Business Intelligence for the Midmarket

Is Business Intelligence the Right Choice for My Organisation?

As a leader in a growing organisation, you know the competitive pressure isn’t easing up anytime soon. And with fewer resources than your larger competitors, you have to act smarter, move faster, and make better business decisions without the benefit of armies of analysts and consultants. With this environment in mind, more and more mid-sized organisations are turning to business intelligence (BI) to help them gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.

And while the term “business intelligence,” or “BI” might have futuristic connotations or conjure images of multi-year implementations, the use of the technology is actually quite practical, used by thousands of mid-sized organisations just like yours every day.

Small start-up companies with a few employees, mid-cap organisations publicly traded, and state and local government agencies are making better use of the information within their organisation by using business intelligence.

They’re linking spreadsheets with centralised data to ensure the numbers they are analysing are the most up-to-date and accurate. They’re sending reports over the web and through email to key stakeholders in headquarter offices, as well as to remote employees around the world. And they’re integrating information from operational systems, spreadsheets, and data bases to provide management teams with the most complete picture of their business landscape.

So no matter what your size, BI is most certainly for you.

Get the most from business intelligence:
What information could you make better use of in your business today?
What is the competitive value of this information?
Put together a plan to ensure you use BI products that meet your end-user requirements. Get the information to your users in the format and timing they require. Work with a partner who knows your industry and company. Use a BI product from a vendor who understands your organisation’s needs.

Business intelligence helps organisations of all sizes make better decisions using the
Information within their organisation.

Where Do I Start?
Once you realise that there’s a need to go beyond the use of canned reports— produced by your operational systems to get the insight you need to make better business decisions— the possibilities are endless. But getting started with BI can be another story.

First, you need to determine what you hope to get out of BI. Are you trying to get reports out faster to end users? Does your CFO want a new dashboard on her desktop to monitor compliance? Does your sales analyst need the ability to spot trends in customer buying patterns? Every successful BI project starts with a project goal, as well as an end goal, in mind. The project goal is important because it frames your intent and focuses your efforts towards using technology to solve the business problem at hand. The end goal is important because it will help ensure you don’t end up with a patch-work of tools that don’t talk to each other and cost a lot of time and money to maintain.

What Can I Expect from Business Intelligence?
That all depends on how things were going prior to using BI. Some changes will be immediate–users who were creating their own versions of reports on spreadsheets will now be able to access the same information over the web. People will stop coming to meetings with “their” version of the numbers. Other changes will be more gradual since they involve changing processes and behavior within your organisation. You’ll have to fight the urge to do things the way you used to before implementing a BI project.

Who Can Help Me Implement My BI System?
Luckily for mid-market companies today, wealth of resources are available to ensure your business intelligence project is successful. For many mid-market organisations, you already work with a value added reseller (VAR) who operates in your city and geographic region. VARs specialise not only in the software functionality, but in its implementation, training, and support.

As the leading provider of business intelligence software to the mid-market, Business Objects has a global network of professional services, training, education, and support personnel ready to assist you with the implementation of your business intelligence products. Combined with our partner network, we reach over 80 countries and countless cities with our capabilities. As you move forward with your project, you will have the knowledge and trust that it will work as you intend it to in your organisation, and that a dedicated network is in place to ensure your success.

Business intelligence from Business Objects helps you meet the needs of your growing organisation, linking employees together and enabling more rapid analysis of the information residing within your corporate systems today.

How Can I Get the Best ROI from BI?
Your IT resources are already at full capacity, and your end-user needs continue unabated. The most successful BI projects in mid-market organisations are those that are the easiest to migrate, fastest to scale, most modular to add new features as they are needed, from a vendor you can trust, and one that understands the needs of your organisation.

Total cost of ownership (TCO) to a mid-market company includes many things, in addition to the cost of the software. It includes the number of resources it takes to maintain the system. How long is the system down when you have to migrate to the newest version? Change security parameters? Add new modules or functionality?

One of the biggest hidden technology costs involves the time it takes for the IT department to maintain multiple technology footprints. That’s why one of the most significant requirements for mid-sized organisations is to work with tools that share a common platform, and can integrate seamlessly with the applications you already own. BusinessObjects™ XI provides the trusted single platform that our mid-sized customers require. It is a one-stop shop for adding users, functionality, and security, all from the same product. With resources spread thin, worrying about your BI platform shouldn’t be one of your top priorities. And this ensures you recoup your investment in the software faster and within your project requirements.

Start Using Business Intelligence Today
Lots of vendors today talk about business intelligence. Some even give it away with their database. But as the old adage goes, you get what you pay for. And as the number of data sources you need to access continues to multiply, and as you add new applications and integrate information into one version of the truth, your business intelligence vendor will go from a simple tools provider to a trusted business advisor. That’s why it’s important that you begin your use of BI to ensure you’re working with a vendor who is focused on providing products and services that reflect the way you do business today; straight forward, forthright and easy to work with.

Create user-friendly reports within minutes using the capabilities of the BusinessObjects XI platform, getting key information in the hands of people who can use it best.

The Best Choice on the Market Today
As the leading provider of business intelligence to mid-market organisations,
Business Objects is committed to ensuring that you and your organisation reap the unlimited benefits of insight into your information. Our customers continually surprise us with their innovative use of our technology to solve issues that impact not just their business, but their markets and their competitive landscape.