BI Whitepaper V4

8/6/2019 BI Whitepaper V4

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/bi-whitepaper-v4 1/10

1

Why Does Understanding Business Data Matter for Your Company?

Improving Business InsightA GUIDE FOR SMALL AND MID-SIZED BUSINESSES

You know your business better than anyone else, and

making decisions about how to run your business is

part of your everyday life. No matter what the size

of your organization, the data you capture and share

on a daily basis—through various business systems,customer relationships, partner and supplier inter-

actions, Web-based ex-

periences, and more—is

becoming ubiquitous.

Finding ways to tap into

and analyze that data

can help you make bet-

ter decisions that sup-

port business success.

This can mean being

able to:

• Produceaccurateandup-to-daterevenue

statements when applying for a new loan.

• Understandsalesbygeographyorby

individual sales representative.

• Developalistofyourtopcustomersin

minutes.

• Createdailyupdatestoa“salesbyproduct

against target” report to motivate the sales

team.

• Comparedatafromyouraccounting

system with your sales records to highlight

discrepancies between invoices and orders

or analyze customer payment status prior to

accepting new orders.

Regardless of the type of business you run, data-

driven actions can quickly and directly impact the

protabilityofyouroperations.Sohowdoyoureg -

ularly—and automatically—access and compile this

data?Perhapsyoursalesteamhas certainspread-sheets and reports to review; your bookkeeper has

otherprot/lossinfor -

mation; your money

management software

has aggregated your

bank statements and

credit card expenses.

The challenge with

this do-it-yourself ap-

proach to business

decision-making is that everyone in your companyhas their own way of gathering and interpreting in-

formation. The result is that there’s no single version

of truth, and insight gained is often not transferable

or sharable. Housing or managing all this data in a

way that allows you to easily compile, analyze, and

share reports is key to making sense of business data

across the organization.

But the reality is that if you’re a small business, you

likely don’t have an internal IT department to do this.

Sometimesitseemsit’sjusteasiertoworkwithwhat

you already know—a couple of spreadsheets and

a whiteboard, maybe some Web metrics from your

hosting service—than to pay for an outside IT con-

sultant and learn to use all the seemingly complex

technology.

“Business intelligence? No thanks, we’re

just a small company… we don’t need

complicated, expensive technology that’s

just going to tell us what we already

know...”



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While large enterprises have increasingly embraced

incorporating “business intelligence” into their op-

erations, smaller businesses have often been slower

to embrace the practice. The reasons? Historically,adding this functionality meant additional costs for

licenses and training, as well as dealing with the com-

plexity of installing, maintaining, and incorporating

yet another application into everyday activities.

Todayyou don’tneed tomakea signicant ITin-

vestment to get a better picture of your operations.

Your business can take advantage of the Microsoft

products you may already own and use to explore

abusinessintelligencesolutionthattsyou.Costis

no longer a barrier since you likely already have thelicenses you need; and by getting more out of the

tools you use every day, you make it easy for every-

one to take a closer look at the data they need to

make the best decisions for the business.

Throughout this paper, we’ll follow Steve, a ctional business owner who oversees

sales and operations for AdventureWorks Cycles. For the past few years, Steve has

tracked sales manually as his operations have expanded. Keeping his information top

of mind is important, so he writes down everything on whiteboards and in ad hoc

spreadsheets. That’s a tactic that has sufced through his start-up phase as he tries

to stay on track with the day-to-day business operations.

But as the company has picked up momentum over the last few years, this approach

has become more difcult to manage—and increasingly error-prone. No one elsein the company knows the logic he’s used or where he’s stored the spreadsheets on

his computer. If Steve goes on vacation for a week, operations could shut down

because the other employees can’t access his data—and even if they could,

they wouldn’t know how to work with it.

Steve, like so many other business owners, needs to get accurate, con-

sistent data, in as close to real time as possible, so he can have a re-

alistic view of the state of the business and make the best decisions to

keep costs low and prots high. Throughout this paper,

we’ll see how he uses existing products and licenses to

compile and understand his data for increased businessinsight.

Steve

Owner,AdventureWorksCycles



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Unlocking Data to Support Better Decisions

Every business process generates metrics that, with basic analysis, can help you make better decisions. Byanalyzing your data, you can begin to connect the dots around key data points and answer questions that

have an impact on how you approach various activities:

• Whichworkstreamsorbusinessofferingsaretrulyprotable?

• Whichofferingsappearprotablebutaren’t?

• Wheredoyou(oryourprojects)standinreachingcriticalmilestones?

• Whenisthebesttimetolaunchamarketingcampaign?

• Whatwasthebestperformingproductorservicelastquarter?

• Doeseveryoneinthecompany,whetherintheofceormobile,haveaccesstothesame

dependable data?

Asaresult,youcangainabetteroverallviewofthebusiness.Unprotableproductlinescanbeeliminated,andresourcescanbeusedmoreefcientlyorperhapsmovedtomoreprotableareasofthebusiness.Your

company becomes smarter, leaner, more effective, and better positioned to face challenges successfully.

Database

Mobile Access to Data

Tracking BusinessPerformance

Tools for Analysis



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Finding the Right Solution for Your Business

That’s exactly what Steve from AdventureWorks Cycles did. Steve has recently begun using standard SQL

Server reports to get an accurate, consistent view of sales data for the whole company. Business opera-

tions have branched out into several regions, and each regional sales manager is keeping track of that

area’s performance.

Steve wants to make sure he can keep each regional sales manager aware of the overall company per-

formance, and develop a useful way for everyone to collaborate and see into the specic sales and prot

margins of each region so they can collectively make better decisions across the whole organization.

A basic SQL Server reporting solution helps him quickly generate

and build intuitive reports, analyze data, easily create charts,

and get a snapshot of information such as bank account

balances, important reminders, and accounts receivable

and payable—all on one screen.

Finally, using Microsoft Ofce Excel and other familiar

Microsoft Ofce tools, Steve makes this data analysis

easier and more intuitive by adding simple data vi-

sualization for quicker and more informed business

decisions. With PowerPivot for Excel 2010, he’s ableto speedily transform very large quantities of data

into meaningful information, getting the answers he

needs in seconds.

Timely, relevant, accurate information is what candrivewise andprotable decisions. Your business

canbenetfromasolutionthatgetsyoutheright

information at the right time. Here’s how to start—

and how you can expand your solution over time as

your needs change.

Getting Started with Reporting and Data

Visualization

UsingthefamiliarMicrosoftOfcesystemandSQL

Server,youcantrackandimproveyourbusinessper -

formance to make better-informed decisions andstaycompetitive.SQLServer includesstandardre-

ports that can give you a consistent view of business

operations (includingnancial, inventory, andcost

data),andthesereportscanbeeasilypublishedand

shared. You can also use Microsoft Excel to add eas-

ily recognizable data visualization, rich sorting and

lteringcapabilities,andmorewaystointeractwith

and act on the data you’ve collected.



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Sharing Reports and Adding Richer Data Visualization

Taking his quest for business insight further, Steve builds and manages SQL Server reports

to gather and share sales performance data with his regional managers. The SQL Server

reports he creates are customizable and automated, and give him an improved view into

AdventureWorks Cycles’ nancial and business performance.

Next, Steve turns the data from his

business applications into ac-

tionable items by making reports

available to all employees using

familiar formats such as Excel

spreadsheets, Word documents,and even the Web. He also posts

the reports to the company’s

Microsoft SharePoint collabo-

ration portal to keep the latest

data available in a central loca-

tion for anyone to access.

WhenyourbusinessapplicationsrunonSQLServer,

you have access to standard reports using ReportingServicesandReportBuilderthatcangiveyoumore

visibility into your data. You can easily work with and

view these reportsusingfamiliarOfce tools,and

you can share them with others in your organization

to help everyone understand business performance.

Once you have set up access to the database from

within Reporting Services, you can start creating,modifying, and sharing reports. Reports can be pub-

lished to a central location—such as the Web, your

SharePointsite,oranothersharedlocation—andau-

tomatically updated so you and your team can make

decisions based on current information.



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Holistic Reporting, Rich Scorecards, and Dashboards

A more in-depth solution can take data from your

existing systems and consolidate it into a single ho-listicview.Thisgivesyoutheexibilitytorunwhat’s

knownas“adhoc”reportswhichallowyoutocreate

specic,customizedqueries.Youcanalsocreateau-

tomatically updated, intuitive scorecards that track

your company’s key performance indicators with

rich data visualization, including embedded graphs

and charts.

A scorecard is an at-a-glance way for you to look at

the all-up performance of your business across vari-

ous criteria for your company’s success. Your score-card may include some of the following metrics:

• Frequencyofin-personcustomervisits

• Websitevisitorrates

• Percentageofsalesonrstcontact

• Stockdeliveries• Numberofleads

• Callcentersales

Just as scorecards can help you see whether you’re

meeting specic objectives, dashboards can give

you a visual display of the most important informa-

tion you need toachieveone ormore objectives.

Dashboardsdisplay holisticbusiness data, consoli-

dated and arranged on a single screen so you can

view information as a snapshot and drill deeper to

uncover the underlying triggers for various results.These visually-based presentations of business met-

rics can be used to quickly inform management de-

cision-making.

Let’s take a look at Steve’s example once more. While his current reports are helpful for gaining

perspective, he’d like to combine data from various systems to more accurately map actual perfor-

mance numbers to sales goals, and to display it in an easy-to-understand way. Steve also wants

to give every employee access to accurate, actionable information so they can understand the key

drivers for the business and make appropriate, timely decisions that support increased prots.

Using familiar Microsoft products, he’s able to create in-

teractive reports and visually present the data in score-

cards and dashboards that users can explore for more

information. Together, Ofce Excel, SharePoint Server,

and SQL Server enable Steve to create a solution that

combines data from different business applications and

data sources to create a single, holistic view of overall

company operations. And he easily publishes these re-

ports to a central location, thus helping everyone in the

company access the data they need to stay focused on

the business priorities.



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Get More Out of the Microsoft Products You Already Own

Here’s how familiar Microsoft products can help you gain more insight into your business data:

Data storage and reporting

SQLServeristhefoundationthatfast,smart,efcientbusinessesarebuilton.It’san

optimal way to store and analyze your data and run a wide variety of standard and

custom reports with built-in reporting features.

Sharing and collaboration

Ascompaniesgrow,it’softendifculttokeeptrackofthemultiplyingdocuments

andtheirlocations.SharePointenablesyoutostoreandshareallyourlesina

central site, manage dashboards and scorecards, and collaborate on documents and

processes—anytime, anywhere.

Visualization and Analysis

Microsoft Excel helps you visualize your data, navigate it quickly, query the most relevant information, and

conduct“what-if”analysissocanyoucondentlyplanthebestcourseofaction.Youcandothisfromjustasimple

spreadsheetoryoucanbuildprofessional-lookingchartsandapplyrichvisualenhancementssuchas3-Deffects,

soft shadowing, and transparency.

PowerPivotforExcel2010isadataanalysistoolthatdeliversevenmorecomputationalpowerdirectlywithinExcel

Andifyou’realreadyusingSharePoint,youcangainaddedefciencythroughSharePoint-basedmanagementtoo

WiththefullsuiteofMicrosoftOfceproductsyoualreadyuse,youcaneasilyandeffectivelycreate,analyze,and

sharereports.BuildchartsinExcel,shareyourinfowithSharePoint,explorericherdatavisualizationwithMicrosoft

OfceVisio®,andcreatereportsandpresentationswithyourndingsinMicrosoftOfceWordandMicrosoftOf

PowerPoint®.Sharingdataacrossmultipleapplicationsiseasy,soyoucanusethetoolsyou’remostfamiliarwithto

increase your business insight.

Why look to Microsoft products and technologies tofuelyourefforts?Themainreasons:Cost,familiar -

ity, and the peace of mind that Microsoft technol-

ogycanscaleasyourbusinessgrows.Usingtheca-

pabilities built into the Microsoft products you may

already own, you can compile the raw data you have

quickly and affordably, and start getting more rel-

evant insight from your data.

The Microsoft platform provides better value foryour money because it allows you to maximize your

existing investments in software and licenses. It also

has lower support, training, and maintenance costs,

andissupportedbytrustedpartners.Andnally,itis

simple, intuitive, and interoperable with the systems

you already know and use.



8

Checklist: Finding the Right Partner

While you’re the expert in running your own busi-ness, where you may need support is comprehensive

IT knowledge. This is why it’s important to engage an

experienced partner to help shape your data analysis

efforts, cost-effectively leverage your existing tech-

nology,andkeepyoufrom“reinventingthewheel”

by pointing out best practices from others.

Here’s what to look for in considering an IT partner

to help you get started with data analysis:

1. IsthepartnercertiedonMicrosoft

products?CertiedMicrosoftpartners,withproven

expertise, are available worldwide to

help companies of all sizes and industries

select and implement the right business

technology—and to provide support through

future business changes.

2. Willthepartnerprovidereferences?

Make sure the partner will supply you with

a list of customers in your industry who

will answer questions and provide written

references to you. If not, the partner is not

for you. If the partner does supply a client list,

you may want to ask them these remaining

questions.

3. Is the partner’s business stable?

Find out if the partner is a stable business

organization with the technical infrastructure

and staff to deploy a solution for your

business within your timeframe. After the

partner implements the business solution, you

want to make sure the organization supportsyourstaffbyhelpingtone-tunethesystem

and address any problems that might arise.

4. Is the partner an expert in your industry?You need a partner who demonstrates a clear

understanding of your business concerns and

your industry, a partner who can draw from

extensive expertise with multiple businesses.

Your partner should suggest strategies and

develop your business solution with you.

5. Does the partner clearly consider the

featuresandcomponentsyouneed?

The software solution proposed by the

partner should be the right one to address

your business requirements. If it isn’t, the

partner needs to be willing to rework the

proposal until you have exactly what you

need. For example, does the partner have

expertise in working with the database, portal,

and data analysis solutions you intend to use?

Find out ahead of time about any hidden fees

related to revising your solution.

6. Are the partner’s consultants technologi-

callyprocient?

Make sure the partner uses a proven imple-mentationmethodologyandconguration

toolsthatspeedimplementation,congura-

tion, and upgrades. Ask the partner if the

consultants who will implement your solution

havebeencertiedbythesoftwarevendoron

thatsolution.Whatkindsofcerticationsdo

they have?

Wecanhelpyoundapartnerthathascompleted

the Microsoft Business Intelligence competency at

http://pinpoint.microsoft.com/ .



9

Now that you’ve started to look at your data in newways and create reporting solutions for more insight,

what’s next? How can you be sure that the technol-

ogy investments you make now for better business

insight will be good for both the short and the long

term?

Microsoft is committed to helping small and mid-

sized businesses to maximize their technology ben-

etswhilereducingtheiroverallcosts.Onewayisby

leveragingthepowerofthecloud.Theterm“cloud”

has become a bit of a buzzword—essentially it refers

to infrastructure that resides in and uses the simplic-

ity,accessibility,andexibilityoftheInternet.When

you have your servers and applications in the cloud

instead of on-premises, you can access your data

fromvirtuallyanywhere,andyoucansaveasigni-

cant amount of money and IT burden by not need-ing to invest in managing and maintaining your own

servers.

Moving forward, Microsoft is continuing to invest in

development of new technologies like cloud-based

WindowsAzureandSQLAzuretohelpyouusethe

products you have now to make it even easier to ac-

cess and analyze data. Azure and other cloud ser-

vicescangiveyourbusinessexibilityandscalewith

the ability to pay as you grow, they can reduce data-

base procurement and management needs, and can

enableanywhereaccesstokeybusinessdata.Learn

more at http://www.azure.com.

What Your Data Looks Like in the Future

Your

Cloud-based

Data and

Applications

AzureWindows® TM

platform

AppFabric

Windows Azure Platform

Your Users



10

Summary: How to Gain Insight to Strengthen Your Business

Today it is critical to know what is really happening inyour business and to know it fast enough so that you

can make the right decisions when it counts. Taking

full advantage of the technology investment you’ve

already made, you can make business insight work

for you. Here’s how:

• Haveaprocessinplacefordeterminingwhat

you want your data to tell you. Otherwise, you

won’t be able to use it to its fullest extent.

• Createandnurtureacultureofdataatyour

business. A few extra minutes spent onreporting and analysis can result in direct and

tangible business gains.

• Understandthattheprocessisdynamic.

It’s not something that you implement and

forget. Regularly review the use of your data

analysis tools.

Because you already own many Microsoft products,

gaining new insight into your business can be very

cost-effective. A solution based on Microsoft tech-

nologies can offer your company these compellingbenets:

• Lowertotalcosts.Leverageyourexisting

investmentsinSQLServer,SharePoint

technologies,andtheOfcesystem.

• Empoweryouremployeestomakebetter

business decisions. Give them visibility into

data and enable them to perform analysis

with minimal hand-holding, so they can then

make fast, accurate decisions.

• Enjoyrapiddeploymentandfastertime-

to-benets.Promotewidespreadadoption

with intuitive yet powerful business analysis

capabilities embedded within the everyday

productivity tools your employees already use.

Find a Microsoft partner at http://pinpoint.microsoft.com to help you explore cost-effective business in-

telligence solutions that can help you make better-

informed decisions.

To learn more about business intelligence for small

and mid-sized companies, visit http://www.microsoft.

com/businessinsight .

BI Whitepaper V4

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