Credit: Original article published here.

The amount of data stored by companies is growing exponentially and the need to translate this data into information to plan for future business strategies is a top priority for financial executives. For most companies, these data warehouses hold so much history it becomes difficult to extract meaningful information.  We often find ourselves limited with our abilities to get at the information, creating a high dependence on an IT professional.  We are, therefore, subject to the back and forth of what the end user wants to see vs. the IT professional’s interpretation.

A Business Intelligence (BI) solution helps in producing accurate reports by extracting data directly from your data source(s).  Most BI tools are designed so that the average non-IT professional can create the metrics/reports they want to see with little reliance on IT.  Once the initial connection to the database is made, these tools can produce current data, which allows managers to monitor businesses in real time.

Here are five benefits to a Business Intelligence tool:

1. Better decision making – transforms data into structured, analyzable information.
2. Real-time information – current data can be reviewed instantaneously for earlier detection of trends.
3. Can create a common language across location – global measure can be developed to help gain a deeper understand of an organization. Everyone is comparing against the same benchmark.
4. Measures of productivity – can identify bottlenecks, refine existing business processes, automate routine tasks and prioritization to everybody’s work.
5. Improve data accuracy and compliance – analysis can be well supported as opposed to a gut feel. With accurate data, the numbers can tell the story giving a logical, fact-based position.

Ryan Stroschein
CFO