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The first story in this month’s newsletter discusses the evolutionary stages of business intelligence (BI) in small- and medium-sized enterprises. It should give you a good perspective on the impact BI can have in your company, and what differentiates a BI neophyte from a BI-driven culture of excellence.

If your interest was piqued, now you have questions—questions we probably heard before. Every day, SAP and our 10,000 global implementation partners are asked about BI from executives like you. We thought it would be useful to share our answers to some of the questions your peers ask most often.
There are eight questions that come up time and again in conversations about BI with prospects and customers. Below are the answers from SAP’s BI subject experts:

Q: What is a concise definition of BI that a busy executive can remember? And how is BI different from ERP, CRM, and other software systems?

A: We define business intelligence as the technologies and processes used to gather data, perform analysis, and make decisions. The main difference between BI and ERP, CRM and other software systems is the focus on analyzing the business versus processing transactions. Our customers tell us that BI provides timely access to trusted information, which helps them adapt better, decide better, and operate better.

Q: What are the signs that I should evolve the BI function at my company?

A: There are internal and external signs. Internally, you should consider evolving your BI capabilities whenever you are experiencing business process malfunctions and/or can no longer effectively manage your business based on the information at hand. On the innovation front, BI can help internal teams discover and analyze new areas of potential growth that are too complex for existing analysis and reporting to support. Externally, the key signs are increased performance by peers and competitors in your industry. When you’re seeing other companies respond faster to market changes and opportunities, growing faster than your company, or innovating continuously, you can be sure that advanced BI capabilities are fueling these developments.

Q: What are the biggest mistakes companies make with BI initiatives?

A: The most common mistake is overestimating the quality of existing business data. While BI makes it possible for a company to harness data in new, powerful, and comprehensive ways, the old adage still applies: garbage in, garbage out. Companies must be vigilant about maintaining data quality so that they can fully realize the potential in their BI investment. Another common mistake is the failure to optimally invest in a BI initiative, in terms of resources and management support. The best outcomes are in companies where BI is not a one-off tool or departmental asset, but rather, is a company-wide management function that gets baked into the corporate operational culture.

Q: What’s the most effective way to educate top managers and the Board on the importance of BI?

A: Top management doesn’t care about information for information’s sake. They care about BI (or anything else) if it can improve the top and bottom lines in new ways. Make this your focus when presenting the business case for BI. Show how it will impact your company financially, and influence other key performance indicators the top brass cares about. If you need help making your case, feel free to reach out to an SAP global implementation partner. They’re experienced at helping companies understand how BI can help corporate performance, and can also help you socialize the plan with company stakeholders.

Q: What is the value of historical data in BI? How many previous years should we include? What should we exclude?

A: It depends on what industry you’re in, the type of business you operate, and how available (read: clean) the data is. Some businesses are wise to look at 10 years worth of data. Most, however, would find the past few years’ data sufficient. Overall, we recommend you bring enough historical data into the system to generate a clear picture of how your business performed over the past few years. That’s key to dealing with your business in the present tense, and key to establishing KPIs (key performance indicators) for the future.

Q: There is a strong spreadsheet culture in my company. How will BI disrupt the way we currently get things done?

A: One oft-repeated myth about BI is that it makes spreadsheets obsolete. It doesn’t. The ability to slice and dice information in structured columns and rows will continue to have significant business appeal and value. However, effective BI software and business processes eliminate the need for individual analysts to build spreadsheets by hand, and manually roll them up into consolidated reports. That’s where the errors occur. That’s where the time gets spent. That’s where deadline slippage arises. In a BI context, spreadsheets are an output tool. All the heavy computational lifting and expansive reporting capabilities reside in the BI system. Then those who want to can take that up-to-the-minute output and slice and dice to their heart’s content. So, BI doesn’t kill spreadsheets. It just makes them more useful, less time consuming, and less costly (in terms of risk).

Q: How will mobile devices affect the BI market?

A: Mobile is reshaping how the world does business, and BI is no exception. The opportunities are boundless. The ability to securely capture and move data beyond company walls, to wherever your people and customers might be, opens untold opportunities for analysis, understanding, and action. Every company that is going mobile should be thinking about how BI fits into that plan, and what more it can gain from mobilizing its BI.

Q: What is the one-minute elevator pitch on SAP BI?

A: SAP business intelligence solutions help midsize and fast-growing small companies to ensure the integrity of information, transform decision making, and optimize business performance. We help you ensure the integrity of information by accessing all your data, validating the accuracy and maintaining consistency across sources. You can transform decision making by delivering trusted information to people when and where they need it. And we help you optimize business performance by strengthening alignment, streamlining processes and increasing accountability. Flexible licensing options make our solutions affordable for practically any budget. A business semantic layer and intuitive interfaces enable business people to perform their own queries and analysis. And pre-built integration with SAP and non-SAP transactional applications help you realize business value faster.

To see SAP Business One in action, watch this video.

How can I find out more about SAP Business One?

Contact Blue Ocean Systems’ team of ERP specialists who can guide you in finding the best SAP Business One solution for your organisation.