Here are a a number of questions we often get asked when discussing Business Intelligence projects with clients. Hopefully these might answer some of your questions, if you need any more information on the subject of Business Intelligence related please get in touch we will be happy to help.
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What is the difference between reporting and Business Intelligence?
Reporting shows you what happened so far and what the status is.
Business intelligence shows you why things happened and how to improve business performance in the future. -
Why should I use Business Intelligence?
The common goal when implementing a Business Intelligence strategy and solutions is to turn data into insights and action. Business Intelligence should deliver an increase in the understanding of forces, both internal and external, that affect the business and enable it to act on this knowledge. These actions should then in turn shape the future direction and performance of the organisation. -
Why should I be looking to develop a co-ordinated Reporting and BI strategy?
A co-ordinated approach will enable you to standardise reporting processes across your whole organisation. BI is not only for the high level management, it should been seen as an integral part of your operational processes. By making data available from a governed data source and standardising report development you will gain an increase in control and transparency across business streams ensuring a single version of the truth is produced whilst reducing the usual Excel report creation overhead. -
Isn't Business Intelligence just for for big companies?
The size or scale of company should never be a barrier to the development and implementation of good Business Intelligence solution. By choosing the correct tools and solutions, a co-ordinated Business Intelligence solution can be implemented across all sizes of business. The use of a standardised solution will ensure that analysis and decisions across the organisation can be made on accurate up to date data at the click of a button. -
Our reports show what has happened so why do we need Business Intelligence?
Business Intelligence is about bringing your data to life, the use of visualisations and predictive analytics will allow you to not only see what has happened but also help to forecast what will happen in the future. Visualisations will help identify key areas of success and failure, whilst “what if” scenarios and predictive insights will help you to shape the future based on what has happened in the past. -
What if our data is not ready for a Business Intelligence solution?
SPS can provide a Data Review Service that will assess the "health" of your data and establish if any data cleansing is required. The review will also highlight were "missing" data could be captured in your core business systems as part of your everyday business processes. Once captured the data will then be available to the data platform and be able to be consumed via reports and dashboards.