What is Business Intelligence

Accessing these applications also allows obtaining data from all areas of the business. So many that it is often difficult to work efficiently with such data. "Business Intelligence is the set of strategies and tools focused on the administration and creation of knowledge through the analysis of existing data in an organization or company."

Specifically, the key points of these systems are:

1.            Availability of management data : it is necessary to have business data in all relevant areas, in order to build a business intelligence system on them.

2.            Integration and coordination of data : in the company there are different areas and systems that generate data, so the process by which said data is converted into useful information implies that its access is coordinated, sources are appropriately integrated, and are added correctly.

3.            Decision support : once the data is available, if the system has been properly assembled we will be able to have abstract business information, which will help us better understand how the company is working, and how and where to work to improve ficho operation.

The concept of business intelligence.

An interesting definition for business intelligence or BI , according to the Data Warehouse Institute , defines it as the combination of technology, tools and processes that allow me to transform my stored data into information, this information into knowledge and this knowledge aimed at a business plan or strategy.

The business intelligence should be part of business strategy, this will allow to optimize resource utilization, monitor compliance with the objectives of the company and the ability to make good decisions and get better results.

1.            We have data, but we lack information . It is important to store the data of customers, employees, departments, purchases, sales, among others in applications, financial systems or data sources.

2.            Fragmentation . They have independent applications across all departments, but a global vision of the company is lacking. Perhaps because of the inability of BI tools to integrate heterogeneous data sources.

3.            Manual handling . The need to generate business analysis and reports has led us to use BI and / or reporting tools that are not the most reliable.

4.            Little agility . Due to the lack of information, fragmentation and manual manipulation keep me at a low performance level.

Business Intelligence can be applied globally, but also in each of the functional areas of the company. Below is a list with applied examples:

1.            Sales : Sales analysis, analysis of best-selling products, most relevant customers, sales forecasts, etc.

2.            Marketing : Analysis of customer types, product monitoring, customer needs analysis, etc.

3.            Finance : Profitability analysis, cash forecast, etc.

4.            Production : efficiency of the production process, quality analysis, inventory management, etc.

Some situations that advise implementing a Business Intelligence system:

1.            More time is spent collecting and preparing information than analyzing it

2.            There is no realistic and updated data on the situation of the company

3.            There is no fluid communication of data between departments and the general management

4.            Customers and opportunities have been lost due to not having data on time

5.            There is inconsistency between the data received from different people or departments

A Business Intelligence strategy must be coordinated with the areas that will be affected by the knowledge and information generated by it.

According to their level of complexity and functionalities, the solutions can be classified as follows:

1.            EIS : they are systems above the others that allow generating strategic information for company managers.

2.            Reporting systems : they are considered the simplest, and include all the systems that facilitate and organize access to company data.

3.            Datawarehouse : these are repositories that collect and aggregate all the relevant data of the company, to be able to later analyze and exploit them efficiently.

4.            ETL : systems that allow data to be extracted from different sources, appropriately transformed, and loaded into the Datawarehouse.

5.            Decision Support Systems (OLAP) : Once data is available in the repository, it can be exploited through these applications, which facilitate access and work on them.

6.            Balanced Scorecard (BSC) : it is a system to transfer data analysis to business and strategic indicators.

EIS.

An Executive Information System or Executive Information System is a software tool, based on a DSS , that provides managers with easy access to internal and external information about their company, and that is relevant to its key success factors. The main purpose is for the executive to have at his disposal a complete overview of the status of the business indicators that affect him instantly, also maintaining the possibility of analyzing in detail those that are not meeting the established expectations, to determine the business plan. most suitable action.

The EIS is characterized by:

1.            Offer the executive quick and effective access to shared information, using intuitive and visual graphical interfaces

2.            Typically includes exception-based reports and alerts, as well as historical and trend analysis

3.            It is also frequent that it allows direct debit by mail of the most relevant reports