Using business intelligence to improve decision making

Converting raw business information into useful pieces of information is an on-going challenge for many businesses. Often information is held all over the company. This means businesses often rely on manually gathering data from different systems, reports, and people. Even if they have integrated applications that collect information from different parts of the business, only a few have the right tools to convert that data into a meaningful format that is useful to a business user.

That’s why today, many small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) are leveraging ERP systems to collect and analyse data from multiple sources, and generate real-time business reports, which allow them to make more accurate and informed decisions. Having such powerful business intelligence at hand can put businesses like yours ahead of the competition and drive profit straight to the bottom line.

There are many ERP systems available that offer such capabilities, but they are not all ranked equal. In this blog, we’re going to look at the market leader, SAP Business One, and explain why it is the ideal tool for providing business intelligence (BI) to be implemented in your business.

Introduction to SAP Business One

SAP Business One is a comprehensive business management solution that provides a complete overview of your business processes.

It integrates all business functions, including accounts and finance, inventory, sales and customer relationships, project management, operations, and HR, to provide a holistic view of your business.

This means you can gain greater insight into your business and make decisions based on real-time information. Having all the correct data and information in one place allows you to access accurate intelligence, identify trends, and make informed decisions that drive profitable growth.

See your business clearly with business intelligence

SAP Business One provides powerful analytic and reporting tools. It includes a complimentary and fully integrated version of SAP Crystal Reports for SAP Business One, so you can gather data from multiple sources and generate timely and accurate reports based on company-wide data. Integrated with Microsoft Office, SAP Crystal Reports lets you choose from a variety of report formats and control access to information displayed.

With optional analytics powered by SAP HANA, SAP Business One takes advantage of in memory computing for analysis and reporting. You gain real-time access to predefined dashboards and reports, as well as productivity tools to support decision making. You can tailor forms and queries to meet specific requirements without technical training. You can also configure settings to define exchange rates, set authorisation parameters, and create import and export functions for internal mail, e-mail, and data.

The business intelligence capabilities of SAP Business One

Report creation and customisation
You can access data from multiple sources, create new reports, and customise existing ones in a variety of layouts with minimal IT overhead. Run ad-hoc reports any time (during the month) for interim reportingnd to investigate any ongoing variances. You can also speed up data analysis with “live” data drill-downs. By integrating SAP Lumira for SAP Business One, you can can enhance your reports with powerful visualisations. This all reduces the overall time and effort spent in performing data analysis and generating reports.

Interactive analysis and compatibility with Microsoft 365
SAP Business One can be used with standard MS Excel features to create reports and see your business from new angles. Business users can also upload data (from SAP B1) to MS Excel spreadsheets and share it with other users. Additionally, data visualisations and their results can be shared through MS Office documents across the organisation.

Intuitive tools
To work with data users often need data-specific skills and expertise. Therefore, they often need to wait for the assistance of expert developers and IT personnel. SAP Business One offers a variety of self-servicing tools like Lumira and Business Objects, which are easy to use for non-technical users. Features include drag and relate, drill downs, search assistance, and workflow-based alerts. This reduces the overall maintenance costs and time spent on business reporting tasks.

Analytics plus pre-defined KPIs (key performance indicators)
With SAP B1 Analytics, functional teams can now leverage predefined metrics and KPIs. This enables them to track their progress toward their business objectives and goals – for example average delivery variance days and top five sales employees. Through interactive dashboards, business managers and users can track predefined KPIs and customise the information they want to see. Additionally, users can drill down into data for advanced analysis and share the insights with other stakeholders.

Empower your people to make smart decisions faster
SAP Business One empowers your employees to make smart, confident decisions, faster by capturing all critical information across sales, customers, operations, and finance – making it instantly available company-wide. By integrating this data in one system instead of multiple disconnected spreadsheets, it eliminates duplicate data entry, costs, and related errors.
Workflow-based alerts trigger automatic responses when important business events occur, allowing you to focus on the most critical events. You have clear visibility into how your business is performing and greater confidence in the information used to make decisions.

Analytics and reporting
Together with the fully integrated SAP Crystal Reports for SAP Business One you can create dashboards and reports that provide insight into all business areas. Intuitive, interactive drill-down functionality helps you get answers to your most pressing questions. Employees can address customer needs faster, and managers can accurately track revenues, costs, and cash flow to assess performance and take quick corrective action.

For even faster information access, the SAP HANA version for SAP Business One provides powerful analytics in real time, making it easier for users to search SAP Business One for the
information you need and create standard or ad hoc reports in a moment.

Create a competitive edge with SAP Business One’s business intelligence

In today’s fast-moving world, being able to react to business needs quickly, by leveraging all existing data to drive informed decisions, is a key requisite of success. SAP Business One extracts intelligence from all the business functions, leveraging the technology to integrate the people, data, and processes within the organisation. This enables businesses to create a unique competitive edge, one that stimulates continuous growth and innovation in the most intelligent way.

By implementing SAP Business One business intelligence into your business, you will achieve faster decision-making based on accurate reports built on real-time data from the company’s sales, inventory, and production functions. You’ll achieve cost-efficiency – due to the reduced time taken to generate business reports and lower dependence on IT teams. And you’ll improve access to critical business information whenever employees need it.

At QBMS, we have years of experience providing specialist SAP Business One consultation and implementation to ambitious SMEs who want to achieve business growth.  It’s a tailored approach that’s thorough, cost-efficient and focused on delivering financial results. Get in touch today to learn how we can transform your business processes.