The Elements Of An Effective Business Intelligence Software System

Cognos.com Tip: Development of a corporate performance management capability using a business intelligence tool can be complex and resource intensive. In order to make the right decisions when selecting the vendor and software that will, arguably, change the company forever, understanding the basic elements that should be included is valuable. According to a 2006 white paper from the vendor Cognos, there are five key elements incorporated into their product suite: ·Scorecarding - Link initiatives and projects to strategy with metrics and strategy maps. Use the same scorecard metrics to drive enterprise planning software for integrated performance management. ·Analysis - Explore and analyze large volumes of data covering all dimensions of the business, whether stored in OLAP or dimensionally aware relational sources. ·Reporting - Create any type of report, for any user, with any data. ·Dashboards - Deliver Web-based dashboards with information from different data sources in a single visual report. Provide an at-a-glance snapshot of the business. ·Business event management - Business event management goes beyond the basic notification functionality provided in other products to automate the decision-making process, launch business processes, and integrate with Business Process Management (BPM). Where human intervention is required, through decision-process automation, event management notifies the people who are accountable and provides the relevant information they need to resolve the issue. Many vendors offer similar business intelligence tool groupings, both integrated (like Cognos) and tool-by-tool. Careful research will lead the procurement team in the enterprise planning necessary to acquire an effective system.