Project management BI – Transforming Data into Intelligence

What’s Business Intelligence? In this post, you will learn what is it and how it works. Check it out! What to do with a large amount of data generated by different company departments? Do they have more relevance when working segmented by area or could their junction add some value? BI is there to show how valuable these data are and how they can be critical in assertiveness at the moment of decision making.

What is BI?

Business Intelligence (BI) consists of a process of collecting and analyzing data from various sources in order to convert them into relevant information. This process involves the use of various tools, applications and methodologies for data collection of internal systems and external sources for analysis and queries that will be used in the creation of reports and dashboards.

What are the benefits of BI?

The benefits of using it are:

• Better analytical capacity;
• Better monitoring of business processes;
• Streamline the assembly of information;
• Enable the use of management indicators;
• Standardize access to data;
• Standardization of business rules;
• Decrease in the closing cycles, review, and release of information;
• Automation of information processes.

But how to gather and deal with so much data?

A BI system can contain several different applications and with them, we collect the data, treat it, we can visualize it in different ways, and even simulate situations:

– Databases

• Every company has data, and many, let’s take an example some retail data: inventory, customer information, data on past promotions and sales numbers. This data can be allocated in several different databases.

– Data warehousing

• The Data Warehouse is a collection of data from various sources in a central data repository so that we can cross them.

– Data Mining

• Data mining takes place from software that analyzes a mass of data collecting information about patterns of behavior.

– Query Report / AdHoc (Variable Reports) –

• It is a business intelligence (BI) model in which each report is made and distributed to users from established security parameters and determining which objects these users can visualize. These are customized reports for the team so they do not have to ask the IT staff for complete reports with unnecessary information.

– Reporting (Fixed Reports)

• Reports are a necessary condition for analysis, and these reports should make a complex data set simple, easy, and accurate, especially through graphics. They should include historical data to be monitored over time; Should enable the empowerment of users in order to make them specialists in their area of business; And are used to facilitate decision making.

– Budgeting / Forecasting / Planning

• Budgeting, planning, and forecasting are a three-step process for determining and detailing an organization’s long- and short-term financial goals. Planning outlines the company’s financial direction and expectations for the next three to five years. In budgeting documents like the overall plan will be executed month by month, specifying the expenses. Already the forecast uses historical data to predict financial results for future months or years.

– KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators)

• They are indicators of monitoring that allow managers to show the efficiency, performance, and importance of processes to their employees. While it can not be confusing, a KPI should always lead to a clear and well defined action and its value should be easily perceived by all employees of the company.

– BPM’s or CPM’s (Performance Meters)

• Business Performance Management and Corporate Performance Management are used in a post-BI stage. Both are a set of analyzes to monitor the company as to its behavior towards some indicators, and both are linked to a management and monitoring strategy.

– What-If’s (Simulations)

• What-If’s are interactive analyzes (simulations) that allow you to replace a variable value in an account / chart and instantly observe the effect of this change in the final value, very common in Exel.

– Dashboards

• By exercising vital function in BI processes, Monitoring Panels are a data visualization tool that show the current status of metrics and performance indicators (KPIs). Enable a visual analysis of valuable data crossings.

These are some of the applications used in BI, but some others can be added or deleted according to the needs of each business. In version 9 we will increase the options focused on Business Intelligence, transforming Scriptcase on a strong generator for management reports systems. Learn more here. See more contents in our blog.