Time is one of the major challenges businesses face today. With information overload and an accelerated business pace, decisions must be taken quickly in an ever-changing marketplace.

Unfortunately, decision-makers spend 70 per cent of their time compiling information, leaving 30 per cent to analyse the data and understand what needs to be done. However, thanks to business intelligence, those percentages may not only be switched but allow for better decisions to be taken.

The first priority is facilitating access to the necessary data and presenting a visualisation – a picture – of the organisation that can easily be understood. Access to the right level of information at the right time will improve the decision-making process.

Business intelligence solutions present decision-makers with a ‘dashboard’ on which key performance indicators (KPIs) such as cash, revenue, budgets and profitability are displayed in a graphical user interface. The concept is very similar to the dashboard we are all familiar with – the one we keep our eyes on while we are driving to ensure there is enough fuel, etc.

Any variance from the budget figures and business rules that require attention will be flagged. In this way, a ‘management by exception’ environment is created in a user-friendly environment.

The amount of data created by other operational systems may overwhelm executives. What executives really need is a panoramic view of the organisation’s performance with the ability to use analytics to drill down into the detail when required.

This is the slicing and dicing concept – a decision-maker can dynamically analyse performance by various dimensions such as segment, industry and brand to report on different measures such as revenue, profit and quantities. Every dimension tells a different story of business.

Business intelligence solutions empower executives to pick and choose the data they require to take ad hoc decisions. This is revolutionising the way we work by unlocking the full potential of the data that exists within our organisation.

Sometimes this information resides in a number of operational systems that create ‘silos’ – a huge amount of detail on a specific subject matter such as accounts, customers and stocks ­which do not lend itself easily for sharing across systems. Business intelligence provides the methodology to extract, transform and load the data into a data warehouse. Connecting to multiple ‘silos’ of data generates an unparalleled synergy and business value creating one version of the truth. This process reconciles the multiple sources of data and creates confidence ensuring the integrity and reliability of the information.

Decision-makers spend 70% of their time compiling information, leaving 30% to analyse the data and understand what needs to be done

With such large amounts of data, trying to identify variances in performance may be difficult. But advanced business intelligence tools provide insight to the data and guide the analyst by pinpointing variances and trends and suggesting the reasons for the results.

We live in a virtual world where today’s generations share ideas, discuss and collaborate over social media. Imagine the possibility of discussing performance and trends of a business using the same techniques where executives can share, comment and ask questions all based on dynamic content linked to live data. Business intelligence tools with these facilities create the ideal forum for decision-making.

Mobile business intelligence is the latest innovation in this sphere. Many decisions are taken on the field, while meeting customers and suppliers. Giving the mobile workforce access to business analytics to dynamically slice and dice the data during a business meeting could prove to be invaluable and provide that edge which could make or break a business transaction.

These business intelligence solutions can give your business that competitive advantage and help executives take the right decision in today’s dynamic marketplace. Sustained profitability and growth demand investment in such innovative solutions.

jsfournier@ptl.com.mt

Julian Sant Fournier is innovations and solutions manager at PTL Ltd.