These same respondents ranked “achieving operational efficiency”, “containing costs”, and “managing inventory” as their top priorities for improvement due to the effect these areas would have on the overall performance of the organization.

So if these organizations want to improve their business performance, why aren’t they analyzing their operational, financial, and inventory data to help them make business decisions?

It may be because 24% of them believe they don’t have a budget for a business intelligence project, 17% believe BI takes too long to implement and provide a ROI, 10% don’t have the right skills in house to take advantage of business intelligence, and 7% don’t understand the benefits it can bring to their organization.

If you are using a Microsoft Dynamics ERP or CRM solution and you are still relying on intuition rather than insight to make your business decisions because you fall into one of the categories above, then you are wasting some of the investment that you have already made in your software and putting your business at risk unnecessarily.

Every Microsoft Dynamics solution includes easy to implement, easy to learn, and easy to use data analysis and business intelligence tools “out-of-the-box.” To learn more about what analytics tools are included in your Microsoft Dynamics solution, contact us today.

There’s an old adage that says “a picture is worth a thousand words.”  Maybe that’s why businesses today are scrapping their traditional reports with endless rows of tabular data and replacing them with business intelligence tools and visual dashboards that are simple to read and even easier to use. 

Years ago, Business Intelligence (“BI”) seemed nothing more than a popular buzzword and the exclusive domain of large enterprise companies with even larger IT budgets.  But as the technology has matured, today’s BI is more than just a buzzword.  It’s an affordable necessity for small and medium-sized businesses that want a competitive edge.

The Right Information at the Right Time
BI is an umbrella term that describes a variety of tools involved in the process of gathering & organizing data into graphical views, charts, and meaningful reports that enable quick and informed decisions. Put simply, BI delivers the right information in the right format to the right person at the right time. 

In a traditional reporting environment, a manager or executive might request a report that looks across multiple departments and often multiple software systems.  IT then scrambles to gather mounds of data, piece it together, and deliver a report that’s chock full of static data and rarely complemented by graphs and charts.  The resulting “information overload” can delay important business decisions.  But with BI, this whole process is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

No “Techie” Required
An important aspect of BI tools is that they enable non-technical users (like employees, managers and executives) to create charts and analytical reports that interpret large volumes of real-time data without the need for a technical degree.  The “real-time” distinction is important because too often, key decision makers are forced to wait while the data they need is extracted and compiled in a report that arrives well “after the fact.”  The ultimate objective of BI is to empower business software users to access more relevant, timely, and better quality information.

It’s As Easy as Driving a Car
One of the most important elements of BI tools is dashboard-style reporting.  One glance at the dashboard in your car tells you everything you need to know about your speed, fuel, oil temperature, and other vital systems to ensure your car runs smoothly.  The same thing can be said about a reporting dashboard that provides visual analysis of business activity.  Dashboards aggregate vital information that is scattered across your business and consolidates that information into a single screen providing you with a snapshot to quickly interpret trends and correlations at a glance.

Dashboards can be customized to include only the information that you feel is vital to your role in the company or for the smooth operation of your business.  These vital bits of data are sometimes referred to as key performance indicators, or KPIs.  Furthermore, dashboards can pull data from just about any source which makes it easy to combine financial information from your accounting system with non-financial metrics maintained in some other database.

It’s Not Just for “The Suits”
One of the nice things about BI is that it works great as both a strategic and operational tool.  Strategically, managers and owners can analyze trends, gross profit margins, what products are selling, which sales people are performing, where you stack up against the competition, and other key performance indicators. 

Operationally, departmental personnel can streamline their daily procedures.  Consider the example of a collections department that goes through a series of tasks, reports, call logs, customer notes, and possibly information in external spreadsheets to determine which customers are overdue.  Using BI, all of those tasks and data can be consolidated into a single “Collections Dashboard” that provides a graphical snapshot of overdue customers along with “click of a button” access to underlying detailed account data when needed.

Picture Your Business Using the Power of BI
Business Intelligence has changed the reporting landscape for small and medium-sized businesses.  Contact us and discover how companies like yours are using BI and Dashboard Reporting to get a better picture of business operations and a leg up on the competition.

For more information, read our whitepaper: “The Truth About Analytics”

During one of the sessions here at the BI Conference I learned about a new feature to SQL Server 2008 R2 called Master Data Services(MDS). It is a way for business users to do several things with the data that are not always captured in the ERP or CRM systems.

MDS captures supplemental data that is not captured when entering data into the ERP system allowing the business user to create special groupings or even change a product or customer from one group to another with drag and drop functionality.  MDS also has a web based interface that is easy to use and can be secured using SQL Server security. 

Another benefit to MDS is the versioning capabilities that will allow users to manage and save snapshots of hierarchies. This allows users to view data in a cube with the dimensions in a before-and-after view.  The auditing capability allows users to track who changed items and when they were changed. When used in conjunction with fuzzy logic, MDS will enable you to find duplicate data and match and map the duplicates for clean up.

MDS is an exciting new feature in the R2 release of SQL Server 2008; I look forward to learning more about this topic today at the BI conference…

Socius’ Business Intelligence Solutions team is in New Orleans attending the Microsoft BI Conference 2010 and Tech Ed.  Get a live stream of their activities at the conference by following @SociusBIguru on Twitter!

As an FRx user, you can rest assured that Microsoft isn’t leaving you in a reporting lurch though.  Along with the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 (formerly GP 11.0) launch later this spring, Microsoft is releasing Management Reporter (MR), the reporting engine which will be the foundation upon which future budgeting and planning functionality will be built.

FRx will continue to be supported according to the GP 10 product lifecycle.  If you upgrade to GP 2010, you’ll have both FRx and MR users available to you.  You can transition to MR whenever it best fits your business needs.  Get Tips & Tricks for Migrating from FRx to Management Reporter.

Learn more about Microsoft’s Management Reporter

January
We were honored to be featured in RCP Magazine along with our partner PCMS IT Advisory Group.  The article entitled “A Tale of Two Partners” explained how we worked with PCMS to exceed the expectations of a mutual client.  This article highlighted all of the reasons that Socius and PCMS had together received Microsoft’s Partnering to Succeed Award in 2008. 

February
Instead of asking our clients and prospects to brave the Ohio winter weather to attend in-person events, we hosted many successful webinars during the month of February. 

March
In March, we were delighted to participate in two very exciting events.  First we had the pleasure of hosting over 30 of our clients at Convergence, Microsoft Dynamics’ annual conference, which took place in New Orleans.  It was an amazing time of learning and fun for us to share with our clients.  After returning home, we were pleased to participate in the launch of the new Dublin Entrepreneurial Center (DEC).  Our Dublin office is located on the third floor of the DEC.  As one of the initial tenants, it has been very exciting to see the DEC take shape and the building fill with emerging businesses.

April
Socius was once again honored to be listed prominently on the VAR 100 list produced by Accounting Technology and Web CPA.  2009 was the fourth consecutive year that we have been on this prestigious list of the top value added resellers of mid-level accounting software packages. 

May
May saw the beginning of our annual three-city tour of client education and appreciation events.  The theme of this year’s tour was “RACE for Results” and featured our newly launched Business Intelligence methodology and how it fits with our various ERP and CRM solutions.  Following each of these educational events, we enjoyed a meal and a local sporting event with our clients. 

June
June was a huge month for Socius.  First, we launched this, the Socius blog, a project that was years in the making.  Shortly after, we received word that we were one of two finalists for the 2009 worldwide Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner of the Year award.  After winning the 2008 Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner of the Year award, we are absolutely thrilled to maintain our position at the pinnacle of our industry. 

July
We followed up our Partner of the Year success by being included in the 2009 edition of Microsoft’s Inner Circle and President’s Club.  This year was the 15th year (out of 17 possible years) that Socius has been a member of Inner Circle, the top echelon of all Microsoft partners. 

August
We ended our summer by sponsoring and participating in The Summer Scurry to benefit the PMP Research Foundation, an organization founded by a Socius client who is currently battling PMP, a form of abdominal cancer. 

September
September was very busy month for Socius.  We participated in several accounting shows put on by the Ohio Society of CPAs and presented at two SpechTECHular events throughout the state.  In the midst of these events, we launched a newly redesigned website!  Our new site not only allows us to present more information in a more streamlined fashion, it also enables us to interact more via various social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

October
In mid-October, we hosted our annual client conference, Aspire at The Conference Center at NorthPointe just north of Columbus, Ohio.  This year’s event featured a keynote address by business innovation expert, Bonnie Robertson, 36 educational breakout sessions on software specific and general business concepts, presentations and exhibits by our ISV partners, and sneak-peek presentations about the future of our software products by Microsoft and Sage executives.  We also presented five of our clients with awards for innovation at the event. 

November
We traveled to Atlanta, Georgia in November with several clients to attend Summit, Sage’s annual conference.  It a was a great time of learning for all!  We returned to find out that we made the inaugural list of Bob Scott’s Insights VAR Stars.  It is a true honor to be recognized on this list. 

December
We are ending our year on a high note by receiving the 2009 Best of Business Award in the Business management consultant category by the Small Business Commerce Association.  Finally, we are privileged to make holiday donations on behalf of 200 of our clients to the American Red Cross, the Arthritis Foundation, and Autism Speaks. 

Thanks for taking this walk down memory lane with us and celebrating with us all of these great successes of 2009.  We wish you and your business a prosperous 2010!

Perhaps you have noticed the Business Insights folder in the tasks menu but, haven’t paid much attention.  You may be missing out on a big part of the results of the R&D from your Sage annual subscription dollars.  You’ve paid for it.  Maybe it’s time to take a look.

Open the Business Insights – Explorer folder and you’ll see the list of available “views” for accessing your data.

Beginning with Sage MAS90 4.2 these views became available from the “Explore” folder for each applicable module, also.  The view may be opened from either location.  They may also be placed on your shortcut task menu or launcher bar for quick access.

The real power of the views lies in a few key features that enables you to:

• easily apply data filters to view just relevant information
• easily export the resulting data to Excel or printed reports
• conveniently save the tailored view with applied settings for future use

Let’s face it.  Many of us have years of data stored in Sage MAS 90 and thousands of records for each module.  We don’t want to see it all each time we look.  Here are a few tips for setting up your Explorer Views to yield efficient results:

First time use:
Explorer will automatically try to load all corresponding data for the selected view.  For example; ALL GL transactions for ALL dates for EVERY GL account.  Not only is this more information than you probably want or need, you will undoubtedly receive a message to the effect you have reached the maximum number of rows.

Click “yes” to open the options window.  It will open to the “Data” tab.  I like to uncheck the “Automatically Load Data..” feature and uncheck the “Limit Row Count” feature.

 Here’s why.  When the view opens and the “Automatically Load Data” box is unchecked, the view will be empty and open practically immediately.  It is “waiting” for the filters that you wish to apply for that viewing.  You then may set your data requirements (filters) if it is a new view, keep or change the requirements if it is a saved view.  Simply clicking the “refresh” button will populate the view with your selected data.  Keeping the “Limit Row Count” unchecked will ensure all the records for your selection criteria will be returned.  If you routinely perform views that return an unmanageable amount if information you may wish to fine tune your filters.

Apply a filter:
Learn how to use the “Filter Builder” to select the information you wish to see.  For Example:  Current open invoices for all customers in California and Wisconsin grouped and totaled by salesperson.

You can then view it in itemized detail like above or summarized with a couple of mouse clicks.

Here we see at a glance that Harvey has 20 invoices from his California customers with a total open balance of $1,044,153.81.  If his commission is distributed on paid invoices only, he may want to make a few calls.  He’ll know exactly who to call using this information. 

Export to Excel -  As simple as three clicks: “File” “Export Options” “Microsoft Excel” Notice the export alternatives!

Here’s Harvey’s results in Excel:

The view has been created by the sales manager of California and Wisconsin, Gail.  Gail wants to save the view with the filters for future use.  Very simply create and save the setting name.  Choose to make it a private or public view.

Of course, this was just an introduction highlighting use of Business Insights Explorer.  By experimenting with the features described you will begin to see the value in a new way of extracting relevant data from your Sage MAS90 ERP system.  A good thing to remember is that the views are “look but don’t touch” – you cannot alter your live data through viewing it.  It is very easy to create a new view or add a filter and click “refresh” to observe the results.  If you don’t like your choices for the view you have created there is always the “delete” button. 

Requirements:

• Excel 2007 (Excel 12)
• ERP/CRM database such as Microsoft Dynamics GP or Dynamics CRM
• Some basic knowledge of SQL Views (or access to someone who can help)
• A hypothesis or theory you would like to prove or disprove

Here are 5 reasons why people don’t use Excel for BI and how they can be debunked.

1. Lack of confidence in the data. This is true if you connect to a SQL view that isn’t validated.  Use these best practices:  
   • Isolate a known result and test output from Excel
   • Use naming conventions such as ExcelView FlatSales
   • Use an Excel data connection library
   • Use data governance- appoint Excel connections manager
2. Can’t trust worksheets as they move around.  This is true if you don’t refresh the data connection.  Use these best practices:
   • Set all connections to refresh when opened
   • When using a data connections library, the connection is stored on the server
   • When a worksheet is e-mailed/shared, it will automatically seek the server connection file and refresh the data
   • Limit users who can modify connection files
3. Takes too long to refresh the data set.  This is true if you don’t use parameter queries.  Use these best practices:
   • Use parameters to limit the data as it comes in.  For example, use a month parameter for a monthly report or limit sales people so they can only see their customers
4. Excel is just a spreadsheet.  This is true if you don’t know the true purpose of Excel 2007.  Excel 2007 was designed as an ad-hoc BI tool.  Use these best practices:
   • Start by providing pre-built pivot tables
   • Offer basic training in Excel data connections
   • Provide advanced Excel training for power users
5. Excel requires many complicated calculations.  This is true if you don’t use SQL for the calculations.  Use these best practices:
   • Limit the need for users to perform their own calculations (avoid rework)
   • Assign a SQL developer the task of implementing common calculation in SQL View (i.e. Gross Profit=Sales Amt-Cost Amt)
   • Don’t overwhelm basic users with too many calculations
   • Advanced Excel users can add calculated fields to the pivot table

Excel offers even more powerful tools and techniques such as Predictive Analytics to predict a certain outcome and Data Mining to gain insight into relationships.  To learn more about using Excel 2007 for business intelligence,  view the entire “Accessing Company Data Using Microsoft Excel 2007″ presentation, presented by Socius’ BI consultant, Brad Blackmore.

Learn More about Socius’ Business Intelligence Solutions

First, let’s discuss what BI really is.  Mukhles Zaman, author of the article, “Business Intelligence: Its Ins and Outs”, defined business intelligence as: “…neither a product nor a system.  It is an umbrella term that combines architectures, applications, and databases.  It enables the real-time, interactive access, analysis, and manipulation of information, which provides the business community with easy access to business data.  BI analyzes historical data- the data businesses generate through transactions or by other kinds of business activities- and helps businesses by analyzing the past and present business situations and performances.  By giving this valuable insight, BI helps decision-makers make more informed decisions and supplies end-users with critical business information on their customers or partners, including information on behaviors and trends.”

Given this definition, virtually every small, midsized, and large business can benefit from BI.  Specific issues or scenarios that are good indicators a BI discussion should take place include:

• The need to integrate data from multiple business applications or data sources
• Lack of visibility into the company’s operations, finances, and other areas
• The need to access relevant business data quickly and efficiently
• Increasing volume of users requiring and accessing information and more end-users requiring analytical capabilities
• Rapid company growth or a recent or pending merger/acquisition
• Introduction of new products
• Upgrades within the IT environment

There are several benefits a BI solution offers to an organization regardless of size: 

• Share information efficiently and effectively with people across your organization.  BI makes it easy for everyone- from decision-makers to functional teams- to access and analyze up-to-date information anytime, anywhere.  Everyone throughout the company can make better decisions, faster.
• Empower your people.  Providing employees with access to analytical data that is readily available and understandable allows them to work more effectively and support the overall business strategy. 
• Simplify collaboration and sharing and improve alignment with a single source for accurate financial and operational information.  Having a single, central location allows you to monitor your key performance indicators (KPIs), access reports, analyze your data, and share documents.  All of the functional areas are aligned to articulate strategies, set objectives, and monitor the organization’s performance so you can make better informed and timely decisions that support your overall business strategy.
• Gain insights to understand and analyze your business performance and opportunities on a deeper level.  Analyze and evaluate information that is more accessible and easy to interact with to make strategic and tactical decisions.
• Deliver meaningful analysis and reporting.  Readily track and analyze KPIs against key business goals to gain a better understanding of how your business is performing today and not when it’s too late to impact performance.
• Have a solution with the scalability and flexibility to grow and change as your organization does.  Many companies rely solely on the most widely used BI tool, the Excel spreadsheet.  While Excel offers many useful features such as graphs, charts, and pivot tables which assist in decision-making, it doesn’t scale to your business.  Also, compiling data from multiple, disparate databases is time-consuming and is prone to errors.  However, Excel is still a key component of a total BI solution.

To learn more about Ohio business intelligence software and Ohio Microsoft BI solutions, please contact us!

Request a Complimentary Business Intelligence Consultation from Socius, a Certified Microsoft Dynamics consulting partner.