They are very used to their operational interfaces. And operational business intelligence has a very different kind of interface, so they may not have been trained on how to use it. And finally, we also have to consider that they may not have even been involved in the development and therefore don’t even have any kind of connection or understanding of what's going on, and therefore they lack the support for the overall program. The other problem there is that if the executives themselves are not on board with the operational business intelligence and the massive information management changes...
Operational Intelligence for Sell-Side Banks - As Wall Street embraces and deploys more technology to conduct business, relationships between Buy-side and Sell-side banks have been transformed from voice and human operations to computerized electronic trading platforms. This new systems-driven way of conducting business has rapidly changed the trading landscape. Historically, a Buy-side bank would phone a Sell-side bank and place an order or ask for a quote for a particular instrument. The Sell-side bank would then respond, receive and “work the order” during the course of the trading day (or sometimes days). At their discretion, banks would update the trade status to the Buy-side client. This process gave the Sell-side bank a tremendous advantage to easily establish prices, premiums and margins for the instrument while the order was worked. Conversely, the Buy-side bank had limited visibility, not knowing how much of the trade was executed until they received either an order confirmation or updated status. Today, the pendulum has swung in the Buy-side’s favor. Time-honored personal relationships no longer guarantee orders for Sell-side banks. As newer electronic trading channels have opened and emerged, the Buy-side bank no longer needs personal contact with the Sell-side bank to handle a trade. The net result: personal relationships are not enough to guarantee an order...
Operational Intelligence Solution for Capital Markets - InetSoft allows you to easily collect and model data from any source and from any system. In the InetSoft development environment, you easily define the sources of trade execution data and create data relationships in a simple “point and click” development framework. After building data relationships, you then add business conditions using a wealth of built-in analytical functions to construct aggregated metrics. After connecting to the data sources the Data Mashup Engine collects data incrementally from the data sources to be stored inthe Data Grid Cache. The Data Mashup Engine also performs the aggregations based on the mashup definitions, computes the metrics, and feeds it into the Data Grid Cache which is immediately makes the metrics available to the Visualization Engine. The Visualization Engine controls the entitlements for the end users and the visualization of the metrics to the various stakeholder dashboards. It also controls the “automated actions” that are transmited to the underlying source infrastructure...
Option for a Visual BI Solution - Looking for visual BI solutions? InetSoft is a pioneer in self-service business intelligence software and makes it easy to create visual BI analyics. View a demo and try interactive examples...
Periscope BI Tool Alternative - Are you looking for a good alternative to Periscope's BI tool? InetSoft's pioneering dashboard reporting application produces great-looking web-based dashboards with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop designer. Maximize self-service for all types of users. No dedicated BI developer required. InetSoft's solution is true Software-as-a-Service for hosted and self-hosting, not a combination of client developer tools and a web-based delivery platform. All new clients and partners get free one-on-one business intelligence expert help to accelerate deployment. View a demo and try interactive examples...
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“Flexible product with great training and support. The product has been very useful for quickly creating dashboards and data views. Support and training has always been available to us and quick to respond.
- George R, Information Technology Specialist at Sonepar USA
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Pervasive BI - Providing BI to more employees diminishes the latency between the recognition of events and the implementation of subsequent actions. Access to BI facilitates the decision-making process and speeds the deployment of organizational initiatives. InetSoft's Style Intelligence can seamlessly integrate data warehousing information, along with historical and real-time data from a variety of sources, into a web-based BI platform that is intuitive enough to be used by employees at all levels of your organization. Giving these employees hands-on access to a BI tool that they can actually use, removes the ambiguity of having to rely on a singly BI or IT professional for vital information...
Pervasive BI Customer Example - One great example an auto insurance company that we worked with. They were looking to improve customer service by streamlining certain functions. One improvement was the need to ensure accuracy in providing policy holder addresses to the independent agency partners so that correct public protection correction, or PPC codes, are assigned to their customers. Real-time access was critical for fast responses. They chose a service-oriented approach to help standardize their processes using WSDL and SOAP. They built such a data services framework to improve data accuracy that led to a reduction in underwriting risk. The team started by building two data services that were designed to be accessible by both agents and internal employees. The first service validated customer address information based on standard US postal codes. The second validated protection class codes using an ISO data source. Benefits were very compelling. First of all, they improved the accuracy of both the policy holder address and the assigned PPC code which had a direct impact on the coverage premium and risk exposure. Also, they no longer needed to use agent time to look up and enter this information. It’s done automatically when they enter the policy holder details...
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PostgreSQL Business Intelligence Dashboard Reporting - PostgreSQL is an object-relational database management system available for many platforms. It implements the majority of the SQL:2008 standard, is ACID-compliant, is fully transactional, has extensible data types, operators, index methods, functions, aggregates, procedural languages, and has a large number of extensions written by third parties...
Promise of Agile BI and of Style Intelligence - Well, and that’s the promise of agile BI and of Style Intelligence, is that it can really transform the organization from the democratizing of the data and the intuitive user interface. And in our last couple of minutes, what learnings can both of you share with people out there who might be considering implementing this BI solution but are a little intimidated. They might be worried that it requires a lot of time and effort as you both illustrated. People have said to me, “you keep talking about how you are able to do this in days, weeks and a month or two, and I don’t know that I really sign off on that. Are you guys just kind of talking or whatever?” And my response was, “Well, listen, these BI products are rapid application, rapid deployment products, but it’s not going to solve the problem of having bad architecture or poor data modeling and poor data design underneath the hood. If you are a organization that has a good solid foundation, and you really want to jump to the next level, especially in the usability and high user adoption, you really can’t do that in days, weeks and months, if you have the right people focused on it and you have a good use case...
Promoting BI's Practicality - I’d talk about promoting BI as a tactical tool because one of the things we have seen is as business intelligence sort of grew organically as a strategic tool for forecasting, planning, and budgeting, really. A lot of times recently, we have been seeing it used more as a tactical tool for that operational visibility and operational decision support. I talked about that decision window, companies are seeing that shrinking in that decision window, they need to make decisions faster and a lot of companies are leveraging that type of analytical capability to make those operational decisions and drive operating performance as a result...
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Read what InetSoft customers and partners have said about their selection of Style Report as their production reporting tool. |
Quicker and Better BI - So we are actually looking for quicker and better BI, and let me add to that it's not just quicker and better in one area, it's actually quicker and better in both the development of a BI dashboard or report, and the end-user access when it comes to the use of business Intelligence. We have got these two sides of the coin, these two aspects that we have to deal with. I have added in this picture of Rolls Royce, of a jet fighter whose engine is being developed by Rolls Royce, and those of you who know Rolls Royce know that they not only make high quality cars but they make fast jet engines as well. So that’s what I am trying to get at here. We are trying to do quicker and better on two sides, both the development and the access. On the BI development side over the next number of slides I am going to talk about three areas. I am going to talk about reduced scope, modeling, and design. That’s number one. I am going to talk about the need for data-driven design, and I am going to talk about a hybrid agile BI technique...
Real-time Analytics Provide Value in Capital Markets - Customers and industry analysts are validating InetSoft’s value in Capital Markets. “The only way to differentiate is to use InetSoft’s real-time technology as a strategic weapon.” – Managing Director, Fixed Income, Fortune 10 Bank “InetSoft helps us ensure execution capacity to our top customers, which is key to our success.” – Managing Director, Equities, Fortune 10 Bank. Software today needs to be highly flexible and be able to recognize the needs of different classes of users. Different classes of users have different sets of business intelligence and analysis needs. A business user views their world very differently from a trade-operations user; an IT user views the world radically different from a business user. InetSoft understands this and delivers tailored visualizations based on the different user needs and perspectives. Utilizing the data collected from the underlying source infrastructure InetSoft can model, pivot, correlate and aggregate the data events according to particular end user requirements...
Recognizing Scorecard Metrics - In business, a scorecard is a means of assessing the performance of an individual or a company. Scorecard metrics are the measurements used to track and control the progress of this performance. The intent of these measurements is to ensure that progress remains steady towards a desired future goal. Scorecard metrics should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-constrained (S.M.A.R.T.). Scorecards can most easily be likened to school report cards...
Report Designer Demo - Business intelligence necessitates the agile interpretation of volumes of data into a clear mode of action. Dashboard systems with enhanced reporting and mashup features can help you sift through the muck and pin point the fundamental issues with your enterprise. Style Intelligence™ will help you find the "key performance inertia" within your company...
Requirements for a BI Reporting Platform - If we do the executive part right that at the beginning we can get a very good estimate. In the project we used, we are going to show you a balanced insights consensus tool that we used for programming and prototyping and for automating the requirements of the BI reporting platform. We are going to show you some of that when we use the BI solution itself, whether you have Cognos, Business Objects, MicroStrategy, or Microsoft. And in our opinion in this project perspective, this is where we want to do some data profiling to get at least a heads up on what’s out there from a data quality point of view and where the data skeletons might be hidden before we begin to work in these areas. Then lastly, we go and do the actual delivery. We actually reuse our data modeling tool and the actual tool kit that we use to design building and maintain our BI solutions. From the executive perspective what we are trying to really get at is a high level estimate with a low degree of variability plus or minus 5% plus or minus 10% as opposed to that plus or minus 40 or 50 or 60%. We are also trying to get to a release roadmap as we understand. It may take us 1, 3, or 6 months to deliver the full set of features and functions, but we certainly do not want the business to have to wait to the very end...
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Regular reports are vital for the monitoring and control of business conditions. But in many cases, the production of daily, weekly, monthly, and annual reports puts additional demands on administrators and employees...
Resort Management Software Solution Customizes Its Business Intelligence Features - A Resort Management Software (RMS) solution can greatly benefit from customized business intelligence (BI) features to enhance its overall efficiency and decision-making processes. Here are several ways in which a resort management software can tailor its BI features: Guest Analytics: Personalization: Customize BI to analyze guest preferences, behaviors, and demographics. This data can be used to personalize guest experiences, recommend services, and improve overall satisfaction. Loyalty Programs: Implement BI tools to track and analyze the effectiveness of loyalty programs. Assess which incentives and rewards are driving customer loyalty and adjust programs accordingly. Revenue Management: Dynamic Pricing Analysis: Utilize BI to analyze market trends, demand patterns, and competitor pricing to optimize room rates dynamically. This ensures maximum revenue during peak times and attracts guests during low-demand periods. Channel Performance: Evaluate the performance of different booking channels through BI to identify the most profitable ones. Adjust marketing strategies based on the data to maximize revenue. Operational Efficiency: Resource Utilization: Customize BI to monitor the utilization of resources such as staff, amenities, and facilities. Identify peak operational times and allocate resources efficiently to improve service quality. Maintenance Planning: Implement predictive analytics through BI to schedule preventive maintenance for facilities and equipment. This reduces downtime, enhances guest satisfaction, and extends the lifespan of assets...
Rich Reporting for BI Interactivity - So which graphics rendering technology will win out? Today Adobe Flash is predominant technology for delivering that animation or what can be called rich reporting. You also have to look at the build process for you to take advantage of a technology. In the best world, you have an existing report or an existing dashboard and you do a simple ‘save as’ and enhance it with animation. There is still so much that is left to the imagination of the developer how you use the animation. We, too, are providing a tool set and a blank canvas for you to design whatever interactive report or dashboard you wish. And because this is still emerging, you have to think of some best practices around when to use it. So besides making information more appealing, it can also make information more actionable. Imagine an animation that shows within a dashboard if you are getting low on inventory or if your actual expenses are exceeding your budget, and maybe there is a red flashing indicator that is telling you to go and investigate that...
ROI from Smart Grids and BI - What is the Return on Investment by collaborating Smart Grids with Business Intelligence tools in today's various industries. It is, especially when it comes to dynamic pricing for example. The utilities there can definitely do a fantastic job in the future. Actually offering different rates to different customers is where business intelligence is going to be at a core front of the smart grid. You also know that there is much more than pricing. It’s also about you having more of renewable power sources that come from wind farms, solar plants, etc. Those things are very unpredictable. Using wind as an example, you have it for half an hour and then you don’t have anything. You have to manage all these resources and that’s where business intelligence is going to be a key component of future decision making of utilities...
Self-service BI Strategy - The same thing could be done with the support and the help desk. That’s the last bullet point you see. Maybe what if we had a lot of the initial support being done locally? So I’d encourage you as part of your self-service BI strategy to think of which of these roles you actually want to have done locally versus in a more of centralized team structure. And my last slide for this key issue is this notion of a cross-functional team that blends IT and business skills. It’s just such a beautiful slide. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Here you are seeing in this company, all the people with red circles around their head are from IT, all the people with blue circles around their heads are from the business. And it’s just kind of obvious that this is not that classic division of labor between IT and the business, where IT treats the business as a customer, and it has that sort of shared service mentality of being almost like this internal vendor, supporting the business as a customer...
Self-Service Harvest BI Dashboards -Visualization dashboards are the most intuitive ways to understand project information. However, not all dashboards are created equal. InetSoft's web app can easily connect to Asana data to create self-service dashboards with rich built-in interactivity and customization. For successfully delivery of projects, project managers must utilize all project related data, for example, supply chain and issue tracking system data. These systems are normally scattered. Some third party data may even be in Excel files. InetSoft's data mashup makes data processing a light-weight, business user self-serviceable process with great efficiency...
Self-Service BI Platform - Are you looking for a good self-service BI platform? InetSoft's pioneering dashboard reporting application produces great-looking web-based dashboards with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop designer. Get cloud-flexibility for your deployment. Minimize costs with a small-footprint solution. Maximize self-service for all types of users. No dedicated BI developer required. View a demo and try interactive examples...
Server-based BI Tools - Are you looking for the best server-based BI tools? Since 1996 InetSoft has been making BI software that is easy to deploy and easy to use. Build self-service oriented dashboards and visual analyses quickly. InetSoft's data mashup engine solves the data access and transformation challenges that other tools cannot. Learn why we were rated #1 by Butler Analytics and download one of our applications for free...
Serving End Users a BI Tool - Looking for good end user BI tools? InetSoft's pioneering dashboard reporting application makes producing great-looking web-based reports and dashboards easy with a drag-and-drop designer and the ability to connect to all your data sources. Maximize self-service for all types of users. View a demo and try interactive examples...
Setting Up a Successful BI Strategy - Be sure to talk to the end user side. From what we have read and seen and studied and heard from our accounts, understanding the problem being solved, that’s really critical. And BI can be distributed in an enterprise fashion, but especially as you get to tactical staff and deal with analytics, it’s about solving problems. The problem is you have different types of users. They have questions, and I think number one is understanding what questions need to be answered. What are the business people actually trying to do and how can data help them answer those questions? Then who needs to answer these questions? Some people need a richer set of information and can handle that. Others need something really simple. If you are putting this out to sales people, it ought to be really simple. If you are putting it to a marketing analyst, it should be pretty rich. So the same data answering questions depending on who it is. The BI application has to have different looks and feels to it. And when and where are they going to answer these questions? There is a whole mobile thing. If they are walking around with a tablet PC, or they are out in the field working on a tablet PC, or they are sitting in the office, maybe at client server arrangement works. When and where they are actually trying to answer these questions...
SharePoint as a BI Tool - Initially designed as an enterprise document management system, SharePoint has evolved over time to play a crucial role in corporate decision-making inside enterprises. As the number of people using SharePoint increased exponentially, so did the uses for it. Soon, the SharePoint community began to realize that there was much more to it than content management, and as a result, SharePoint began to develop into a platform for content/document management, team collaboration, project management, and other activities that are all included in what we refer to as a modern workplace. A crucial component of any business intelligence system, SharePoint has developed into a fantastic display layer and core content store. As a result, it was only natural for Microsoft to release a collection of BI capabilities integrated into SharePoint to aid business users in effectively using data to make business choices. However, the issue is whether these features are sufficient to classify SharePoint as a BI tool. In this post, we will examine the essential BI characteristics that every Modern workplace firm want before examining SharePoint's BI capabilities and determining if they are sufficient to make SharePoint a preferred BI platform...
Small Footprint BI Platform - InetSoft's differentiating strength comes from its small footprint, cloud-first design philosophy. Compared to traditional business intelligence and analytics software, InetSoft's small footprint platform is distinct as it: Requires significantly less computing power and resources Minimizes skill training and administration with an all-in-one web app for analytics, dashboard, reporting, and data preparation, for both professional designers and self-service business users Delivers consistent high performance with an on-demand mini-warehouse that avoids IT heavy processes Continue reading below to learn reasons why...