Business intelligence (BI) dashboards are dead. Solutions to business problems have never been about fancy dashboards. What works are simple, visible tools.
This is according to Dave Ives, GM for the Business Intelligence and Knowledge Management unit at iSPartners.
Visibility drives accountability, Ives says; without this, people get confused because they have too much data, and very little information, which could have been used to make a decision, he emphasises.
“BI is about solving a business problem, not about the tools used to solve the problem,” he says.
“One example to illustrate this is using age analysis by product, to show that working capital flow is a function of debtors and stock,” he continues. “I have a client who saw R2.5 million unlocked in eight days; this allows companies to manage their free cash and invest more effectively,” he notes.
The value of BI lies in the power to get executives to make decisions with valuable information, he says.
Ives is a speaker at the ITWeb BI Summit, taking place on 28 and 29 February 2012, at The Forum, in Bryanston. He will present real-life examples about the successful use of BI, and will calm the hype around funky dashboards and other BI 'catch-phrases'.
Top BI practitioners are invited to nominate the country's best and most innovative projects at this annual event. Nominations are open until 30 November, and may be made here.
For more information about this event, click here.
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Nominations for BI Awards 2012 open
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