BITSoftware / Blog

After talking about Topic Overview, Reasons to implement and Value Drivers, it is time for „Challenges” in Business Intelligence. As it appears from Gleanster`s report, departments and divisions need to be convinced of the benefits of sharing information for analysis, rather than hoarding it for other advantage. „Data quality problems must be overcome before managers will have confidence in the analysis produced. And to produce better business decisions, the analysis must be focused on core business problems”, it is shown in the report. And, according to „BI Best Practices Brenchmark Report”, none of this is easy.

This is the Top 9 of challenging aspects:

1. Breaking down data / departmental silos.

- this was the top challenge cited by all  companies surveyed.

- business units that have been accustomed to managing their own data may be reluctant to share it, even when that sharing is essential at the corporate level. Consolidating data from many databases can be a challenge, but it’s also one of the things BI tools are built for.

2. Integrating with CRM and other systems.

- much of the data that’ll be consumed by the BI system is likely to be found in packaged enterprise applications (ERP, CRM).

- an overarching BI strategy needs to address these integrated reporting tools and how they can be coordinated with the broader platform.

3. Achieving acceptable data quality.

- data quality needs to be high enough that all the most important broad measures of business performance are reflected in the BI system.

- once users of the system learn to doubt the accuracy of the information contained within it, winning back their trust will be extremely challenging.

4. Generating actionable insights.

- the data needs to be meaningful and suggest an appropriate course of action.

- this means working with different constituencies to understand what data they find most useful and the ways that they commonly act upon it.

5. Tracking and measuring success.

- measuring the success of a BI initiative requires imagination, but it’s essential to the program’s success.

- track progress in every area from data quality to user satisfaction with the answers they are getting.

6. Getting managers to use data over “gut instinct” decisions.

- managers who have been successful in the absence of good data may have trouble adjusting to its easy availability.

- unless data-driven decision making is integral to the corporate culture, many managers will continue to go with their gut instincts, even when the data says those instincts are wrong.

7. Securing the right organizational resources.

- to provide proper training or build a BI-competency center may mean hiring employees or consultants.

8. Deploying the right enabling technologies.

- besides securing the budget for purchases, determine which technologies will be most effective.

- balance risks versus rewards.

9. Making the business case in terms of ROI.

- Business Intelligence by itself does not improve business efficiency or profitability.

- anyway, selling or expanding a BI initiative requires a convincing argument, one that ultimately will translate into financial rewards.

For me, the person in tangential relationship with management software, accounting software, human resources software, etc., SocrateOpen has brought more like philosophy than IT. And after I read and re-read about it, I realized that it is just philosophy. Pure philosophy. Of life. The principles and practices that allow you access to knowledge and sharing, implemented in a manner that does nothing but relieve you, and to facilitate access to some software whose source code is available under a license that permits users to use, change, improve and to redistribute the software.

I admit, was even less fun to play with him. The more so as there is not hard at all. In the main menu, you have at hand all the information you need on products, third parties, accounts, schedule, orders, invoices, delivery, resources, etc. You can create orders, invoices, collect prepaid orders, you can manage cash flow by automating processes associated with the receipts and payments, etc. In addition, it gives you all the information about existing and potential customers and partners (marketing, sales, service), allows an analysis of performance or allows creating professional web sites and publish all information in your organization’s intranet.

And to put it technically, SocrateOpen provides a fully integrated feature rich and user friendly, for medium organizations and divisions of large organizations. Unlike traditional systems, it is organized so that they can be assimilated into normal business processes. It is offered as a fully integrated system and not a series of modules coupled between data transfers that occur.

So that, if you care even a little to your time, but especially to your image, it can not hurt to make a short visit to www.bitsoftware.ro. And we talk after.