- April 24, 2014
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Term paper writing
Business Analysis is an integral part of job of any CEO. A properly done business analysis of a company allows the owner or the head of the unit to avoid future problems, and correctly plan the development of the company. To ensure the support of decision making process managers should be provided with timely, reliable information, both about the current state of affairs and the possibilities for the future. Such information should be relevant and balanced. The above tasks can be solved with the help of products created on the Business Intelligence platform.
At present the situation in business is characterized by such features as critical competitiveness in the market and exposure to the influences of economic conditions, and as a consequence, instability of the market, which requires rapid and high quality solutions of business managers. The basis for decision-making is the complete information about the state of business and market trends. Managing such information is a complex process that requires an integrated approach. Support for decision-making in the modern enterprise is a key process of business development, and business analysis is a crucial part of it.
Business analysis can be reduced to such components as (Halle and Goldberg 112-14):
– Determination and analysis of the current state of the enterprise;
– Analysis of the effectiveness of communication between employees;
– Analysis of the production process for the timely identification of problems and finding solutions;
– Analysis of financial performance, etc.
Today, there are many theories which suggest making business analysis using different methods. The basic technologies of business analysis include growth points matrix, effectiveness reserves matrix business model, economic model, benchmarking analysis, etc.
Naturally, a specific set of business analysis technologies is chosen taking into account the specifics of the project and the company. At the same time, we can identify a number of most popular analysis tools (Halle and Goldberg 211-215; Turban et al. 79-83):
”“Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Analysis of order execution process in the company;
”“Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Analysis of profitability of existing sales channels;
”“Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Analysis of the potential of transferring constant costs into variable costs;
”“Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Analysis of profitability of clients and client groups;
”“Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Company’s market segmentation;
”“Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Sales structure analysis by different criteria;
”“Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Determination of key factors of purchasing decision making;
”“Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Analysis of product profitability (by positions and assortment groups);
”“Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Analysis of the ownership value;
”“Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Evaluation of appropriateness of outsourcing;
”“Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Evaluation the effectiveness of cost optimization project.
Managers can perform all of the above tasks using the special software. There are many different Business Intelligence systems that offer users the following options (Turban et al. 95-101; 334-39):
Reporting – creation of interactive reports based on on-line data with the possibility of bringing them to the necessary standardized forms.
Dashboards – online reports present a convenient information forms with the possibility of going into details (drill-down/drill-up functions) allowing the comparison of different data and indicators based on the requested intelligence.
Ad hoc query – the possibility for users to form independent requests on-demand to generate the required reports.
Off-line operation – the ability of synchronization with the subsequent off-line work, as well as remote access function.
Microsoft Office integration – full integration with Microsoft Office applications provides the ability to use broad functionality of Excel package including updates of data and summary tables.
Metadata management ”“ BI system is an integrated environment that combines data from different systems and applications into a single of metadatabase. Metadata management is carried out due to the use of common metrics, data entering, retrieving and storage facilities.
OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) – this technology allows processing multidimensional data cubes on-line, BI-server with BI Data Warehouse implements the execution of complex queries without loading the existing system resources.
Advanced visualization presents a variety of interactive dashboards with many features that display personalized information focused on making precise and effective decisions.
Data mining – ability to create categories of values and generate the projected data. It uses special mathematical models optimized for different business needs of a particular company.
Scorecards ”“ output of data associated with the key performance parameters, KPI. This feature allows identifying the requested data based on performance indicators.
Delivery Report – opportunity that allows flexible customization of the execution and delivery of reports via e-mail in various formats on a schedule or event.
Restriction – provides the ability of role-based access to information system through the distribution of privileges to users.