For a data warehouse to be successful, the information must be comprehensive, reliable, accurate and easily accessed by users.

Otherwise there is a high risk that business intelligence tools, including your data warehouse, will be under-utilised or possibly not used at all.

Even if you are simply deploying a reporting tool over an operational system, users need an easy-to-navigate, attractive, intuitive interface along with a tool set that makes it easy for them to find and analyse the information they need.

Business intelligence tool vendors such as Business Objects, Cognos and Microstrategy offer product sets with an ever-increasing range of sophisticated functionality including:

• Production reporting
• Ad hoc query and reporting
• Scorecards
• Dashboards
• BI search
• Predictive analytics and data mining
• OLAP
• Performance management, planning, financial reporting and consolidation
• In-memory analytics
• Advanced visualisation and discovery
• Analytic applications

How do you choose between these functional features? Which do you really need? How do you select the best business intelligence tool set and vendor for your situation? How do you embed the new tool set into your organisation? Which features should you deploy first and to which users?

Analytics8, experienced in creating business intelligence strategies that address these and other questions, will ensure your BI initiative delivers the value you expect — and more.

Our experience and methodology ensure we provide solutionsthat are sustainable, allow flexibility for growth and change and are aligned to your business requirements.