5 Ways to Turn Business Data Into Business Insight: The DIY* Factor of Business Intelligence (Part 2)

 

This is the second post in our five-part series. In part one we looked at how dashboards can provide easy information access to your team members based on their specific roles. Today, we’ll discuss the push towards empowering users while lessening the business intelligence (BI) and reporting burden on IT.

In a perfect scenario where money were no object, your business would have a personal IT advisor for each one of your employees. However, we believe it would be better if you could redirect that money to other, more effective, channels. Just imagine if all your employees could manage, obtain and act on data on their own. Your people would have all the info they need, and your thinly resourced IT teams could focus on the bigger technology picture of your entire business.

The reporting and analytics tools within Microsoft Dynamics NAV help you answer your specific business questions quickly through, high-impact reports, charts and simple analysis designed to be easy, usable and adaptable for everyone. In other words: you don’t need to have a special set of IT skills in order to obtain the reports you need.  

The MS Dynamics NAV has built-in hundreds of out-of-the-box standard reports. Users also have the ability to tweak and adapt these standard reports—changing fields, adapting terminology and adding inputs from other data sources. And you can do all these things without needing any external help. With a reporting, collaboration and distribution platform based on Microsoft SQL Server, Office and SharePoint, you and your employees can take full advantage of your business solution investments and get the business insight you need. Again, without IT involvement!

Just sit back and watch how your employees’ productivity (and IT’s) skyrockets, as you put the power of BI and reporting in their hands.

In the next blog post, we’ll take this one step further, and show you how a business solution from Microsoft can make business intelligence as mobile as your team is. 

*Do it Yourself 🙂

5 Ways to Turn Business Data into Business Insight: Better, Not Bigger Dashboards (Part 1)

In this five-part blog series we are going to examine how MS Dynamics NAV can help you turn business data into a powerful money-making and time-saving tool that could only help your business develop more quickly. We hope you enjoy our little project. Comments are welcome! 

When you’re running a business that’s growing, it can sometimes be hard to have a complete view of your financial picture and overall performance. As you grow and add customers, suppliers and product lines, you need access to the information that matters most to your business. And every member of your team needs an accurate, timely look at what’s most important for their unique role.

In this five-part series, we’ll dive into the principles that will ensure both you and your team are armed with the information you need to manage and grow a better business.

Better, Not Bigger, Dashboards. 

Running a successful business depends on the ability to gain insight from business data and present information in a meaningful way. To be successful, your people need to transform data into actionable insight—no matter where they are located in the organization. Microsoft Dynamics NAV helps them make informed decisions as a natural part of their everyday work experience by making the tools on their desktop even more effective. Here are some examples:

• Role Based Reporting: Monitor current activity and compare it to historical performance and growth targets, giving your people access to specific reports related to their task or role.

• Easy Access to Charts and KPIs: View business performance at a glance and drill into more detail when trends are spotted and you need additional information.

• Ad-hoc Query and Analysis: Robust analysis capabilities, especially with a familiar tool like MS Office Excel, enable your team do ad-hoc queries on the fly without needing help from the IT guys. They can compare plans to actuals, analyze that information, make the necessary adjustments, and then take action, based on detailed information.

With business intelligence capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, you and your team can also be notified whenever key thresholds are hit, either through emails in your inbox or messages on your homepage. For example, you can establish the parameters that make the most sense for your business and get alerts when sales drop below expectations, inventory levels rise, or cash flow is a potential concern.  

In conclusion, what we are trying to say is that when you have the right insight and can take quick action, you can make the types of decisions that save and make real money.

Next time, we’ll discuss how your team can take BI and reporting into their own hands without relying on IT.