MIS++ begins where traditional BI systems end: at the query

Tilos Business Solutions has pioneered an approach to business intelligence in terms of which its advanced management information system, MIS++, focuses on 5% of the information a typical data warehouse would, while achieving 90% of the benefits in a much shorter space of time.

This is where the distinction between management information system (MIS) reporting and active management decision support blurs, says Sybille McCloghrie, a director of Tilos.

"When a report is created, its validity for the business is often not questioned," she says. "The results are typically put into Excel in an attempt to try to understand the information better, or trigger some form of action."

With MIS++, however, management gets all the information it needs in a single consolidated report. The user can actively deploy the information and use it to trigger actions and decisions, and receive feedback from the same system.

The product also performs root cause analysis. If it picks up exceptions in data, it can initiate a follow-up and show variances from targets, enquire why there are differences, and analyse the reason for the discrepancy. This allows for real-time correction to data.

"On the other hand, where things are going right, the company can hit on a particular target audience or campaign that worked and can exploit that opportunity by diverting the requisite resources to ensure maximum impact," says McCloghrie.

"Where corrective training and development is required, an e-learning module or course can be triggered based on certain measures or analysis, for individual staff or groups. It is not necessary to wait six months until a staff member`s performance review. The interventions can be quickly initiated.

"In this way, business intelligence becomes of practical value to the organisation rather than an academic exercise."

MIS++ can also assist companies in complying with new financial reporting Acts, such as Sarbanes-Oxley and the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act. It further puts in place concrete processes that can handle non-conformances highlighted in the reports.

"Traditional MIS systems work on the basis that anything imaginable is loaded into the database, because someone someday may need the information. The end result is they yield little information, but a lot of data. With MIS++, management can ask what the organisation is trying to achieve and what is needed to have visibility on those processes, results and outcomes. This makes useful information available immediately," McCloghrie says.

MIS++ differs from the traditional data warehousing approach in several ways:

* With MIS++, the end objective is an active management environment, as opposed to extraction and reporting.

* Functionality in the organisation grows over time with MIS++. Over a few months targets and escalations can be up and running. It is a more flexible environment than a traditional data warehouse.

* In a traditional data warehouse environment, many queries and individual requests are handled, generating numerous reports for many different people at different times, each with their own complexity, which is difficult to manage. With MIS++, support for proactive management is designed into the tool.

* Usually, additional relationships between extracted data are added on an as per needed basis and it is not possible to load these on a per measure basis. The ability to formally manage additional relationships within a formal environment is fundamental to the MIS++ approach.

* The traditional management information system tends to concentrate on the input side of extraction and reporting. MIS++ is driven by the outcome and is thus more focused for management.

* MIS++ responds rapidly to change. On top of it can be built many smaller systems that deliver a lot of value for relatively little effort. For example, if the reports are effectively structured, it does not require that much work to create a true CRM system that proactively manages the customer.

The information stored in the repository and metadata can be reused, reducing the effort required. In a traditional data warehouse, new systems have to be written from scratch. With MIS++, an e-learning intervention can be triggered at an appropriate point and the training can be managed, showing what percentage of people are learning, what performance improvements there have been, and how the processes have been subsequently improved.

* Unlike traditional MISes, MIS++ offers the ability to reuse metadata in the repository, enabling rapid development of value-added solutions.

* Delivery of information has customarily tended to be focused on power users. MIS++ delivers many pieces of value to large numbers of people in the organisation, rather than lots of information to few people.

* MIS++ can be set up to deliver and display the same report to different people in a variety of manners. Setup can be mapped against other systems to deliver a consolidated report by team. Traditional data warehouses do not encourage input, besides transactional data. With MIS++, because everything is stored in the metadata, including workflow and tasking definitions, it can be dynamically modified according to results and analysis from the system. It offers flexible security options and numerous levels, including field level if required.

"MIS++ is the only product of its sort on the market, locally or internationally," adds McCloghrie. "It operates not just on clients` data, but because it is integrated into our overall offering, it links directly into the business processes, and suggests improvements in these processes. Accordingly, our clients are enjoying breakthrough benefits."