Thalasar Ventures

Businesses sit on a wealth of transactional data stored in ERP, spreadsheets and databases; turning all that data into actionable information about current or projected business performance is a major challenge. At present, most business people rely on hard-to-understand ERP reports, spreadsheets and IT for business analytics that leads to decision making. A recent study cited that up to 40 percent of managers at some of the largest blue chip companies make business decisions based on ‘gut’ feelings rather than business analytics and facts. The reasons for ‘gut’ decision making was due to three main factors:

Lack of analytics expertise within the business – Focus is on core business of making and selling a product or service. Having the expertise needed to create or implement a business analytics solution is a luxury that many businesses cannot afford despite the obvious financial benefits.

Unresponsive IT department – Multiple departments and initiatives vying for limited IT resources means that data analysis is put on the back burner.

Late and irrelevant information – Since business relies on IT for information about business performance, by the time it gets to business users it is often no longer relevant.

On-demand business analytics solutions have addressed the above issues, enabling business people to quickly get the information they need to make decisions without relying on IT. On-demand business analytics solutions share the following attributes:

A business data model – Whether the data source is a spreadsheet or ERP, information must be presented in a way that allows business users to easily create unique perspectives that lead to information discovery. The next generation analytics solutions allow business users to navigate information in ERP using an easy-to-understand business data model.

Analytics delivered quickly – Analytics must be made available on an as needed basis. The longer information takes to get to decision makers, the less valuable that information is. The information available in the business data model can be refreshed daily from ERP so business users are always working with the latest information.

Eliminates business dependency on IT – Business must be empowered to slice and dice information based on their unique requirements, build metrics and share with others without relying on IT for help. On demand business analytics solutions empower business people to be fully self-servicing – from deployment to report building – IT does not need to be involved.

Additionally, the next wave of business analytics solutions enable business users to share and collaborate on information which leads to better decision making. Next generation business analytics vendors such as FusionOps take the guess work out of decision making by allowing business users get the information they need, when they need it without relying on IT.