Business Intelligence Trends: ERP and Business Intelligence

Most manufacturers enjoy access to accurate and timely data managed by their ERP system. What’s key for overall business performance, however, is the ability for manufacturers to use consolidated data for powerful insight into context and trends. This is where business intelligence trends become important.

Beyond Data

ERP systems adequately track functional areas of an enterprise, such as shipping, inventory, accounts receivable and more.  True business value comes from business intelligence trends, namely, business intelligence (BI) applications – the powerful, intuitive analysis tools that provide real-time, enterprise-wide insight for fact-based actions and intelligent decisions.

When an ERP solution integrates business intelligence, manufacturers benefit from deeper business insight.  Once business intelligence requirements are addressed, companies are better armed to make improved decisions about planning, forecasting, production scheduling, supply chain management and more.

From customizable dashboards to graphical charts, business intelligence reports gather, compare, share and analyze real-time data. BI applications drive business process improvement across the enterprise.

The Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Trends

Current insight into recent business intelligence trends area is provided by Gartner’s recent Magic Quadrant for BI.

As noted by Gartner, the dominant theme of the market in 2012 was that data discovery became a mainstream, with some key players in the ERP space providing BI and analytic functions.  The market also saw increased activity in real time, content and predictive analytics.

ERP and Business Intelligence Trends

Noted here is a round-up of BI capabilities from selected ERP vendors.

Business Intelligence applications from Oracle offer companies a comprehensive suite of tools including interactive dashboards, ad hoc queries, integrated scorecards and strategy management, and more.   Companies use Oracle’s BI tools for greater visibility into every aspect of their operation thought rich visualization, interactive charts, maps, and a range of customizable formats.  Flag issues, exceptions.

Microsoft’s recent upgrade of its Dynamics ERP software includes enhanced business intelligence features.  Users are better able to make informed business decisions via a wide range of reporting and analysis tools that effectively monitor, analyze, and plan.  The system accurately monitors current business activity, and compare it to historical activity and future plans to deliver contextual information companies need to keep performance on track.  Users can also browse inquiries and trace transactions.

Late last year, Plex Online Cloud ERP announced availability of business intelligence (BI) features. Users analyze business information stored in their ERP database and create reports to assist them in managing, forecasting and planning. Business intelligence trends and tools translate ERP operational data into graphical reports and dashboards that improve understanding of the data’s implications across a company’s operation.