Today I’m opening a new section on the blog… the “BI White Paper”! And in this first post, I want to share with you a very interesting whitepaper that I was reading during the weekend. This whitepaper was written by Michael Schiff from SAP and is free (but requires registration). The article is written in a very interesting and objective way. I’ve included below the conclusion provided in the whitepaper to let you know more about it. I hope you enjoy the paper as much as me!
"Managers have the responsibility to make the best decisions possible, based upon the data available to them to learn more about how products from at the time. If their ability to analyze this data and transform it into useful information is improved, the overall quality of their decisions will improve as well. Business intelligence provides a spectrum of tools and solutions to support this aim. It’s the underlying technology behind more effective decision making. By helping align individual and departmental efforts with overall corporate strategies, it should lead to improved organizational results.
While many small and midsize companies have relied on spreadsheets as their primary Bi tool, most of them have come to realize that this is a stopgap solution. This is not to say that spreadsheets should be abandoned; rather, they should be a part of an organization’s Bi tool set. The key is to choose the right commercial Bi product suite that integrates with spreadsheet environments while supporting your long-term growth"
