Johannesburg, 04 Sep 2008
Reporting: the bane of many a manager. With business insights and forecasting critically dependent on accurate and up-to-date reporting, business intelligence (BI) self-service might just be the answer report-averse managers have been waiting for.
Ashley Ellington, MD: Softline Enterprise, says with the right BI self-service platform, business users can not only access the information they need from the company's central database, but will also be able to combine existing data elements into their very own custom reports.
"Your ideal BI self-service platform enables business users. It's a service provided by an open BI platform that allows them to find the information they need on the system by themselves. In practical terms they are given access to a platform that is defined in business terms as opposed to complicated IT jargon. This means they can create new reports and combine existing data to customise reports - essentially equipping them with creative reporting tools that don't require constant calls to IT support," explains Ellington.
While BI self-service platforms sound extremely appealing, Ellington emphasises that to create this ideal requires a three-way collaboration between your company's people, its processes and technology, "Each of these components complements the others. For the platform to be functional, its business focus needs to be carried through consistently - from the training of employees to establishing the actual process."
In terms of the technology itself, this will have to be aligned with the self-service platform initiative. "Creating a common infrastructure is critical for the success of your platform. Your BI toolset must support this. It will need to be robust so as to facilitate the creation of reports by business users, as well as accommodate advanced elements such as intensive drilling and the provision of real-time or near real-time data. It must also be business user friendly."
Ellington uses Softline Enterprise's Sage 1000 business management software application to demonstrate how this can be made possible. "Because Sage 1000 integrates front office CRM and back office ERP systems, information between functional areas is shared and provided in real-time. Users are thus able to drill both up/down and across hierarchies to access data and do so quickly and easily - because of the software's focus on 'business meaning' as opposed to IT jargon."
With the pros and cons of BI self-service platforms continuing to be debated, Ellington says enterprises need to evaluate the specific benefits such a platform will bring to their specific company and, more importantly, the company's users. "The most important of these is that your employees will have the facts they need to make strategic decisions at their fingertips. In this way you will encourage enterprise maturity, creating and formulating strategies and frameworks that can be leveraged across the entire organisation. This means your BI platform can essentially transform your day-to-day operations, making them far more efficient and effective - having a definite impact on your bottom line."
BI self-service platforms would thus seem the perfect partnership between IT and business. By making IT a capability provider, business users will become independent active users of your company's software and systems, freeing up IT resources accordingly, and thereby focusing your real assets - your people - and enabling them to perform better no matter their responsibilities.
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