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Holding up a Mirror to the Business: Getting the Best from BI and CPM Technology
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By
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Nigel Illingworth, Dominic Policella
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Looking back, looking forward
It's important too that BI doesn't just reveal historical
information, but also integrates and manages the Budgeting, Planning and
Forecast data needed to drive the business forward. The best BI and CPM tools
enable users to model and adjust against plan. In a competitive market such as
retail, accurate planning can make a huge difference to profitability. For
example, retailers can look to BI to run 'cost to serve' models and work on
integrated sales and operational planning to create value and savings across
the supply chain.
Pitfalls and disappointment
Trying to do too much too quickly is a common source of
disappointed. This is why an integrated tool that supports all areas of BI and
CPM is important. Concludes Dominic Policella: "Many projects just don't
achieve the results anticipated, often due to the complexity of the system, and
so users give up and revert to spreadsheets. BI systems should be simple and
rapidly deliver results to the business community. It's also important to be
able to easily integrate new sources of information and to change BI models as
user requirements evolve."
Cardinal rules
In summary, the cardinal rules for getting the best out of a
BI system are:
- Invest in a 'retail-ready' product which will get you
up and running straightway
- Make sure that business users are involved in the tool
selection as well as in defining requirements, and have continual input
- Look for flexibility. Your chosen system should be able
to rapidly support changing business requirements
- Home in on tools that are fast and easy to use
- Select an integrated tool, not a mixture of modules
from the same vendor which may cause integration issues down the line when
the initial scope needs to be extended
- Make sure the system can support
budgeting/planning/forecasting as well as performing historical analysis.
Merret is a complete supply chain ERP solution, widely used
in retail. Users can opt for an integrated BI and CPM module that is powered
by specialist technology from BOARD, or purchase Merret BI & CPM as a
standalone solution.
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