What are You Looking for in an Operational Business Intelligence System?

Any business that has been in operation for more than a few years can attest to the fact that they have more data than they know what to do with. While it may seem that the data collected through the years is no longer valuable, companies need to realize that tools such as business intelligence systems can help unlock profit-earning potential from the old data once deemed “useless”.

Operational business intelligence is a subset of business intelligence designed to give more people in an organization faster and easier access to more information to make better business decisions at the operational level. If you’re considering investing in an operational BI system, here are a few things to look for:

1. A single management application that eliminates multiple point solutions. Entering data in multiple places is one of the least efficient things a business can do. A good BI system will help create a way for data to reach one central place and be accessed by people company-wide.
2. Simple-to-use tools. You don’t want to be inundated with an overly complicated solution that creates more problems than it fixes. Choose something that’s easy to operate while still offering the solutions you’re looking for.
3. The ability to capture data as it’s created. This will allow you to work without fear of losing any of your achievements and assure that you can always quickly and easily recall anything you’re done – whether it was six months ago or six minutes ago.
4. An innovative organizational system. In general, it’s more valuable to businesses to be able to organize data by topic, function or business value than it is to organize it by date, size or location.
5. A centralized management policy. It is critical for companies to use a centralized management application, rather than a handful of point solutions, so that data retention and protection policies can be enforced across all departments and areas of the company. The policy should stay in place for the lifecycle of the information, including deletion, should it occur.

Business intelligence is a great way for companies to make the best use of old data. It may seem like you don’t need all those old hard drives anymore, but actually, you can unlock a lot of value for all that achieved information if you use the right BI system.