subject: How The Best Reporting Solutions Can Affect Business Intelligence [print this page] Ever since the 1960's when the "business intelligence" (aka "BI") idea emerged, reporting solutions have continued to grow and evolve to become very effective tools. Some believe the origins of business intelligence can be traced back to a specific article written in 1958 by IBM researcher Hans Peter Luhn. He described in his article that "intelligence" as the ability to isolate relationships between facts presented in such a way as to guide actions toward specific goals.
This ethos began to spread and take hold in the business world, but it wasn't until the late 1980's that the term "business intelligence" was coined and began to be used more widely in the marketplace. It was in 1989 that soon-to-be Gartner Group analyst Howard Dresner proposed the term in order to describe the process of using existing facts about a business to improve business decision making. The ultimate goal was better business performance and better results. By the 1990's, the term "business intelligence" was being used in a widespread way.
Business intelligence can be used in a broad and general way, but ad hoc reporting can also be quite powerful and useful. This means the user can drill down to specific business performance issues that require further examination. Finding targeted answers and solutions can improve business performance dramatically.
Today, companies can't afford to not stay on top of the current critical statistical data about their businesses in order to succeed. However, sometimes the idea of gathering and sorting through this data in-house can seem somewhat overwhelming. There are automated systems from companies businesses can connect to through the net to assist in collecting data and to help analyze business intelligence in a much more manageable manner.
What should you look for in a business intelligence management solution? Ease of use should be high on the list. If you are employing an outside company to do this work for you, there should be as small of a "learning curve" as possible on your end. You should be able to get the bottom-line statistics you want quickly and efficiently, even from mountains of raw data. You should be able to easily generate the format you need on the spot, whether it's a graph, pie-chart or spreadsheet. Having real time 24/7 access to your data is essential as well.
Efficiency, accuracy and ease of use in business reporting sets some data software solutions apart from the rest. With the help of a software solutions company, business intelligence can help to maximize your business' performance, leading to better results and higher profits.
