Maestro Technologies - Intelligent management software for the construction industry.

What is Business Intelligence?

What can BI tools do for your company today? Just like CRM, business intelligence, more commonly referred to as BI, is increasingly essential to companies. It includes all of the technologies used to analyze the data created by a company in order to measure the performance of its operations and to help it make informed decisions. It is designed for all organizations, from all activity sectors, that want to integrate a technological innovation into their decision-making procedures.

BI tools

The main advantage with BI systems is that they have multiple interfaces with other databases and for analyzing information from multiple sources. Very often, large companies use different systems to manage various divisions and/or operations. BI tools unify this information.

In other words, BIs provide the ability to read different sources of information and centralize the information in local tables for an efficient and unified analysis. This makes it possible to obtain up-to-date information at any time and avoid periodic synchronization.

There is currently a panoply of BI tools available on the market. Several of them are listed below:

• Actuate
• Alphablox
• Arcplan
• Brio
• Business Objects
• Cognos
• Comshare
• Crystal Decisions
• Databeacon

• Hyperion
• Informatica
• Information Builders
• MicroStrategy
• ProClarity
• SAS
• Silvon
• Speedware
• Targit

List of products taken from CA Magazine.com – Printed edition

Microsoft is also doing its share. In 2007, Microsoft launched a new suite named Microsoft PerformancePoint 2007, which was specifically designed for the emergence of business intelligence.

The Dashboard: an add-in

Given the ultimate goal of a BI tool, which is to promote making informed decisions, the control panel is an ideal add-in. As its name clearly indicates, the control panel is a guidance tool. It contains links to all of the departments in the company.

This makes it an excellent tool for communicating results and a clear choice for demonstrating the evolution of a company’s keys to success.

Mastering your knowledge on the subject

Now that business intelligence is becoming more important in our companies, managers can rely on trade shows, such as the Business Intelligence Show, which has been held in Montreal for the last years, to expand and share their knowledge on the subject.

Given the growing interest in this phenomenon, this is not simply a passing fad. Business intelligence and related tools are expected to be used increasingly in companies.

Maestro’s contribution in this area

Version 3.01.022 now contains a dashboard. While currently limited to data from maestro* software, it will gradually include various data analysis functions. Have a look and send us your comments.