Even if all of the technical hurdles of operational system reporting were solved, operational teams simply need access to data from other operational areas in order to fully understand what has happened, what is happening, and what they should do next. Here are some examples of how combining information from multiple applications and functional areas can drive greater overall success:
Combining Marketing and Sales Automation Data to Increase Sales
A sales team with access only to salesforce.com automation (SFA) application data does not have a clear picture of the visits their customers make to the corporate website; the website data is owned by the marketing team. Using Business Intelligence software to add the website information into the analysis could potentially alert sales to new opportunities or to the possibility that a customer is closer to making a purchase decision.
Using this same example, the sales team may also learn how accounts they close generate sales on the website and whether the multi-channel activities generate more or less revenue from their accounts. The more sources of data with which the sales team integrates their SFA data (e.g., finance, support), the greater the insight they receive into account behavior and potential opportunities.
