthEast Asia? By mining your website data, you learn that a majority of traffic has come from a campaign run by a local Health Products Survey company who did a sampling survey on consumption of similar products and their effects post 6 months . Whereas in Southeast Asia the local culture of herbal medicines itself is so reliable that entering this region will command more strategic push from a product and marketing angle.
This insight helps you decide to send complimentary boxes of the immunity booster to a few other prominent Health Shops and Market Research Agencies. It further supports in revisiting your product line, all areas of marketing efforts applied , PR, digital marketing , website and SEO management etc. costs associated, what changes are now needed to align them all accordingly to maximise your ROI's
Data Scientists/Analytics is more on the technical aspect, expertise of Data Scientists :
So again with the same example here they study if people are using your website, identifying trends in traffic, analyzing visitor demographics, and maybe even creating a system for tracking how customers click through different pages.
It gets deeper into the technical aspect–Prescriptive-What If Analysis: A process of mining data, transforming and cleaning data, and building the systems to manage data "Data Modelling". They take large quantities of data to find trends and solve problems. Data analytics is used across disciplines, from the government to science. It’s not just confined to business applications.
ref. video to sum it up : https://youtu.be/YfE9jBq002s
Adapting IT Solution Challenges : Merging the 2 worlds i.e. the IT solutions provider and the end user business organizations operations and management as each one is best in their core unaware of hands on challenges and benefits of completing a task at either ends.
Overload of all possible IT solutions tools offered but do not have the right skills or time to comprehend, leverage the best fit and optimise ROI by usage.
What ,Why and How does it matter the functioning of my organization? How will these IT solutions performance along with the manner in which my organisation is imbibing and applying affect my bottom line for growth, meeting the market demand and supply giving a rippling effect to the Economic Cycle?
Through the years, having worked with both ends of the world in varied sectors and industries i.e. solution providers and business houses, have always noticed most end users being uncomfortable with adapting technology advancements to support their work functions or although, they are equipped with the top solution platforms for running every departmental operations the usage is not optimized!
Why so? Well, the reason being gap of product knowledge and confidence relayed by the IT Solution provider as there is an offload of all possible useful features , however these cannot be expected to be absorbed by every one in the time frame set. Also the trainer might not have enough user level operational challenges understanding i.e. not speaking in language easy for department wise end user to adapt so end user believes that an alien has landed at work which they don’t understand how to optimize usage, as there is a gap in the right comprehension of the tools and trainings offered.
Alternatively, there are these actual gaps, bugs , system glitches resulting from the errors in mapping the real-time Business operational pockets with the ERP or Software Solution tools pockets , overlooked at the time of implementation and testing phase, that lead to end-user level frustrations in Business houses.
In another scenario the glitches have been identified post implementation and are constantly following up with the Solution Provider to fix it, but in vain as you are not speaking in the language to get the right message across .
Another biggest challenges faced is the SILO mentality wherein, groups across departments do not share the right or key in complete information on that one database they are working to complete the task so operate as separate, competitive units.
This hampers in giving a holistic overview of operations as if collating of right set of data from different IT sources of the same business unit fails, you do not optimize the productive usage of man-hours , leading to delay in real-time strategic decision making, identifying the leakages, plugging them in time to bring that valuable turn around of optimized P.P.E. (Production | Performance | Efficiency) , denting your bottom line, in turn contributing to a slow down in the economic cycle!
Closure point: Advantages
Data | ERP | BI | Analytics are all interdependent and function in correlation with each other bringing together all the information you care about on one intuitive platform to make faster and better-informed business decisions maximizing growth, efficiency, and experience both at a customer level with the end product being received at the right destination in the desired manner, quality and on time and also at the supplier level with the smooth journey through all intervals in processing the orders to achieve success!
It encourages interdepartmental communication supporting Customer relation and Experience, IT cost savings, efficient business processes, tighter look into Internal Controls and Compliance Management, significant Insights through Management Informations System( MIS) reporting, no duplication of DATA, accelerated real-time reporting with the right Analysis and Analytics to give an overall Business Overview above all Data Security.
Finally, its' not just the number data-crunching game that these technology solutions help you sail through the tides to achieve those profit margins and customer bank.
Let's not forget all the advancements in the creative side of Digital Marketing and Designing from Adobe and likes to create a fantastic Photoshoot finish, 3D Animation tools ,videos, etc. or WIX, WordPress and so on, to create your concepts, Branding, Logo, Websites, enabling E-commerce along with the SEO engines empowering you to add that personal touch. Redefining an Architects, Interior Designers job with tools like Sketch Up, V Ray, Auto CAD, and in construction with 3D screen printing buildings now taking over transforming all your business needs be it in any sector that you can imagine!
Technology tools or solutions for your business are basically like the spice box to a chef, tool kit for a mechanic, fabrics, color textures for a designer, where all you got to do is realign what and how you carry out your task to achieve your goals, wear your thinking cap and get on track to ascend to the highest realm of success.
In this new World of COVID and physical distancing with a bigger thanks to Cloud Solutions and Services achieving your set tasks is no more a challenge !
The key is to find that right business partner to walk with and align all your business needs with the apt solutions leaving you feeling in control of your business and finding that right stepping stone to take it forward!
A closer look at what Tableau, SAP, Google, Salesforce,Microsoft....have to offer that is so relevant to imbibe in today's world. In our next segment...
well written