Big Data Analysis and Online Marketing Costs

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Nils Rasmussen

Have you ever wondered what the cost is for your company’s web marketing efforts? In the following paragraphs we will look at an example where we analyze web site traffic and mix this data with the online marketing expenses tracked in the accounting system.

The first thing you would do is to download web site traffic data from your Web Analytics service provider. For example, this can be Google Analytics. If you plan to do this very often, you would connect to Google Analytics using a web service. If not, you can also download the data to e.g. an Excel file, and then import it to your data warehouse where you combine it with the general ledger data, where marketing expenses are tracked.

If you own BI360, you would typically use the BI360 data warehouse as the data store where you load the web statistics data and the general ledger data used in the examples in this blog.

Once you have the data in the data warehouse, you can use the BI360 report writer to create reports that combine the web statistics and marketing expenses to calculate metrics such as Average Marketing Costs per Web Visitor, and then display the result as a formatted report or a dashboard.

Web Statistics – Report

Referral Site Analysis

Reporting: Start by Replacing FRx

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Nils Rasmussen

Yes, replacing FRx is going to become a timely matter. As Microsoft continues to phase out FRx—and the upgrades and enhancements that come with it—you’ll soon find yourself looking for a user-friendly, excel-based reporting solution for leading ERPs.

When considering an FRx replacement, look for a solution like BI360 that’s completely Excel-based, with predefined templates and user-defined reports that run live on Microsoft Dynamics AX, GP, NAV, SL, CRM, Sage MAS 500 and X3, Epicor Prophet 21, and SAP Business One databases. BI360’s out-of-the-box integration and ease of use gives IT and financial professionals a seamless replacement for FRx that delivers more on every level:

These are just some of the reasons BI360’s report writer is a great replacement for FRx. For more reasons to replace FRx, join us for a webinar October 11th and see how easy Solver will make it for you to replace FRx.

Thu, Oct 11, 2012 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PDT

(To see a complete listing of all BI360 webinars click here)

Live ERP Reporting versus Data Warehouse Reporting

Posted on June 24, 2012 by Corey Barak

With BI360 organizations can report live from their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or from the BI360 Data Warehouse (DW). The question is which one is best for your organization. Each organization needs to determine which approach is best or whether a hybrid approach is best. This article will give the benefits of using each option.

There are three main benefits of reporting live from the ERP:

Live Reporting: there is a direct connection from many ERP’s directly into BI360, which allows for live reporting on thousands of fields. This means that once a transaction is entered into the ERP, then it is available for reporting. There is not a delay or a process that a user needs to wait for.
Cost of Configuration: BI360 is already pre-configured for thousands of fields in many ERP; therefore, once the software is installed a person can start building reports.
Metadata: as mentioned, there are already multiple modules and thousands of fields already available for many ERP’s, such as all Microsoft Dynamics products, Sage MAS500 and X3, and Epicor Prophet 21. Standard modules and fields are constantly being added at no cost.

The BI360 Data Warehouse offers many advantages as well:

Speed: using the DW enables organizations to perform many tasks to speed up reports, such as indexing, using a different server which is recommended, and using the flexibility of the DW to enhance report building.
Report Design: Building reports directly from ERP requires hard-coding many times, such as accounts. For example, cash would be a specific account range and then accounts receivable would be set up as another range. The DW allows an organization to create trees or attributes so that the report design can point to current assets and the report will dynamically expand. This will limit the number of groupings, which will greatly enhance speed. Please refer to the White Paper BI360 White Paper – Using Attributes instead of Account Ranges.
- For a free copy, please email CompleteInsight@solverusa.com or if you are an existing customer you may access it as well as many other resources on the portal.
Consolidation: consolidating multiple companies from the ERP requires the multi-company tool. The DW allows companies to build hierarchy trees and report on any level of the tree.
Combine Multiple Sources: gives the ability to combine multiple data sources and report from them using one connection.

There are many advantages to using either solution, but we have many clients that use a hybrid solution. The recommendation would be to clearly define what reports would be built connecting to the ERP vs. the DW, so that there is no confusion within the organization. An example of a hybrid approach would be using the ERP for subledgers and the DW for budgeting and financial/operational reporting.

Take Advantage of Building Your Reports within Excel – Steps to Create Tree Navigation

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Seiji Naganuma

In organizations with many business units (or many products or projects or any other business dimension) it is desirable to create a report output where the first sheet is a summary (“consolidated”) sheet and then the next sheets may be divisional summaries and then eventually the subsidiary or department detail.

Make reports more efficient and take advantage of building your reports within Excel. Learn more about how to create a workbook like the one described above, including an automatically generated “Tree Menu” on the first sheet in the workbook to help users navigate to any report they want in a split second. In the example screenshot below you can see what it could look like when it finished. Example: If you click on the “DivA” hyperlink in the menu it will take you to the “DivA” worksheet.

: Note: In this example we are going to simulate a Profit & Loss report that should be executed for a consolidated level, a division level (here: Div A and Div B) as well as a subsidiary level.

To access this document in its entirety, log in to the Customer Portal and download the white paper today!

Solver University> Whitepapers> Reporting> Multi-level Reporting Books with Tree Navigation- BI360 Whitepaper

Solving the Classic Division vs HQ BI conflict with Multi-level Data Warehousing

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Nils Rasmussen

In most mid-sized and larger organizations with multiple divisions, classic BI tools have never been good at satisfying both local division needs (detailed reporting, local budget models, etc.) as well as corporate HQ needs. In the screenshot below, you can see an interesting methodology where a company can install the BI360 data warehouse (DW) at each division as well as at corporate HQ and then transfer whatever interesting detail/summary they want from the local DWs to the central DW. Historically, this would often not be a feasible model when companies had to build homegrown, custom data warehouses from scratch, because it could get very expensive. With a pre-configured data warehouse like the BI360 DW however, it is very fast and low cost to install it anywhere in the organization where a data mart or data warehouse is needed. There are many other benefits with this multi-level DW architecture, including the ability to then use the same report writer, budgeting and dashboard (like BI360) technology everywhere, thus reducing training cost, license cost and more.

How To Improve Reporting Performance

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Seiji Naganuma

One of the most common issues with reports containing a large volume of data is the report run time can take a longer time than expected. BI360 Version 3.5 has a new feature that has been added to enable parallel queries so that the SQL Server can be utilized to its maximum capabilities. Once enabled, your reports will run as fast and efficient as possible and deliver improved productivity.

By default, Report Designer, Player, and Composer do not perform parallel queries. Thus, the queries are processed one by one. However, users can enable this by setting the Maximum Concurrent Queries to a value other than 0 in the Administration Tool (under System Settings).

Executing queries in parallel can optimize performance when generating a report in the BI360 Reporting applications. The optimal number of parallel queries depends on a number of variables such as memory on the server running the SQL server, the number of processors on the server, and other SQL Server related options. In parallel processing, each query can utilize a processor without degrading the performance of the SQL Server. Thus, if there is a Quad Processor, the initial maximum value should be set to four.

A high number does not automatically imply the best performance. Dependent on the different variables mentioned above, a peak will be reached at a certain value. The peak could also be dependent on the nature of the report since the number of generated SQL Statements play an important role. A simple report that would generate only one query would therefore not experience any performance improvements by using this option. The best way to find the peak is to simply test different values and different reports.

For certain customers, they have experienced 80% – 90% increase in efficiency when generating their reports.

Solver announces BI360 support for Microsoft Dynamics GP Smartlist

Posted on February 25, 2012 by Nils Rasmussen

Smartlist is a very popular query tool used by all Microsoft Dynamics GP customers worldwide. It has hundreds of useful SQL Views to allow GP users to filter and retrieve transactions from different tables in the GP database. BI360 now integrates to Smartlist views to provide an almost unlimited number of opportunities for business users to drill down from BI360 financial reports and into GP without having to create their own drill-down queries. For example, a department head can run a Profit & Loss report for his or her department, notice a budget variance on a row (e.g. Office Supplies) and with one click, drill down into the Accounts Payable transaction in GP and retrieve the vendor’s Purchase Order and see each line item on the purchase order. Not only does this provide instant answers to business questions without having to bother accountants and power users, but it also does not require the user to have any knowledge of the Dynamics GP application, as both the drill down and the resulting view of the underlying transactions all happen from with the BI360 Excel-based report interface.

For a detailed example of the BI360 integration to Smartlist, please contact Solver and ask for the white paper “Integrating BI360 to a Smartlist view”.

The BI360 Drill To function is available for all BI360 ERP integrations, including Microsoft Dynamics AX, NAV, GP, SL, Sage MAS 500 and X3. and Epicor Prophet 21. This document provides a detailed example of how to integrate a Smartlist SQL view with the powerful Drill To feature in BI360 (version 3.5 and later) for the purpose of setting up a drill down rule that let a user drill down from a Profit & Loss report and all the way into sub-ledger (here: Accounts Payable) transactions in the GP database.

: Drill Down from BI360 General Ledger Report

: Drill to GP Smartlist

: Customizing the Integration to include Smartlist Views

: Data Retrieved from Drilling to Smartlist

Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 Sales and Presales Industry Summit

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Aaron Chirolo

In partnership with Microsoft, Solver will be presenting the BI360 solution at the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Industry Summit. Solver was chosen based on its proven track record with numerous Microsoft Dynamics ERP customers. Solver has been asked to present during two sessions for industry; manufacturing and public sector.

BI360 is the only business intelligence suite on the market and offers out-of-the-box integration to the Microsoft Dynamics AX2012 ERP system. BI360 is used across all industries, and has specialized financial and operational reporting designed for specific industries.(Healthcare, Retail, Public Sector and Education)

The purpose of the summit is to bring Microsoft Partners / Resellers up to speed with the Microsoft Dynamics AX industry solutions, and to enable them to professionally sell and deploy industry specific solutions. This is the first Industry Summit designed for sales and pre sales professionals.

Benefits of the training:

Drive a deeper understanding of how to leverage the demo tools and showcase the solution
Enable the sales and pre sales individuals to learn the Industry and language of industry.
Empower the partners to execute sales cycles and demonstrate flawlessly in order to increase our win rate.
Learn about the ecosystems surrounding the verticals you have chosen to target.

When: February 13, 2012 starting at 8:00AM through February 16, 2012 ending at 5:00PM

Where: Jacksonville, FL Crowne Plaza Hotel

For more information visit the Microsoft PartnerSource, and register for the training via the Microsoft Partner Learning Center.

Solver at Business Intelligence & Analytics for Healthcare Conference & Exhibition, July 11-12, 2011

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Solver, Inc.

See us at the Business Intelligence & Analytics for Healthcare Conference & Exhibition, July 11-12, 2011, San Diego, CA.

Solver and InterDyn Remington will show how to use the BI360 software suite to manage data to drive quality, financial performance & accountable care.

An increasing number of healthcare provider and payer organizations are looking to business intelligence and analytics technologies to deal with the challenges of health reform, including meeting Meaningful Use requirements and creating sustainable accountable care organizations (ACOs). This Conference, which builds on our groundbreaking event in 2007, focuses on innovative applications of business intelligence and analytics, data mining, data warehousing, data integration and decision support to facilitate quality measurement and reporting and pay for performance initiatives, improve clinical outcomes, increase efficiency, reduce costs, increase revenues, deal more effectively with government regulation, increase patient satisfaction, enhance organizational agility and promote greater transparency and organizational information sharing by dismantling the silos of data typically found within healthcare organizations.

Providers and payers will face an avalanche of data in the coming years. This conference will provide detailed and practical instruction on how to effectively manage and use this data to provide the right information at the right time to the right people for optimal decision-making.

Operational Reporting with BI360

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Solver, Inc.

While “Financial Reporting” often used to be synonymous with financial statements such as Profit & Loss reports, Balance Sheets, Cash Flow statements and consolidated reports, these days companies are using dual purpose tools like BI360 to also handle their operational reporting.

A quickly increasing number of BI360 users are developing operational reports such as:
- Reports help them manage inventories with details about standard cost, quantities and physical value.
- That shows purchase orders versus requisitions with related information about delivery dates, unit price, quantity ordered, purchase price and purchase quantity.
- Production orders with trend charts that quantities items ordered by date.
- Work-in-progress reports (WIP), quantity per order, how much of an order has been started and the WIP amount.

The above types of reports are particularly popular amongst Microsoft Dynamics AX customers because a good number of them are in manufacturing or related industries.

We also see more customers deploy the BI360 data warehouse in order to combine their ERP data with other operational data sources. Examples of these are healthcare providers that combine financial data with payroll and patient data to produce reports or dashboards that show average cost per patient day, statistical trends like Average Length of Stay (ALOS), etc.

As companies go operational with their reporting and the business users that truly understand the information needs of the business are able to design the reports, the result if often high value reports that earlier where non-existent or that had to be pieced together manually in spreadsheets.