Given the combination of the economy and the vast growth in business data available for analysis, business intelligence (BI) remains a top business priority. BI is not only a priority for the executive suite, it also is becoming a priority for frontline employees, so that the departments and team members with core customer, product, operations, and service responsibilities are outfitted with the appropriate dashboards, analytics, and alerts. This concept of extending the benefits of business intelligence more broadly through the organization is known as "Pervasive BI" – it's a new paradigm with significant benefits.
Frontline employees are the people whose decisions and actions can generate revenue or cut costs on a daily basis. They are toiling in the trenches in sales, customer service, operations, finance, and any other area in which employees directly interact with customers or deliver products or services. They are the people in a position to use detailed, tactical information to make better daily decisions and quickly improve company profitability and outcomes.
Birst Extends BI Beyond the Executive Suite – Quickly and Affordably
Fortunately, in recent years, the barriers preventing the spread of BI outside of the executive suite are breaking. As a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) BI solution, Birst is lower cost, faster to deploy, and requires fewer demands on IT time and resources. This speed of deployment and rapid time to value make Birst more flexible than traditional solutions, adapting readily to changing business needs.
The considerable difference in cost between SaaS and traditional solutions is beginning to strongly influence BI buying decisions. Companies purchasing traditional BI software solutions pay large upfront licensing fees, as well as yearly maintenance costs. Companies that select SaaS business intelligence, in contrast, pay a monthly or annual subscription free that includes the cost of the software, maintenance, and support. Instead of a large upfront cost, the cost is spread out evenly over the period of use. This lowers dramatically the barriers to initial purchase and makes ongoing costs clear and manageable.
Initial purchase costs are not the only way to save with SaaS solutions, which are frequently easier to use and update. At one company, an employee was spending 30 hours a week creating sales reports using a traditional BI solution. Now, with a SaaS BI solution, that time has been cut to two hours, for a 28-hour savings. It's staggering to think how much more that employee will accomplish in a year with the equivalent of three days per week of extra work time.
Birst Smart Dashboard showing key reports and tables on a single dashboard.
Birst is a Comprehensive Cloud BI Suite – Fully Integrated and Automated
Unlike other solutions that claim to be "SaaS BI," Birst is the only solution that offers a Comprehensive Cloud BI Suite. This means that all of the required components for advanced business intelligence are there, and are fully integrated with one another, so that deployment is quick and easy.
These key components are:- ETL Services
- Analytical Data Warehouse, built on the fly
- Advanced Analytical Services, including ROLAP
- Ad Hoc Analysis Services
- Reporting Services, including:
- Dashboards
- Pixel perfect reporting
- Alerts and Exception Reports
- Scheduled report distribution
Some BI providers don't offer this full range of integrated features, so they try to convince companies that they don't need them, or that only enterprises need them. Or they only offer "analysis" for one data source only, such as reporting only for Salesforce.com However, even small organizations or departments of enterprises have complex data needs and are struggling with combining multiple data sources. Birst is the only solution providing all of the required components, fully integrated and automated, and delivered easily in the cloud.
Birst is also the only SaaS BI solution that easily combines multiple data sources from multiple locations. Want to combine information from a spreadsheet on someone’s desktop, data from Salesforce.com, and data in an on-premise data warehouse? Only Birst can do it.
With Live Access, newly announced in Birst 4, companies can leave their data on-premise in a data warehouse and still analyze it in the cloud. This allows companies to leverage existing data warehouse investments, quickly and easily, while still benefitting from Birst’s advanced analysis and reporting capability.
Birst Makes the Right Data Available to the Right People at the Right Time
Birst provides fine-grained control over how data and reports are distributed through an organization, so that your company can have confidence that the right information is getting to the right people, in time to make a business difference.
With Pervasive BI, companies can:- Effectively leverage the strengths of their organization by giving frontline employees the power to contribute to and enhance key performance indicators (KPIs).
- Increase sustainable competitive advantage by helping to transform frontline employees into an "organization of one" who is able to make timely, fact-based decisions that are aligned with company and customer objectives.
- Improve operational efficiency by identifying new best practices and helping to evangelize those practices from the frontlines up as well as the executive suite down.
Pervasive BI – Now Possible with Birst
The goal of Pervasive BI has long been hampered by high cost, complex solutions that require integration, onerous resource requirements, and difficult to use solutions. The emergence of SaaS BI solutions have significantly lowered the cost and time to deployment, making it possible for the first time for BI to be experienced broadly in an organization.
Birst brings the benefits of power, flexibility, and data breadth to the SaaS BI value proposition. With Birst, companies can have all of the features that they need and expect from an enterprise class BI solution, without the high cost and hassle. Now even the smallest organization can experience "enterprise class" BI.
Hearing a lot about Cloud BI? Learn how Birst delivers better Business Intelligence in the Cloud.
There's even more in Birst 4! Contact a Birst representative to learn the details about how Birst 4 can transform your organization.
