The Evolving Role of Analytics in ERP
First, we will start with key difference between ERP & Business Intelligence.
ERP, is an operational system chock full of operational and transactional data. It will give an exact view of business from an operational perspective, but it is not built to perform trend analyses or give us high-level overviews. It is a tool centered around delivering operational insights.
ERP, is an Online Transaction Processing system (OLTP), used to record transactions as and when they take place. The data architecture of ERP software is designed to provide high-speed transaction recording, while keeping disk space utilization at a minimum.
BI tools are typically leveraged by analysts for high level discussions which involve strategic decisions. A BI tool accesses all of the data in data warehouse, both strategic (revenue, profit and growth), and operational (daily sales performance). BI tools enable to conduct in-depth analyses to generate comprehensive information that can deliver high-level insights.
BI is built as an Online Analytical Processing system (OLAP), to provide robust analytical capabilities, such as high-speed access to reports, dashboard management and the development of balanced scorecards. BI also comes with advanced analytical features that allow you to view data from different sources on one page, and in the format or perspective you need.
Most of the ERP has business intelligence tool as a standard feature, but still there are some users prefer to have additional third-party business intelligence tool to get the accurate analytics.
Business intelligence is one of the most popular trending subjects (along with document management, workflow and integration) in any ERP forums. Part of the reason is that BI gives ERP a sales edge that it might otherwise lack.
Analytics is playing very important role to have a leading business. It doesn’t only have an effective display consists the data of the business but it also gives detailed information on what preparations, plans and accurate decision making. Now a day, business intelligence has become more broadly available and affordable.
“ERP systems are expensive to implement, and in general it is a replacement market where everybody already has one”. “So what’s going to make you throw out the old for something else when they all have broadly similar functionality? If you look at VARs selling ERP, they are all trying to use BI as a way of beating the competition.”
ERP can transform data into information but BI tools are required to complete the transformation from information to intelligence.
Ultimately, both tools are geared towards business improvement and can deliver significant results.
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