The tools of the master forecaster

Business intelligence software can guide managers through difficult decisions, report anomalies or issues in an organization, and help managers check on the condition of their agency. BI software can examine the present state of affairs and analyze past performance trends. If used effectively, the right business intelligence tools can even predict the future.

And these little-understood programs are not just for financial metrics. If the proper data is collected in a hospital, for example, these tools can show managers the performance metrics per department, ward and physician. These metrics can include turnaround times, lead times for the average patient, and even diagnose efficiency rates of departments and staff members.

However, understanding and choosing the right combo of business intelligence tools can be a daunting task. There are dozens of databases, buzzwords to bypass such as datacubes and dashboards, and a myriad of reporting, querying and analysis tools that complicate the search.

Two broad types of programs make up business intelligence software tools. The first type is the database, or the software-and-server combo that holds the data. Most often, organizations use transactional databases like an enterprise resource planning (ERP) database. Different flavors of ERP software include products from Oracle Corp. and SAP AG. Relational databases, like Microsoft SQL Server, are another common form of database, particularly in the federal sector.

Despite the importance of these databases, the following review focuses on products that make up the second part of the business intelligence topology: reporting, querying and analyzing tools that extract information from the aggregated data sources, like SQL, and allow the user to find, manipulate and demonstrate the data.

Generally speaking, the database section is straightforward. Simply pick the type of database your agency needs, which depends upon the type of data you’ll be collecting, and build the database using Oracle or Microsoft.

Most managers will tell you that the tough part of business intelligence often comes when it’s time to do something with the data. One pitfall is that often the wrong data, or too much data, is collected. For example, you don’t generally want to record or track trivial events, such as the department within your organization that uses the refrigerator most. Although that’s hyperbole, you’d be surprised how many organizations I’ve found that have three or even four sets of identification numbers for a single product, employee or event.

This brings me to my point. The best reporting, querying and analyzing tools make it simple for managers to find what they are looking for, and demonstrate organizational anomalies or weakness at a glance. In order to better express this point, we have reviewed five of the top business software tools that analyze, query or report data.

We analyzed the performance, ease of use, functionality and price attributes of each solution. Additionally, after using each tool with a database of information to play with, we asked the big question to determine the final grade: Would my operations greatly improve if we employed this software tool?

Note to the reader: Business Objects S.A. was unable to make the deadline for this story but expressed an interest in submitting a product in the next BI roundup.

Carlos A. Soto, a former associate reviewer for GCN, is studying for a master’s degree in business finance at Rice University in Houston, Texas.