News
Business Intelligence Software Bucks the Recession
Thursday, January 01, 2009
More and more businesses are turning to Business Intelligence to guide them out of the recession.
"Business Intelligence gives insight to managers, helping them understand their business. But it is more than a reporting tool" says Jeremy O'Sullivan, head of BI Services for DNM Technology, a leading provider of Virtualisation, Database and Business Intelligence solutions.
"A good Business Intelligence Dashboard, will not only tell you at a glance how your business is doing, but will also allow you drill to reveal issues and opportunities." explains Jeremy
What makes Business Intelligence different to the reports you get from applications such as accounting packages is the breadth and depth of the reports. By combining data from underlying IT systems, BI reports reveals information rich in detail, such as the margin for each of your products or services or who your best and worst customers are by revenue, repayment days and margin.
Business Intelligence is a relatively new concept to Ireland. While there has been presence, it's prevalence is nowhere near as ubiquitous as the US or UK.
"It's fair to say that the maturity of the Business Intelligence market in Ireland has traditionally been weak, probably due to the rapid growth of the economy and the sales model. Business Intelligence sales have generally been a technology sale, rather than a sale to the business managers, where it's value as a business tool is more apparent." says Bill O'Brien, Business Manager, Server Microsoft.
"Companies generate a lot of information from their applications. Those companies that use this data to generate high quality reports in real-time, have a significant competitive edge", says Cian Blackwell, partner with Grant Thornton.
"Take liquidity as an issue. Negative cash flow is a cardinal sin for any business today." continues Cian
Those companies that have the ability to evaluate their Cash Flow on demand and then drill to see which part of their operations are providing liquidity and those that are using liquidity have a distinct competitive advantage.
Cash Flow analysis is a historical report and therefore only one part of the picture. Being able to look forward using a Cash Flow Projection plan is an essential capability. This means a company can adjust spend or seek credit lines or investments before the company becomes stressed.
"BI tools are ideally placed to automatically and in real-time extract management information from your systems and allow you to project forward and perform "What If" scenarios easily and cost effectively." says Bill of Microsoft.
"Our experience has shown that banks and investors react positively to companies who display this type of insight and control." adds Cian of Grant Thornton.
"In the past it was very difficult and costly to link information from different silos. This is no longer the case with the industry wide adoption of standardised data warehouse technologies. We have successfully provided analyzed information, instantly to decision-makers' desktops in many different types of industries, from medical manufacturing to banking, each with their own combination of off-the-shelf and proprietary systems, within weeks. This would not have been possible a few short years ago." says Jeremy of DNM Technology.
"We recognise that people are more and more looking for value. That is why we are delighted to team with Grant Thornton and Microsoft to show not only the technology behind Business Intelligence, but more importantly the business drivers behind the adoption of Business Intelligence." says Jeremy
DNM Technology, Grant Thornton and Microsoft are hosting a seminar on the 21st of April where they will demonstrate BI's business proposition. We would encourage any manager with an interest in how to drive his organisations operational efficiency to join the seminar on the 21st of April in Grant Thornton's offices, where you will you will also hear Ivan Yates views on the economy and his company's response. More information is available at www.beinformed.ie.
