BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM

Business Intelligence System



Business Intelligence System

BI Software provides key benefits to the end users to improve day to day performance. The software is able to immediately manage business activities as they occur? rather than waiting for manual input at the end of the business cycle. It increases the efficiency of the business by providing the immediate information and feedback to those who need it. By providing this critical information immediately? costs can be greatly reduced and repetitive tasks eliminated. BI software allows the business to respond quicker to customer needs? possibly heading off crises before they can occur? thus improving customer relations. All these benefits serve to reduce the time-to-decision of an organization? with the potential of exponentially increasing productivity. (see appendix for more information on BI)

In addition to analyzing data and providing products related to this data? BI software can help a company by tracking procurements and negotiated deals. The software can automatically alert the company's buyers when purchased quantities trigger negotiated discounts. It can also give the company leverage in contract negotiations. The analytics of the software will help to identify and quantify the potential value of a business relationship? both with suppliers and customers.

BI software can be expensive to implement. The procurement costs can range from tens of thousand to several million? depending on the product and associated software. In addition to the initial costs? hidden costs such as labor? maintenance? hardware? and training can greatly add to the company's cost. BI software is dependant upon near continuous updates. New functionality and products updates are frequently released by the vendors. In order to remain competitive? companies feel the need to continually keep up with these releases. In addition? the vendors rely on revenue gained through maintenance and upgrade fees of their software. Often? even though a company does not have a need for the updated software release? they are forced to upgrade due to dropped support of the old product. These maintenance costs must be figured into yearly expenses.

Most BI software is provided consulting firms and system integrators; however the more high-powered products are developed and distributed by major software developers. The hardware and software requirements vary? depending on the chosen application of BI software. Generally? minimum requirements are for Pentium 4/Athlon 64 series processor with a minimum speed of 1 GB? 512 MB RAM (1 GB preferred)? 1.5 GB hard drive space for installation files? it is also recommended that the system have at least an 80 GB hard drive. Software requirements are more varied. A common requirement is Windows Vista? XP Professional? or Server 2008. Many BI software platforms also support the current versions of Linux and UNIX. In addition internet browser software is required.

There are four major BI software providers of interest: IBM? Microsoft? SAP? and Oracle. Each developer is provided a quick review below: IBM provides several different products for Business Intelligence. DB2 Warehouse is the core of their BI software. They offer several versions of DB2 Warehouse depending on the need ...