Why Microsoft BI?

The Problem with Traditional BI Approaches

A few years ago, people were challenged to make decisions without having access to all the information they needed. Technology was rudimentary and connecting to corporate data sources was difficult.

Today's challenge is the opposite: data is on the Internet, in formal data systems, documents, e-mail, spreadsheets, and in our own knowledge and experience. We're inundated with information that impacts how we make decisions, and we're finding it increasingly difficult to harness the power of this information.

Traditional business intelligence (BI) approaches address only a fraction of the information we use in decision making. For one thing, they're limited to the ERP system, the data warehouse, or other transactional systems we have in place. For another, they are often inflexible, making us adapt to them instead of conforming to the natural decision-making flow within our organizations. In the end, productivity suffers.

Thinking Bigger About BI

Microsoft has been in the BI space for more than 10 years, starting with a world-class BI platform and extending into tools and BI applications for managing business performance. Our goal is to transform how companies use business intelligence, giving every employee access to the data required to make informed decisions–in the right tool and in the right format.

Although BI has been around for a long time, industry analysts and our customers tell us that it has not met its full potential. That's why we offer a comprehensive BI solution with a full range of functionality.

Our BI offering integrates with your existing environment and takes advantage of your existing assets. You can deploy Microsoft BI to more people inside and outside of your organization. You can affect your entire value chain at a fraction of the cost of traditional offerings.

The BI Continuum: Personal, Team, Organizational

A BI solution must have the flexibility to work the way you do. It has to fit the context of your decision making, provide the information you need, and be available in a format that suits the people who will be using the information.

When you think of what you do daily, what emerges is a continuum, with information and insight flowing steadily among three main categories of BI: personal, team, and organizational.

Personal BI: You often use information solely for your own purposes. Perhaps you've put together a brief report to see if a business deal makes sense. It could be a visual diagram to identify if you have the right resources to get a job done on time and under budget. Your personal BI could be an Outlook task list, a CRM call sheet, or a production report. Whatever it is, you created it to support your individual decision making within the context of your job. However, it still needs to be trusted, secure, and reliable so you can make the right decision.

Learn more about personal BI

Team BI: Whatever its size, your organization has teams that drive toward common goals. Although they align with the organization, team needs are always a little bit different. You need a BI environment that enables you to share information within and across various groups, so everyone can make informed decisions.

A successful BI system will meet your team needs and personal BI requirements–allowing you the flexibility to collaborate within the natural flow of your work without compromising security and trust and ensuring that all team members have the latest reliable information.

Learn more about ERT's emPower Business Intelligence solution.