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The Importance of Planning and Forecasting in BI
From PARIS Technologies
The budgeting and forecasting process for most organizations is long and tedious and occurs on an annual basis, at least. Companies try to do it more often to improve accuracy and aim to ultimately implement a procedure for continuous planning, rolling forecasts, and driver-based planning.
Unlike any other business process, budgeting and forecasting is unique because it is forward thinking. Business processes like accounting, inventory tracking, invoicing, shipping, etc. are based on actual events from the past and present.
This is a fundamental difference as it also defines how the data from these processes are managed. Essentially, actual events are captured as transactions in ERPs, supply chain systems, invoicing and accounting systems, etc., and data related to it is effectively stored in its databases. On the other hand, budgets and forecasts typically reside in spreadsheets where aggregate data is entered by several people in the organization.
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Infographic: 5 Signs You are in Excel Hell
Check out this cool infographic! Submitted to OLAP.com by the folks at PARIS Technologies. They’ve mapped here 5 warning signs that you and your professional team are living in Excel Hell.
EPM in the Cloud…and Solving the DIY Instinct of Spreadsheet Users
Little more than 5 years ago, prospects would balk at the idea of working with business solutions in the Cloud.
Does anyone else remember? Putting key company information, especially financials, into the “Cloud” was considered too risky. In addition, it was natural to ask, How easily can I reach my data when it’s in the Cloud, as compared to reaching it in my local environment?
Accessing data through a browser seemed much shakier than simply double-clicking on
If You Think OLAP is Obsolete… Think Again!
OK, so I’ll give nay-sayers of OLAP a little bit of credit, OLAP (historically) can be frustrating. Especially when some implementations are hardly what we consider to be “online”. Most of what people are calling OLAP technology is not really connected in a live way to the data source. There is a batch process to update the data from relational source to a Proprietary OLAP cube.
Excel is Not a One-stop Shop for your Data Needs
Excel is everywhere and it has proven to be a valuable resource to every company across the globe. The problem is that many companies are using spreadsheets as their main line of communication internally. Excel is great at displaying all of the raw data you could possibly dream of, just ask any Data Analyst, who eats, sleeps and dreams of never-ending spreadsheets.
OLAP and Excel
Excel reports are just not cutting in today’s world of even larger and more complex organizations. Thankfully, there is a solution that not only gives companies the capability to access large amounts of data at the speed in which there is no “waiting around” time, but it enhances the every day use of Excel. Let’s take a look at how this is possible.
Take a Moment to Reconsider OLAP
We are loving this article by Neil Raden on diginomica.com, I'm Feeling Sentimental about OLAP and You Should Too. In it Raden makes the case that the OLAP tech that existed in the 90's plus the new strides that have been made in recent years as far as scale, speed,...
Business Intelligence Versus Predictive Analytics
Business Intelligence is needed to know what really happened in the past, but you also need predictive analytics to optimize your resources to make better decisions and take actions for the future.
Boost Your Business Intelligence Career With Data Science
According to research by LinkedIn, data science and machine learning jobs are the hottest and most in-demand career paths in the world. Data scientists hold some of the most sought-after positions in the world, and if you want to boost your business intelligence or graduate career, it’s important that you boost your resume with big data.
How Data Management Platforms Can Help Marketers Promote Business Growth
Businesses are looking to create personalized messages to retain clients and attract new customers – all of which requires concerted data management. With 78% of marketers saying that data management platforms (DMP) are embedded in the overall success of a business marketing campaign, there is no denying that this concept is gaining more attention.
Learn OLAP
Resources
Types of OLAP Systems
MOLAP, ROLAP, HOLAP... what's the difference? And modern OLAP for this century.
History of OLAP and BI
Learn about the history of OLAP technology with this comprehensive inforgraphic