As businesses grow, they accumulate a large amount of data, often in a wide range of diverse business applications. With data spread across many applications, it can become very difficult to retrieve information in a timely fashion, let alone analysing key business performance data. A good BI solution does not only provide the ability to monitor the performance and operation of the business, but it also helps business managers and owners develop competitive business strategies based on accurate and timely information. After all, business decisions, that have a lot of bearing on any business’ fate, have to be accurate and up to date.

The term ‘Business Intelligence’ encapsulates a number of other terms including Data Warehousing, Performance Management, Scorecards, Dashboards and more. Business Intelligence is a set of processes and technologies for a simpler and enhanced use of information within an organisation. Within the BI process, data is gathered from various sources and IT systems, whether they are legacy, ERP, CRM systems and so on, or from spreadsheets and other personal productivity tools.

Data is cleaned, standardised and then presented to business users in a useful way.  Information is displayed using dashboards and scorecards, explored using ‘slice and dice’ techniques and experimented on with data mining and forecasting tools. Combining forecasted and actual information allows a performance management framework to be built, with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and metrics spread throughout the organisation.

Comparing information from sources such as CRM, marketing databases, billing or manufacturing systems, as well as finance and order processing, will help you to identify trends and highlight what is working well and where you could be performing better.

Crimsonwing is offering the following Business Intelligence solutions:

• Microsoft BI
• Oracle BI
• Qlikview
• SAP Business Objects

If you need help or consultation when deciding for a platform, please get in touch with our specialists on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .