Business Intelligence
Transforming data into information for better business decisions
Success in business today is driven by good decisions, which in turn are driven by good information. Forward-thinking organizations are developing overall enterprise information management strategies that reflect business and information technology strategies. Business Intelligence (BI) is a critical component of an enterprise information management strategy.
Business Intelligence (BI) helps organizations turn data into useful and meaningful information and then distribute the information to those who need it, when and where needed, so timely and better informed decisions can be made. A comprehensive Business Intelligence (BI) initiative is the best way for organizations to access, organize, analyze, navigate and share information across the organization to support better decision making to optimize corporate performance. BI allows organizations to aggregate data from a variety of sources to see an integrated, up to date, 360 degree view.
Much more than Query - Elements of a comprehensive Business Intelligence (BI) initiative
Comprehensive Business Intelligence (BI) initiatives go well beyond simple queries. Key elements of a Business Intelligence initiative include:
- Query - ad-hoc inquiry via easy to use, intuitive tools that minimize IT involvement
- Reporting - intermittent and routine scheduled reports for individuals or cataloged reports for departmental / enterprise use
- Interactive analysis - advanced analytics including dynamic / interactive analysis, drill down to underlying source data and filtering across multiple dimensions, data mining for hidden information, etc.
Data integration - tools and processes for systematic sourcing of data from across the enterprise - Data quality - tools and processes to ensure data sourced is accurate, complete and timely
- Search - tools to facilitate easy identification of information
- Predictive analysis - tools and processes to identify trends and conduct "what ifs"
- Scorecards & performance management- tools and processes for tracking metrics, including Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and exception limit warnings
- Dashboards & Visualization - intuitive graphical approaches to capturing summarized information
Additional elements include:
- Distribution - tools and processes for efficiently organizing and disseminating information across the enterprise
- Control - tools and processes to support user-defined, role-based hierarchies for secure access, write, edit and administration of information
- Current and historical data - tools and processes to deploy across both operating systems (current data) and data warehouses (historical data)
Comprehensive solutions - not just tools
Successful Business Intelligence (BI) initiatives involve more than simply delivering a Business Intelligence (BI) tool. Quorum's Business Intelligence (BI) solution set includes analysis and planning, implementation, training, and ongoing support, in addition to BI tools. Importantly, Quorum has already configured its Business Intelligence (BI) tools to operate with Quorum's software solutions. Quorum operates a dedicated Information Management / Business Intelligence (IM / BI) Practice, staffed with career IM / BI professionals with years of experience.
Benefits of Business Intelligence (BI):
Better informed and timely decisions - based on current facts
- Instant insight into business performance and opportunities
- Real-time visibility into operations and business results
- Confidence in quality of underlying data
- Ability to manage to established performance parameters
- Become more proactive to positive and negative changes
- More time analyzing and less time searching, collecting and organizing data
- Empowering non-technical staff with tools to conduct analysis themselves
- Improved compliance
Indications that your organization could benefit from a Business Intelligence (BI) initiative
Multiple versions of the truth - no single authoritative source for correct information
- Difficult to conduct in-depth analysis
- Difficult to locate information
- Current reporting tools are difficult to use
- Lack of a retention process for historical information
- Operations are being negatively affected by weak reporting capabilities
- Operational problems do not readily become apparent
- Government reporting is difficult
- View of information is limited to portions of enterprise
Quorum Business Solutions, Inc., a provider of business and information technology solutions for the oil and gas, renewable energy and natural resource industries, continues to expand its Business Intelligence (BI) footprint into the energy industry. Quorum has augmented its BI consulting services to include solutions for information management, dashboard management, and query, reporting and analysis.
