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Saturday, 30 January 2010 08:20 |
The current king of business intelligence (BI) tools is Microsoft Excel. Microsoft states that there are over 150 million Excel users, with many of them using Excel for BI -- reporting and analysis of corporate data.
For many years BI vendors have been building front-end tools to try to replace Excel spreadsheets for querying, reporting and analyzing data results. But despite the fact that tens of thousands of BI tool licenses have been sold, spreadsheets are still the most pervasive and dominant tool.
What makes Microsoft Excel so dominant for BI? It's on practically everyone's PC; there are no extra costs; it's easy to learn; it does the data manipulation and data graphics companies need for most reports and analysis; and many business people have become spreadsheet "jocks." Even if "real" BI tools were free, Excel already has enough momentum that people would still use spreadsheets for much of their reporting and analysis tasks.
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Read more... [Microsoft Excel: The king of BI]
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Friday, 22 January 2010 12:32 |
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For years, making decisions has been ruled by gut instinct. Managers and executives frequently justify their decisions by saying, “I have a feel for the market” or “I know what the market will do.” Yet when asked for a concrete example of how they knew this, they usually have no answer.
Smooth economic times are behind us and while their return is inevitable, today we must navigate challenging waters. Instincts and gut feel will not keep the boat, or your business, afloat. To successfully navigate these treacherous times, organisations must embrace more intelligent decision processes. Decisions based on verifiable data that guide and support the decision will sustain businesses in the short term and grow in the long term.
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Read more... [Ignorance is not bliss]
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Saturday, 16 January 2010 10:20 |
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The economy is down, and many people are wondering what to do to keep their businesses alive. They ask everyone they know for clues and ideas that might lead to new business. However, without details of what is working and what is not working, how can they expect to make the right decision? There are a host of automated techniques for measuring and reporting on the health of a business that executives can use to obtain key business indicators. But independent of the technology used, the need to develop a corporate “culture of performance” has never been more urgent.
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Read more... [Performance Culture]
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Scott's Blog