Effective, bespoke business intelligence software

Mines, government departments, and enterprise level business all need effective business intelligence capture and reporting solutions in order to make good decisions.

While building a reporting software solution for a large company recently (the job was to capture and intelligently sift through approximately 3 million machine generated log files on a monthly basis), I noticed how poor business intelligence gathering and reporting is - across a wide range of industries.

My assumption was that any organization of a reasonable size would already be capturing any type of business intelligence data electronically - probably via Web enabled devices, such as a PC, tablet, notebook or smartphone.

I then reasoned that this data would also be stored, analyzed and reported upon in a customized way.

The shocking state of business intelligence

Instead, I couldn't believe how primitive large organizations actually are, when it came to business intelligence capturing, analysis and reporting. Large organizations, like mining companies, still capture important compliance data on paper. It boggles the mind.

Now, I have nothing against paper, but when your organization has dispersed operations (like a mining company) that generated hundreds or thousands of hard copy reports (for example, safety inspections or training), the sheer amount of information makes it impossible to analyze and use.

How I unwittingly developed a powerful business intelligence solution

The system I developed could easily be customized to analyze for virtually any type of indicator or key metric. For example, a mining company might wish to be notified immediately if an employee failed 3 training courses in a row.

It occurred to me that what I had already built was a business intelligence software solution that could easily be adapted to suit any type of business that needs to capture data (often from remote places), analyze and collate business information, and build reports that facilitate decision making.

Not only that, but business logic could also easily be applied to take the appropriate action based on a specified metric. For example, email maintenance (with all the pertinent information) if something has been reported as damaged or broken.

Uses of my business intelligence software

It also occurred to me that industries that are regulated and require strict compliance, such as safety, training, environmental, could stand to benefit.

This is because a major problem for big business is not capturing the data, but analyzing it properly.

Analyzing large amounts of data requires computers. So data needs to be captured in digital format. The business intelligence system I developed can be used via the Web on any Internet enabled device - think along the lines of a test engineer filling out a Web based form, complete with photos, on an iPad (instead of writing up a report by hand).

Being able to share and log crucial information from geographically separated regions must have not only business intelligence value, but operational value too.

Think along the lines of your engineer being able to stay at the location while experts at head office analyze the report and decide on a course of action - as opposed to having to a log a report back at the depot and wait for days, if not weeks, for the appropriate expert to travel to the location.

About my business intelligence software

I had already built a very simple data entry interface that is completely customizable - but more importantly, won't require much ,if any, training to understand. Once the data is captured electronically, the system has complete analysis and reporting facilities, waiting to be customized to present that data in a way that is useful and easy for management and executives to consume.

I should also stress again that the system is Web based and can handle multimedia. Think along the lines of a technician reporting on a power-line problem. He would be able to submit a report complete with images or video, or set up a live consultation with a qualified engineer back at your head offices.

Not only that, but the system I developed reported not only on the data itself, but provided meta data about that data. In other words, analysis and reporting on the reporting itself. Think along the lines of "an engineer has not logged a safety report for a given location in three days. Notify management".

Use of the business intelligence software

The system is based on Drupal, which is one of the most powerful and widely used Web based CMS systems in the world.

To make the system operational for your company, I would need to know:

• What type of information you need to capture
• How much data there is
• What you want to know about your data (i.e. what type of reporting you need)
• What business logic do you want to automate (i.e. do you want the system to actually manage things - like emailing personnel with warnings, updates, instructions, based on predefined business criteria)

How to trial or use my BI software

Your company will get a Web based, secure and reliable business intelligence platform that serves to reduce and streamline your costs, reduce overheads and labor costs, increase your capacity to react quickly to problems, deal with remote issues better, report and comply with regulations more efficiently, and much more.

How much will it cost? That can be discussed based on the size of your operations, the requirements of the system, and other factors. Since each installation has to be customized to meet the exact requirements of your business, I can't tell you what it will cost until I have spoken to you and understand what you need.

However, your exposure to risk is fairly low since it would be a trivial matter to set up a working demo for you to utilize before committing to anything.

If you are interested in updating and upgrading your business intelligence procedures with a sophisticated, modern Web based BI solution, contact me via email or find me on LinkedIn.