In the realms of the military and geopolitics, the term “intelligence” refers to gathering information about your adversaries and using it to form an effective defensive or offensive strategy. In the business world, intelligence has a comparable meaning, but one in which the focus is inward. What information can you glean about yourself, to better your own offensive and defensive strategies? That’s what business intelligence (BI) is all about. The phrase is more apt than you might think, because in today’s data-saturated world, you are potentially your own worst enemy if you cannot conduct proper intelligence on your own operations.
What is Business Intelligence?
BI is a process of turning data into actionable insights. The fundamental premise of BI is that your business generates data that can show you how to improve profitability and be more competitive—if you can interpret it correctly. The assumption is that important knowledge is hidden within the data, not apparent to the naked eye.
With a BI tool, you can analyze and visualize data in ways that reveal valuable insights that help you to make informed decisions and improve your bottom line. BI can help you track your business performance, identify trends, and make predictions about the future. The BI process gives you a clear picture of what is happening in your business and empowers you to take actions that will help you achieve your goals.
BI can empower strategic decisions
Acumatica’s Cloud ERP software comes with BI capabilities. It also integrates with third party BI solutions. Acumatica’s BI functions, or those enabled through integration, are designed to empower businesses with the insights they need to make strategic decisions. Acumatica’s BI tools provide users with personalized reporting and business intelligence:
- Understand your business performance with clear and insightful reports
- Identify trends and make predictions about the future
- Stay ahead of the competition with Acumatica’s personalized reporting and business intelligence
Combining BI with ERP
The ability to gather, analyze, and act on data can mean the difference between success and failure in a business. Your competitors are likely running analytics on their data, which may put them ahead of you on the competitive curve. For this reason, you need a reliable way to collect and track information.
Acumatica is a leading ERP system that helps companies to do just that. By combining a best-in-class ERP system with a customizable reporting system and effective business intelligence, Acumatica collects and converts vast amounts of raw data into useful knowledge. For example, a superficial glance at service complaints might show that all of your operating regions are performing at the same level. With BI, you might discover, however, that one region is doing far worse in this department, when you look at the complaint data on a seasonal or product-by-product basis. Once the problem is revealed, you can solve it. Without BI, you might never have spotted the issue.
Gain powerful insights
There’s no such thing as one size fits all in business. Every company has different needs and goals, and what works for one might not work for another. That’s why it’s important to have a flexible, customizable BI reporting solution that can be tailored to your specific business needs.
This is where personalized dashboards and key performance indicators (KPIs) come in. With these tools, you can get powerful insights into your business operations, financials, and more. You can also create customized reports that provide maximum transparency and flexibility. And, because all of your data is in one place, you can be sure that you’re always getting the most accurate, up-to-date information. Best of all, employees will be more engaged with their work when they can see how their efforts affect the company’s bottom line.
Acumatica Cloud ERP
It’s essential to stay ahead of competition by recognizing and addressing problems quickly. Acumatica Cloud ERP delivers on this need with its advanced data analytics technology. The system provides real-time BI that gives you a competitive edge over other companies on any given day.
Contact us today for a demo to see how Acumatica can improve your business intelligence.
Additional Acumatica Resources
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