Leveraging advanced analytics and reporting tools is crucial for businesses seeking to enhance their operational efficiency and decision-making capabilities.
SWK Technologies’ latest webinar offers insights into how advanced analytics can revolutionize operational efficiency and enhance decision-making. Led by Joni Girardi, Founder and CEO of DataSelf, this session uncovers the transformative potential of integrating Google-like search capabilities into your ERP data systems.
WATCH THE WEBINAR HERE
What are Decision-Makers Looking for? (4:03 – 6:40)
Decision-makers value the ability to access KPIs in a timely manner and perform easy ad-hoc analysis to identify outliers quickly. They prioritize platforms that are automated and alert-driven, ensuring issues are caught before they escalate. 24/7 support and industry-standard tools that new employees can easily adapt to are also highly desired.
- Timely KPIs: The ability to access KPIs either daily, weekly, monthly, etc. (4:10)
- Easy, ad-hoc analysis: When looking at KPIs, there may be outliers. Decision-makers are looking for a system that will point out these outliers in a simple, yet efficient manner (4:43)
- An automated, and alert-driven platform: If something is not working properly, they want to know before the issue becomes larger (5:46)
- Online and in-person support: The ability to contact support at anytime, anywhere becomes more prevalent with each passing day (6:04)
- An industry standard platform: If a new employee starts, decision-makers want them to be familiar with the tools of the industry (6:20)
ERP Reporting Focus and Limitation (7:08 – 8:43)
ERP systems are designed primarily to support staff tasks, focusing on what needs to be done daily to complete their jobs. However, this focus often results in limited ad-hoc analysis capabilities and laborious reporting processes that can bottleneck productivity.
- ERP systems all focus their reporting on a way to facilitate their staff’s tasks. This entails what people need to do today in order to get their job done (7:25)
- Because it is designed for the staff, there are usually limited Ad-hoc abilities (7:40)
- A lot of ERP reporting and analysis is potentially laborious (7:56)
- Some reports ran in ERP systems take a long time to complete. This bottlenecks your overall potential for productivity (8:38)
- Relying on Excel spreadsheets to make up for your ERP’s reporting shortcomings creates even more challenges (8:43)
Google-like Search Demonstration (9:25 – 26:42)
In this section, Joni Girardi goes over the many capabilities of DataSelf’s Google-like search for ERP data.
- Advanced analytics tools facilitate the generation of detailed reports and dashboards. For example, Microsoft 365 showcases the power of cloud-based suites that offer essential productivity tools accessible from any location (19:45)
- DataSelf provides tools that support both desktop and web-based applications, integrating seamlessly with third-party software to provide a holistic reporting solution (10:45)
Google-like Search Reporting Powered by BI-based Reporting (26:54 – 29:11)
Decision-makers also need strategic, performance-oriented insights to track trends over time and make data-supported decisions aligned with company goals. BI-based reporting offers easy ad-hoc analysis, addressing a common pain point by allowing executives to effortlessly slice and view data. These provide fast, automated report refresh and distribution, delivering KPIs directly to your inbox within seconds, regardless of data volume.
- Strategic & Performance-Oriented: Decision-makers want to see trends and what’s happening the whole day to the whole week to the whole year. With this information, they can make data-supported decisions that can work towards their company goals (27:25)
- Easy Ad-hoc Analysis: The biggest complaint executive teams have from ERP systems is that they cannot slice their data easily, and BI-based reporting provides that (27:50)
- Automated (Report Refresh and Distribution): BI-based reporting allows you to get your KPIs when you want them, automatically in your inbox (28:12)
- Runs Fast: Reports will run under ten seconds, no matter how much data you have (28:32)
Business Intelligence Challenges (29:45 – 32:48)
Business intelligence challenges include the need for robust server-side infrastructure and the creation of BI data models, which aren’t readily available. On the user side, defining and building KPIs can be complex and time-consuming, requiring careful data governance to manage access and visibility.
- BI Server-side: Usually, there is a server behind the scenes that does the heavy lifting in BI-based reporting. This requires BI data models, something not initially available (29:59)
- BI User-side: It takes quite a bit of work to define and build KPIs. The demonstration showed that the process could be seen as complicated and time-consuming to define these on the front end. Additionally, data governance is critical for who can see what and when – something which needs to be configured by your team(31:02)
- Single Version of the Truth: With this kind of technology, you are able to define the single version of the truth. You know how you calculate your profitability, revenues, cost of goods sold, etc. all in a single place (31:55)
- Starting BI From Scratch is Time Consuming: One limitation to BI-based reporting software is that starting data from scratch can take more time than companies are comfortable with (32:35)
Questions (37:57 – 51:14)
When you’re looking at the reporting, can you combine multiple companies in the same report? (38:34 – 43:05)
- You can view all companies together, one company, or specific combinations (39:09)
- Use the slicer to select and apply filters (39:30)
- There is simple integration if companies share the same business model, ERP setup, and IDs (42:27)
- The final result leaves you with consolidated data, which is easily viewable. (40:13)
How much training is required to get Dataself certified (47:16 – 51:14)
- Lots of business users with DataSelf require little, sometimes no training (47:50)
Contact SWK Today
With the right tools and strategies, organizations can overcome traditional reporting limitations and unlock new levels of operational efficiency. By watching the full webinar, discover how DataSelf’s innovative solutions can transform your data reporting and decision-making processes. Or, contact SWK today and gain access to our team of experts that can answer any BI-reporting related questions.