Latest Posts
Published by Pat Hennel
According to the Gartner Group, a Business Intelligence Competency Center (or BICC) transforms business intelligence, analytics and performance management from siloed efforts driven by the IT organization into business-driven, cross-organization initiatives. Such competency centers enable businesses to better control processes, costs, delivery, standards, security and compliance; treat BI as an ongoing program rather than a series of disconnected projects; drive BI adoption throughout the business; and, manage stakeholder interests at all levels through greater alignment with corporate strategy.
Here are 5 ways a BICC can add value to your business: View Article…
Published by Pat Hennel
Learn how to manage the performance of the BI environment to make more informed decisions based on real data.
Business intelligence, or BI, is used to evaluate how a business is performing, which gives businesses the opportunity to make decisions without relying on “gut feelings” or “hunches.” BI software programs take clean data sets and quickly perform analysis on this data so that decisions can be made efficiently. These programs are a vital part of any business, but how do you determine if the BI environment itself is effective? View Article…
Published by Frank Bunker
While working with a customer on one of our latest BI solutions for the easy delivery of key information, KPIs and reports, someone made a comment that seemed simple…but complicated. To paraphrase – we need complicated information fast, but we don’t want to be educated on how to get it. View Article…
Published by Pat Hennel
In my role as a business intelligence software marketer, I correspond daily with IT, Finance, Sales and other corporate executives – expounding the value of my company’s business performance analytics for manufacturing and distribution businesses. Last week, the VP of Finance and IT of a major CPG company said something that stopped me in my tracks. “I get bombarded by my management team with so many requests for analytic tools that I don’t know where to start!”
Wow. That one simple comment put so much into perspective. View Article…
Published by Pat Hennel
To stay competitive, organizations need Business Intelligence (or accurate, actionable information about key business metrics). Performance dashboards come into play next by serving up summaries and reports of the BI that’s most critical to the organization.
An effective dashboard combines information dynamically and in new ways beyond traditional paper reports to measure performance and enable fast, appropriate action by decision makers. Even more, dashboards deliver significant value by leveraging Key Performance Indicators (or KPIs) to manage progress towards goals.
There are three general “flavors” of performance dashboards, each differing in the level of detail they offer and the analytics they provide . View Article…
Published by Pat Hennel
Category Management is a function that helps suppliers develop a category purchase marketing strategy for an individual retail account that best meets the consumer’s needs and, in the process, determines the best approach for influencing that account. Crucial to Category Management is an understanding of the pre-purchase environment for the category and of the vital information behind actual purchases through the use of sales and marketing analytics. View Article…
Published by John Hughes
After years and thousands of deployments, it’s time to look back and reflect on the real benefits of Business Intelligence. The answer seems obvious but it’s worth some careful thought to help guide improvements in the future ― not only in BI products themselves, but how and when they are deployed. View Article…
Published by John Hughes
Have you investigated ways to improve your company’s operational performance on more than one occasion, but been challenged with having the right data and determining the right measurements?
You’re certainly not alone if you answered YES.
Creating the best analytics is a rigorous task that requires special study of the “hierarchy” of performance variables that are present throughout your business. While many variables affect performance, we have found over time that analytics created around performance- or profit-generating processes is a good way to begin. Then cascading these measurements down through the enterprise helps to ensure concentric goals and objectives. View Article…
Published by Pat Hennel
Here are some cost reduction tips to help offset the financial impact of lowered retailer purchase pricing
Organizations today are spending as much as 60 percent of their revenue acquiring the goods and services needed to support their business. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that for businesses that sell through big box retailers with price squeezing power, reductions in the area of procurement spending would appear to have the largest effect in offsetting the financial impact of lowered retailer purchase pricing. But how can you pinpoint where to cut those purchasing-related costs? View Article…
Published by Pat Hennel
So much has been written about the promise of business analytics to analyze data for competitive advantage. But, who should own analytics? The CIO? CFO? Some other business unit executive? According to 23% of respondents in a recent Deloitte Touche study, the most frequent leader of analytics is the business unit or division head, followed closely by the CFO at 18%. Some 20% revealed there was no single overseer of their business analytics. However, when they looked at the area most often found to “invest” in analytics, finance lead the pack at 79%. View Article…
