Advanced Business Solutions » Business Intelligence

What stops us from making better decisions?

Simon Fowler - Managing Director, Advanced Business Solutions Commercial — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 08:36:47 +0000

“Informed decision-making comes from a long tradition of guessing and then blaming others for inadequate results.” Scott Adams

It’s perhaps not surprising that the creator of the Dilbert comic strip has a rather cynical view on decision-making. However all of us, if we’re honest with ourselves, are regularly party to decisions made using poor data, unclear criteria and a shaky process – gut feel and the power of personality often rules the day.

So what stops us from making better decisions? Here are the top factors we’ve identified:

Little or no attention paid to the process of making a decision. When no one takes ownership of and structures the decision-making process, the discussion is likely to be chaotic and key factors may be ignored.
A culturally-embedded notion that ‘real business people’ make decisions quickly and decisively – data and discussion is for wimps.
It takes too long or it’s too difficult to get the data or reports needed. When people aren’t able to get what they need easily, they’ll often choose to go without.
The data isn’t trusted. Sometimes we find, hidden behind a reluctance to use data, an unspoken understanding that the data isn’t up-to-date or accurate.
A lack of skills. Aside from business school graduates, when was the last time you heard of someone taking ‘data and decisions’ training? The assumption is that managers know this stuff – yet most managers would benefit from training in understanding, analysing and acting on data.
A dominant personality over-riding all over concerns. Fixing all of the above will have no impact if there’s a power-wielding personality in the room determined to have their way no matter what the data says.

Of course, sometimes good decisions lead to bad outcomes and bad decisions lead to good outcomes. But a good decision is more likely to lead to a good outcome than a bad decision. And if I was investing my own money I’d be looking, every time, for the company that paid attention to the decision-making process.

If you want to read more about this topic, I recommend:

How organisations make great decisions (Bain & Company) – actionable insights about improving decision-making across the organisation.

The decision-making flaw in powerful people (Booz & Company) – evidence to back up what many of us had always suspected – as well as suggestions on how to manage this phenomenon.

What stops us from making better decisions? is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

Advanced showcases BI products at Public Sector Expo

Dean Dickinson - Managing Director, Advanced Business Solutions — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:37:20 +0000

In these times of austerity, many organisations, particularly in the public sector are looking to make significant cost savings and maximise value. It’s no secret that business intelligence (BI) solutions can provide the foundation for deep spending cuts and efficiency gains.

Advanced Business Solutions (Advanced) recognises the significant part business intelligence can play in achieving efficiency savings and will be showcasing its full business intelligence portfolio at the 2012 Public Sector Efficiency Expo at Olympia Two in London tomorrow. Advanced Consultant, Paul O’Donnell, will also be hosting a business intelligence seminar which will provide guidance on how to evaluate the myriad of BI solutions available on the market and how to use them.

Around 1,000 organisations are expected to attend the Expo, the UK’s only free one-day conference and exhibition dedicated to helping the public sector deliver better services more efficiently and effectively.

Amongst the BI solutions being showcased, Advanced will be demonstrating its Collaborative Planning solution, which is already a hot ticket with many local authorities looking to improve budgeting and forecasting.

So, if you’re visiting the Expo, stop by stand 31 and ask about Advanced’s BI solutions – it may prove your most valuable conversation of the day!

Advanced showcases BI products at Public Sector Expo is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

Being smart about patient care delivery

Dean Dickinson - Managing Director, Advanced Business Solutions — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:57:10 +0000

You can’t have failed to notice that more and more people across business and media are talking about big data. At a time when cash is low, the need for intelligent information to help drive organisational decision-making has never been higher.

The rise of big data is being pushed by a confluence of consumer, cloud and social technologies. Individuals can now use mobile technologies to access crucial knowledge on the go and to make the type of quick decisions that equal the difference between success and failure in a tight economy.

But there is an area where quick decision-making is even more important. So important, in fact, that it could really make the difference between life and death. While business analytics software is often associated with financial information, such as turnover, sales and outstanding debt, big data is increasingly being used in healthcare for the delivery of smarter patient care.

With the impending NHS cuts looming large, public sector executives will have to use analytics to make tough decisions about how smaller budgets can be spent increasingly wisely. The need for big data in healthcare, then, just got bigger.

And the figures can be startling. Evidence from consultant McKinsey (see further reading, below) suggests that the United States healthcare sector could create more than $300bn in value every year by using big data creatively to drive efficiency and quality. The good news is that leading edge organisations in the UK are already taking action to make the most of big data with regards to smarter patient care.

Take NHS Wakefield District, which has invested in a comprehensive business intelligence (BI) solution from Advanced Business Solutions (Advanced). Since introducing Advanced’s technology in January 2010, NHS Wakefield District has been able to cut hours from the generation of critical, decision-supporting reports.

Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust has more recently invested in flexible business intelligence and data warehousing technologies from Advanced Business Solutions. An Integrated Information Centre is planned to go-live in early 2013 and will enable the Trust to enhance the services it delivers to 1.6 million people.

So, healthcare organisations in the UK are already looking at how analytics can improve patient care delivery. With the amount of data being generated only set to increase, the decision to implement analytics technologies now will help Trusts embrace future challenges with confidence.

Automate your budgeting and forecasting

Dean Dickinson - Managing Director, Advanced Business Solutions — Mon, 23 May 2011 10:42:54 +0000

A good workman always wants the best possible tool for a job. Just like you wouldn’t try to paint a wall with a thin artist’s brush, an office professional shouldn’t use a cumbersome system to make crucial calculations. So why is that happening?

Research suggests that public sector finance professionals are still reliant on generic spreadsheets for budgeting and forecasting processes, despite specialist systems being available that can help provide a real-time view on spending.

As much as 88% of public sector finance executives admit they are reliant on spreadsheets for their budgeting processes according to research from Advanced Business Solutions, with almost three quarters (74%) stating they are very reliant.

The dependence on spreadsheets is even more concerning in the context of the ongoing demand for efficiency savings. Public sector organisations are under severe pressure to do more with less, yet finance professionals waste too much time updating spreadsheet information.

Using spreadsheets is manually intensive and relies heavily on user input. The result is that as much as 42% of finance executives responding to the ABS survey concede that it currently takes their organisation more than 45 working days to compile its annual budgets.

There has to be a better way, both in terms of workplace processes and taxpayer expenditure. Thankfully, there is in the form of dedicated budgeting, planning and forecasting tools.

Such an automated system ensures staff resources are not wasted on repetitive data entry and information checking processes. These real-time, intelligent financial processing tools decrease preparation time, increase financial control and provide more accurate data that can help improve decision-making.

ABS research shows just 10% of senior finance executives never use spreadsheets for formulating their organisation’s budgets and forecasts. For the remaining 90%, the confluence of severe cost constraint and high quality automation means a wake up is required.

While using spreadsheets can’t exactly be viewed as sleeping on the job, a reliance on such cumbersome tools is a way to slumber towards inefficient cost control and monitoring. Get automated and get the right tools for the job. It will be money well spent.

Automate your budgeting and forecasting is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

2011 is all about business intelligence

Dean Dickinson - Managing Director, Advanced Business Solutions — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:21:17 +0000

Do you think 2011 will be all about cutting costs and reducing expenditure? If your answer is ‘yes’, you might need to think again. While senior executives will be charged to find ways to make the business run more efficiently, money will still be found for the right projects.

IT is likely to be one of the business’ priority areas. All organisations now rely on technology to help deliver services and products to customers, whether it’s healthcare and education in the public sector or financial reports and retail goods in the private sector.

TechTarget’s 2011 IT Priorities Survey (see further reading, below) reveals that 60 per cent of IT departments will spend more on software this year. In particular, the drive to improve planning means 41 per cent of IT leaders cite business intelligence (BI), analytics and data warehousing as a key 2011 initiative.

So, why will BI be so important in 2011 and how will it help your business to meet new targets? The key reason is knowledge – analytics helps organisations to monitor and understand big data sets, providing the right information to key executives at the right time.

The organisations that succeed in the upturn will be those that know, and engage with their customers. In an ever-competitive global economy, access to real-time data will mean your organisation is better prepared to deal efficiently with subtle changes in demand.

It’s not just about efficiency, either. Continued pressure in the public sector, and a raft of private sector regulations around finance and sustainability, will mean organisations must be able to show how data is held and used.

With an increasing number of cloud-based BI solutions becoming apparent, there has never been a better – and more cost-effective – opportunity to introduce analytics. On-demand BI will not just provide key information to executives; it will also provide a quick return on investment for the cost-conscious finance director.

With such gains, for so small an outlay, what is there to lose? The organisations that win in 2011 will be those that understand the power of information.

Enabling data-driven decisions

Dean Dickinson - Managing Director, Advanced Business Solutions — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 09:15:06 +0000

Gartner’s recently released 2010 Hype Cycle refers to data-driven decisions, where companies are now overloaded with digital information.

Take this year as a starting point. The projected amount of digital information created in 2010 will be 1.2 million zettabytes which is equivalent to a full-length episode of TV series “24″ running continuously for 125 million years, according to research from IDC and EMC (see further reading, below).

Such figures are amusing but almost impossible to fully comprehend. And without the means to track, trace and interpret information, the results of such an information explosion for your business could be tremendous.

Gartner’s report concludes that, with the proliferation of mobile devices, collaborative technologies and social media, the quantity and variety of digital data will continue to grow. While managing this information is a challenge, it also presents a remarkable opportunity.

By putting the right foundations in place for managing and analysing your data, your organisation will be more able to make data-driven decisions moving forward.

Business intelligence, for example, can pull together an organisation’s data to provide a single version of the truth, allowing executives to make timely decisions based upon a consistent view of data from across the organisation.

Other corporate performance management tools, such as forecasting and planning software, also help organisations to work smarter whilst aiding decision making. With forecasting and planning, for instance, organisations can plan and model scenarios before making data-driven decisions.

The fast pace of IT development means that the number of data sources is only likely to increase and so it’s key to leverage this data for the benefit of the organisation. Ultimately, successful analytics is about creating an effective partnership between IT and the business; make sure you have the right tools in place to make this happen.

Further reading:
http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/press-releases/gartners-2010-hype-cycle-special-report-evaluates-maturity-1-800-technologies

http://www.securityweek.com/content/emc-digital-universe-data-growth-study-projects-nearly-45-fold-annual-data-growth-2020

Enabling data-driven decisions is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

Is the HR function perceived as having a real impact in the boardroom?

Mark Thompson, Business Director, Advanced Computer Software Plc — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:17:42 +0000

Just like information technology (IT), human resources (HR) serve the business; just like IT, HR is not taken seriously enough by the business.

Maybe it has got something to do with maintenance. Ask for perceptions of such functions and many employees immediately think HR exists simply to help serve core business operations, such as finance, sales and purchasing.

It would be anathema to suggest finance is a second rate service that is not crucial to the business. So, why is it OK to simply write-off HR as a second tier service? In short, it is not – and your business is likely to miss out if you take such a blinkered view.

Tough economic conditions mean organisations, particularly in the hard-hit public sector, will be looking to cut costs. Staff reductions are often seen as the first, rather than the last, resort – meaning the HR function is regarded as a means to handing out redundancy notices.

But how can the business know it is cutting the right people? And should it really be cutting people anyway? The answers to such complicated questions can only be provided though a more strategic HR department.

Such a position relies on HR contributing to boardroom debates, something that is often missing in large organisations. Providing such a meaningful focus will rely on clear analysis and reporting.

HR, therefore, needs to take responsibility for facts and figures covering a host of crucial areas, such as productivity output, training value, absenteeism rates and engagement levels.

Corporate performance management – HR-focused business intelligence that includes methods and metrics – will provide the type of detailed analytics that will help HR directors and managers illustrate organisational success.

The right tools will allow you to share HR information across the business. And with the right information to hand, HR directors will be able to take their rightful place at the top table and provide an extremely valuable contribution.

No longer just a service, HR needs to be seen as a strategic function that helps the organisation prove that people really are its most valuable asset.

Is the HR function perceived as having a real impact in the boardroom? is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

Growing your ERP solution with your business

Mark Thompson, Business Director, Advanced Computer Software Plc — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:01:58 +0000

Put simply, enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the building blocks for your business – a system that integrates technology operations in a single environment.

Since the early 1990s, organisations have used ERP to control key activities, such as sales, billing and resource management. Organisations, both small and large, still use and rely on ERP.

AMR predicts ERP spending will rise 5% in 2010 to hit $37.8bn (see further reading, below). In fact, the analyst predicts an annual growth rate in spending of 6% through 2013.

Not that the market hasn’t suffered, both in terms of sales and in terms of technological change. Last year was particularly challenging, with the mix of tough economic conditions and low IT spending causing particular problems for ERP vendors.

The suppliers that are emerging from the period of stagnation – and helping to drive the annual growth rates alluded to by AMR – are those that have taken into account the fast-changing demands of modern business.

The days of rigid, inflexible enterprise software are long-gone. Now, when an organisation buys an ERP system, they need to consider how the technology can be adapted to grow with the business.

A rigid ERP system, with little potential for adaptation, could prove a costly mistake. Research from Panorama consulting suggests 41% of companies fail to realise at least half of the business benefits they expected from their ERP systems (see further reading).

The reason is often a failure to match organisational expectations and realities. The fluidity of modern economics means that line-of-business executives are likely to require point solutions as demands evolve.

New functionality for different areas, such as budgeting, forecasting, document management and business intelligence, will be required at different times. Fail to think ahead when you create an all-encompassing ERP system and your enterprise software approach will quickly stagnate.

While the organisation might not require detailed analytics and document management at the moment, fast-changing priorities could mean increased knowledge and more streamlines processes become essential within a short two or three year timeframe. As such, your ERP system must be future-proofed.

The bottom line is that flexibility to meet changing business demands must be a priority for IT leaders that are implementing ERP technology.

Now is the time to invest in innovation that demonstrates a clear ROI

Mark Thompson, Business Director, Advanced Computer Software Plc — Thu, 06 May 2010 08:38:43 +0000

Banks returning to profit and rising house prices can be seen as significant signs of a possible economic upturn.

However, now is not the time for complacency; positive signs are no excuse for a lack of attention to detail. Businesses that take time to heave a huge sigh of relief will see fast-moving rivals quickly pass their organisation.

Now, then, is the time to learn from our experiences and to turn lessons into action. More than ever before, the recession has pushed attention on to leading executives, who are expected to closely monitor spending and produce a quick return on investment (ROI).

The focus on value will prove invaluable during the recovery, where a tight focus on operational expenditure will help create more funds for innovation. Many IT leaders will have spent the last 12 months avoiding new IT spending – that is now simply not an option.

Sweated assets will need refreshing and smart technology chiefs will find ways to make the best of innovative systems. Creating a strategy that proves a quick ROI will show that lessons learnt from the recession have been heeded.

Corporate performance management (CPM), encompassing business intelligence (BI) systems, should be at the top of your agenda, providing a combination of analysis, planning and reporting.

BI software will help you to measure key performance indicators that will prove the true value of IT initiatives. It will also enable company-wide reports on the achievements and status of specific projects, departments and product lines, for example.

Like all innovations, business intelligence needs to demonstrate value. Success is not a given – research from analyst IDC shows that while 53% of users believe investment in BI has delivered an ROI, as much as 32% are unsure and 15% suggest it has not.

Make sure you select the right tools and partners to help you prove the business benefits of BI as well as IT in general. Get innovation right and the business will see that good things can indeed emerge from a recession.

Now is the time to invest in innovation that demonstrates a clear ROI is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

Business intelligence comes of age

Mark Thompson, Business Director, Advanced Computer Software Plc — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:48:06 +0000

Alignment – between the projects of the IT department and the demands of the business – is one of the most talked about technology objectives.

The reason is clear. With limited cash to spend on new IT, CIOs must prove to the business that technology can provide a quick return on investment.

Business intelligence (BI) scores at two levels: first, it can help executives understand the success of business initiatives; second, it can help IT leaders prove the value of technology spending.

Both levels will be significant as business expectations of IT continue to shift. Evidence comes from analyst Gartner, whose 2010 CIO survey suggests businesses are keen to invest in services-based and social media technologies.

These two areas are fast developing, and hyped, areas of IT development. Businesses looking to emerge stronger from the downturn will need to bet on the right horse; invest at the wrong time and you are likely to waste the wager.

It is, therefore, surprising to see that BI – which was the number one technology area in Gartner’s priority list for the past five years – has dropped to number five. So, is this the end for business intelligence?

No, far from it – your work in BI is still far from done and 2010 will be the year this software comes of age. The detailed analytics provided through the right BI platform will prove crucial in cash constrained circumstances.

Executives will be expecting to lead their business successfully from the downturn, taking advantage of the upturn as new opportunities arise. Analytical software will help senior leaders to identify these openings.

The need for detailed information means CIOs will still pay for BI. While spending on IT dropped by 5.2% in 2009, Gartner expects investment in BI, analytics and performance management to rise by 8.1% through 2013.

When it comes to investing in BI, act with care. Look for an organisation that can provide a broad spectrum of services and systems. Just like the relationship between IT and finance, alignment with your BI partner is everything.

The bottom line is that a deeper understanding of reporting, planning and performance is keep if your business is to make informed and timely decisions.

Business intelligence comes of age is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment