Many companies these days are planning to enhance their ERP system’s native reporting capabilities with additional Business Intelligence (BI) tools. Here are some things to consider for this evaluation process:

1. The role of IT vs the BUSINESS USERS when it comes to enabling users to create reports:
• Importance of user-friendly BI tools where IT does NOT have to design reports for the business users because the BI tools are USER FRIENDLY so business users can make their own reports
2. The role of standard reports versus ad-hoc (quick drag and drop design) reporting capabilities in order to maximize quick access to ERP data and thus improve decision-making and pervasive BI.
3. How less is more when it comes to the number of reporting tools that users need to access in order to pull financial reports, sub-ledger reports and ad-hoc reports from their ERP system:
• The more report writers/tools that are required, the slower response time business users will have to take care of business questions and the more costly it is to manage all the BI tools and related training.
4. The role (and importance) of LIVE reporting on the ERP database versus use of OLAP cubes or data warehouses on top of the ERP database:
• Advantage of LIVE reporting is instant answer to business questions based on real time data and access (with good BI tools) to all fields in the ERP database
• Advantage of data warehouse is often FASTER reporting, less stress on the ERP server, and ability to COMBINE ERP data with other data sources (= more KPIs, etc. now available).

The business intelligence (BI) software market can be tough to navigate. Not only do organizations have to sort through hundreds of available products, they also have to make sense of the jargon, trends and other technical aspects of BI tools (e.g. “OLAP” or “in-memory processing”).

Getting a handle on these concepts early in your research process is critical. You’ll want to be literate when you discuss your next purchase with your management team, IT staff and eventually sales representatives.

There are several online resources to help you get up to speed, such as the Solver blog and Software Advice. Software Advice is a website that reviews and compares business intelligence software vendors. They recently put together an introduction guide to three BI tools: data warehouses, ETL tools and OLAP tools.

In their post, “Business Intelligence 101 | A Beginner’s Guide to BI Software,” they explain the function that each tool performs, and why and when companies need to use them. They also discuss four prominent trends currently playing out in the market: predictive analytics, SaaS, “Big Data” and in-memory processing. Here’s an excerpt from their post about data warehouses:

Online analytical processing (OLAP) is another key process and technology found in almost all data warehouse environments and business intelligence systems. But while the data warehouse and ETL tools support “back end” processes, OLAP tools support the presentation layer or “front end” processes such as querying, analysis and reporting. OLAP tools provide the impressive tables, charts and visualizations that make BI exciting!

But OLAP isn’t just about good looks; it’s got some serious smarts under the hood. OLAP allows users to perform sophisticated, multidimensional analysis. In other words, it allows you to analyze more than one dimension of data at a time. For example, you could analyze how many yellow t-shirts were sold during the month of July in Texas and compare it against other t-shirt sales during the same month.

In addition, understanding customer buying habits and buying preferences are the keys to having the right products at the right time. Tools like BI360 put sales information at your fingers tips. You can create powerful reports giving you access to critical business trends, thereby providing you the intelligence to make the right decision.

To continue reading, visit “Business Intelligence 101 | A Beginner’s Guide to BI Software.”