Organization and Business Intelligent (BI)

Managing an organization or businesses is not an easy work.

As

leaders of the organization, they require access to information to help them

monitor business activities and identify business performance.

It can be

challenges for organization to understand all the information that it has

because the information systems has collect and process large amount of
data in different form.

In order to respond with the rapidly changing in

modern world, increasingly competitive global market scenario, rapidly

shortening in product life cycles and increasingly changing in market and
consumer behavior, in which all this changes required businesses to analyze
accurate and timely information about customer, financial operation, product
and services to ensure that organization gain an analytical understanding
towards business opportunities and problems (Gangadharan and Swami,
2004).

Therefore, nowadays most of the large companies and organization

are developing business intelligence systems that can be use to support

business analysis and decision making in order to assist them for better
understanding about business operation and compete in the marketplace.
Negash (2004) said that business intelligence (BI) system is an
integration of operational data with analytical tools that help the decision
makers to deliver complex and competitive information. The purpose of BI is
to enhance the quality and timeliness of inputs to the decision process.
Business Intelligence is used to know what are the capabilities that the firms
have, the technologies, trends and future directions in the market, the
regulatory environment in which the firm competes, to identify the actions of
competitors and what are the implications of these actions. In other words,
business intelligence allows the business to make intelligent and fact-based
decisions (Schwartz, 2011).

According to Adelman, Moss and Barbusinki

(2002) stated that BI is a term that include a wide range of analytical

software and solution for gathering, analyzing and providing access to
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correct, complete and current information for organization that enables the
users of the information make better business decisions.

The Important of Business Intelligence

Nowadays in business environment, data is the most significance
element in every organization, thus good Business Intelligence should be the
main focus of every company in order to run their business smoothly. The
purpose of Business Intelligence is to provide the right information at the
right time in the right context to the right person in which it will help
organization to attain real business agility (Kathryn, 2012).

Business

Intelligence facilitate organization to develop strategic planning for business

growth, by identifying the patterns and trends in the data that have
possibility to find out new growth opportunities, improve business process
and also reduce costs. Therefore Business Intelligence software provides a
full view of the business, give empowerment for those individual that involve
in interpreting the data to help them easily to share data across the business
and give immediate access to vital customer and financial information
(Kathryn, 2012).
Business Intelligence designed to support decision making. The data
that has been used by BI to convert into meaningful information is pull from
other

Information

systems

such

data

from

Customer

Relationship

Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain

Management (SCM), Decision Support System (DSS), data mining, on-line
data processing (OLAP) and others information system (Willen, 2002).
According to Negash (2004) stated that through the analysis that has been
done in Business Intelligence process, it will converts data into useful
information. Tasks that performed by BI include creating forecasts based on
historical data, past and current performance, and estimates of the direction
in which the future will go. BI also use in what if analysis to identify the
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impacts of changes and alternative scenarios. Other than that it use for ad
hoc access to the data to answer specific, non-routine questions.

Business Intelligence Software

Olavsrud (2010) said that Business Intelligence software is used to
extract data from different sources such databases, spreadsheets and other
software programs which is inside organization and then analyze that
business data to better understand a firms internal and external strengths
and weaknesses. A big company relies heavily on this data. Organization
bottom line use BI software will help managers to better see the relationship
between different data for critical decision making in which the outcome
form

the

decision

making

will

provide

particularly

opportunities

for

innovation, cost reduction and optimal resource deployment.

There is a lot vendor that offering Business Intelligence software such
Microsoft, Oracle and IBM that offer features rich of BI suites together with
many other enterprise software products. Meanwhile, there are also vendors
for pure-play business intelligence software for instance MicroStrategy and
Tableau. All this software are used by the companies to make an analytical
analysis in which the result from the analysis will help and support
organization to make a good decision.

Business

Intelligence Business

Software

Vendor

IBM Cognos Series 10

IBM

Oracle Enterprise BI Server

Oracle

Intelligence

SAP Business Objects Enterprise XI

SAP

SAS Enterprise BI Server

SAS

Microsoft BI Platform

Microsoft

WebFOCUS

Information Builder

Board Intelligence Toolkit

Board International

List of Business Intelligence Software

Business Intelligence: Data Mining Software
Oracle Data Mining and IBM SPSS Modeler
.

In order to attain high performance in the businesses, organization

needs to analyze all the data that they have accurately. The data usually
come from the information system in which all the data will analyze by using
existing software to convert the data into useful information that will help
company to make a right business decision.

Data mining is one of the

Information System in which Business Intelligence pull the data from it and
then transform it into useful information that will use by the Chief
Information Officer (CIO) or manager to make business decision.

Oracle

(2008) define data mining as a practice that automatically searching large

stores of data to identify trends and patterns that go beyond simple analysis.
Besides, data mining has been identified as the process of knowledge
discovery consist of finding hidden pattern and associations, performing
prediction and classification, establishing analytical models and also
presenting mining result (Hyperion, 2005).

According to Hema and Malik

(2010) said that data mining techniques can be execute rapidly on existing
software

and hardware

platforms to increase the value of existing

information resources and can be integrated with new products and systems
as they are brought on-line. Nowadays, a lot of companies have tried to
promote their own stand alone packages, but few have reached notable
market shares.
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Concurrently, many vendor offering business intelligence products

have integrated data mining solutions into their database products, for
instance is Oracle Data Mining that has been established in 2002. Oracle
Data Mining (ODM) has powerful data mining that is designed for as native
SQL functions within the Oracle Database. ODM allow users to explore and
understand more the hidden in data and to leverage investment in Oracle
Database technology (Oracle.com, n.d). By using this software, it will help
companies to identify their best customers, develop details customer profiles
and also find and prevent fraud by developing and applying predictive
models of ODM. ODM facilitate organization for better compete on analytics
because it is component of the Oracle Advance Analytics Option. The Oracle
Advanced Analytics Option can deliver enterprise-wide predictive and
actionable insight quickly in which it turns the database into an enterprisewide analytical platform. Oracle.com (n.d) claimed that Big Data and Bigger
Insights Oracle Advanced Analytics empowers data and business analysts to
extract knowledge, discover new understanding and make predictions that
working directly with large data volumes in the Oracle Database.
Data

Mining

supports

data

mining

functions

such

Oracle

classification

for

approximating and forecasting continuous values, attribute importance

function as identifying the attributes that are most important in predicting
results while anomaly detection function is use to identify items that do not
satisfy the characteristics of normal data (Oracle.com 2005)., regression,
attribute importance and anomaly detection. Classification function use for
grouping items into discrete classes and predicting which class an item
belongs to, regression function use which is grouping items into discrete
classes and predicting which class an item belongs to, regression functions
use to forecast and approximate continuous values, attribute importance is
use for identifying attributes that are most important in predicting result
while for anomaly detection function as identifying items that do not satisfy
the characteristics of normal data (Oracle.com, 2005).
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The good about ODM it is provide a powerful functionality as it enables

organization to discover new insights of hidden in data.

ODM able to

establish predictive models and its model can be included in SQL queries and
entrenched in applications to offer improved business intelligence. Besides,
ODM has more than ten data mining algorithms that can be used in data
mining (Obiria, 2013). The best thing about ODM it is remains use in other
Oracle solutions.

It was being embedded in various applications which is

from Fusion Human Capital Management to Oracle Business Intelligence

Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) (Taylor, 2011).
Other than Oracle data mining, other familiar software that has been
used in data mining is IBM SPSS Modeler Premium.

IBM SPSS Modeler

Premium is a data mining and text analytics software application that has
been built by IBM Corporation in which it is used to develop predictive
models and conduct other analytic tasks. It has a visual interface that allows
users to get advantages in statistical and data mining algorithms without
programming (IBM.com, 2014).

IBM SPSS Modeler Premium is a text

analytics workbench and high performance predictive that gives businesses

the insight that never been known before from the collection of data. IBM
SPSS Modeler premium is an extensive predictive analytics platform that is
made to bring predictive intelligence to decisions made by groups,
individuals, systems and the enterprise.

SPSS Modeler can facilitate

business make right decision consistently by providing a range of advanced

algorithms and techniques that include text analytics, entity analytics,
decision management and optimization (ibm.com, n.d).

SPSS Modeler

software is robust with advance statistical tools in hand from time series
analysis to logistic regression.

This software can be used by banking

institution for fraud detection, by convenience stores for market basket

analysis, for cluster analysis on customer segmentation. Even SPSS Modeler
is quite expensive but it can be categorized as great software for advanced
users, it is because to use this software, users need to have knowledge in
statistics, sql server and strategic planning therefore this software is
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preferably for strategic planning offices and business intelligence units

(datamine, 2013).

Oracle Data Mining

-

IBM SPSS Modeler

Oracle Data Mining provides a - Analyze almost all data, conduct

powerful functionality as it enables analysis regardless of where the data

users to discover new insights hidden is stored and regardless of whether it
in data.
-

is structured or unstructured.

enables

building

of

predictive - Solve a variety of business problems

models

with an extensive range of analytics.

- Its model can be included in SQL - Use more easily and learn more
queries

and

applications

to

entrenched
offer

in quickly,

Modeler

interface

improved appeals to a wide range of users from

business intelligence.
- It has more than ten data mining
algorithms that can be used in data
mining.

SPSS

the non-technical business user to

the statistician, data miner or data
scientist because it enables them
analyze data in a way that suits them

Comparing Oracle Data Mining and IBM SPSS Modeler

Business Intelligence: Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) Software

Oracle OLAP 11g and Oracle Essbase
Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) is refer to computer processing
that allow users to easily and selectively extract and view data from different
points of view (Rouse, 2007). OLAP database facilitate business-intelligence
queries.

OLAP is a database technology that has been optimized for

querying and reporting, instead of processing transactions.

OLAP allows

users to analyze database information from multiple database systems at

one time in which relational databases are considered to be two-dimensional
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but OLAP data is multidimensional means that the information can be

compared in different ways.

For instance, a computer company might

compare their computer sales in May with sales in Jun, and then compare the
results with the sales from other location in which to make this comparison
the

company

needs

(techterm.com, n.d).

to

access

the

data

from

different

database

Therefore, to process database information by using

OLPA, an OLAP server is required to organize and compare the information

that it has. Client can analyze different sets of data using functions built into
the OLAP server.

An online Transactional Processing (OLTP) database is a

source of data for OLAP that commonly stored in data warehouse. OLAP data
is obtain from historical data and aggregated into structures that permit
sophisticated analysis.

OLAP is designed for managers looking to make

sense of their corporate data and related information thus OLAP tools
structure data hierarchically in which the way managers think of their
enterprise (informationbuilder.com, 2013).
Both Oracle OLAP 11g and Oracle Essabe is the product of Oracle.
Unlike relational storage, Oracle OLAP 11G store data in multi-dimensional
arrays in which it structured around business rules and business concept. It
allows users faster access cells of data for ad-hoc analysis. Oracle OLAP 11g
stored summary data in the cube along with detail and offer offset
addressing that no need for joins.

It also provides advanced analytics

include time-series analysis, non-additive calculations, financial calculations

and statistical forecasting. In Oracle OLAP summaries can now be stored in a
multidimensional cube which is a single cube can contain the equivalent of
thousand of summary combinations. The Oracle 11g treats OLAP cubes as
materialized views and rewrites queries to access cubes transparently and
then cubes refreshed using standard MV procedures (Mark, 2005).

Oracle

OLAP 11g can be used along with Oracle BI EE which is it can be used either
through Cube Organized Materialized View or with SQL views.
Mark (2005) stated that Oracle Essbase is acquired as part of the
Hyperion acquisition which is standalone OLAP server that now owned by
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Oracle. It is a fully-featured OLAP server. It is end-user focused software

which is it is very popular with business users.

This application used to

power many of the Hyperion performance management applications and has

similar capabilities to Oracle OLAP that support MDX and XML/A rather than
SQL access. In term of architecture, Oracle Essbase has ODBC connectivity
to all major RDBMSs, multi-dimensional OLAP engine, Java and XML/A midtier and use essbase query tools. Same goes to Oracle OLAP, Oracle Essbase
has full OLAP capabilities such drill, pivot, select, compare, rank, sort, filter,
calculate and annotate. It reporting tools enabled by database outline and
very easy to add financial-style calculations, forecasts also allocation of data.
Oracle Essbase is emphasis more on business and finance user as compared
to the database administrator.
Oracle OLAP and Oracle Essbae both servers can provide data for
Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) in which Oracle OLAP
provihde the data through Cube Organized MVs and SQL view access while
for Oracel Essbase through XML/A also it use the OBIEE logical model as a
data source. Both add performance and analytic capabilities to OBIEE and
the Oracle Business Intelligence stack.

Feature

Oracle OLAP 11g

Oracle Essbase

Storage Method

Multidimensional Arrays

Multidimensional Arrays

Query Language

SQL via query rewrite or MDX & XML/A

SQL views

Process Type

In-database,

embedded Stand-alone server

process
Product dependency

Oracle database enterprise Any relational database

edition

Primary Use

Enhancing SQL-based Data Supporting

OLAP
Warehouse
analytical applications
Comparing Oracle OLAP and Oracle Essbase
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Business Intelligence: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software

Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics NAV
An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a system that integrates
internal and external information flows used by the organization within a
single and comprehensive solution. An ERP incorporates the system used by
organization to manage the basic commercial function of business, such as
planning,

inventory

management,

purchasing,

manufacturing,

finance,

human resource sales and others (Aptean, 2014). ERPs objective is to drive
the flow of information between the internal business functions while
managing connections to outside stakeholders.

ERP run on a variety of

computer hardware and network configuration including client or server or

hosted.

ERP normally use a common database to hold information from

various

business

functions

that

is

accessible in other form by various users.

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One of company that use and offer ERP system to vendors is the Green
Beacon Solutions. The company offer Retail Supplier Solutions which is an
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system solution enabling suppliers to
build stronger relationships with retailers. They used Microsoft Dynamics AX
with an integrated set of tools for shelf aware, pre-season and in-season
demand planning, data visualization, supply chain, and vendor compliance.
It combines industry expertise with a complex technical understanding of
Microsoft Dynamics AX to imbed supplier critical success factors. The
company focuses on the key features that Microsoft Dynamics AX provides
while complementing it for the needs of suppliers with data visualization
tools, integrated Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solutions, intuitive
forecast solutions, and many more. Microsoft Dynamics have offers two type
of software to consumer which is the Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft
Dynamics NAV.
Microsoft Dynamics AX is actually a business solution for global
enterprises

that

supports

industry-specific

and

operational

business

processes, along with comprehensive, core ERP functionality for financial and
human resources management. It empowers people to anticipate and
embrace change so the business can thrive (Microsoft, 2014). As a business
solution that supports both operational and administrative processes of
organization and with a specialized focus on manufacturing, retail, service
industries, and public sector, Microsoft Dynamics AX includes capabilities
such as financial management, human capital management, manufacturing,
supply chain management, and retail management which help company to
become more systematic.

Then Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a business

solution that is quick to implement and easy to use by users. It is fully

integrated, adaptable business management solution that can streamline
processes, deliver robust reporting and business intelligence, enhance
personal productivity with RoleTailored user experience and connect
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employees, customers and partners across a global marketplace (Microsoft,

2014).
Microsoft Dynamics NAV was developed specifically for small to midsize companies looking for a single solution that can be implemented rapidly,
customized and maintained with minimal disruption. Role Tailored Client
(RTC) is a breakthrough in business productivity designed specifically to help
people interact with their business systems more efficiently and effectively.
The new RTC interface will make it possible for the company to offer their
employees an appealing, customizable and easy-to-navigate work. There are
different factors that make user to choose whether to use Microsoft
Dynamics AX or NAV.

For the first factor is the customer base, Microsoft

Dynamics AX are designed for large and international organization that

occurs in multiple location while Microsoft Dynamics NAV are used in midsize
business that want to take advantage of powerful of technology to compete
with large organization.
Then in terms of global operations, Microsoft Dynamics AX supports
centralize master data management and services such as procurement and
financial while Microsoft Dynamics NAV support global businesses that do not
have complex organizational structure. In terms of industry fit the Microsoft
Dynamics AX is flexible and highly customizable.

It focused on service,

manufacturing, distribution, financial, public sector and retail. For Microsoft

Dynamics NAV it is also flexible and highly customizable, this is because it
supports huge variety of industries.

Manufacturing Modes by Microsoft

Dynamics AX are design for a complete solution for the most modes of
manufacturing with the products functional extensions where it support
discrete, job shop, process and lean manufacturing.

While the Microsoft

Dynamics NAV is a solution that designed for discrete manufacturing and it

will handle other modes with ISV add-ons.

Microsoft D. AX advance in

manufacturing planning including multi-plant and multi-schedule while

Microsoft D. NAV has a multi-site planning. For the implementation Microsoft
D. AX requires more decision and take longer deployment time and resources
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while the Dynamics NAV has moderate and low cost to implement and
maintain. The last differentiation between Dynamics AX and Dynamics NAV
is in the factor of deployment, Dynamics AX can be installed on the server or
hosted while Dynamics NAV is a three tier application and can be installed on
server or hosted.
Business Intelligence:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Software
SugarCRM and Netsuite CRM
In general, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a term
representing the business strategy built around the concept of improved
customer service. CRM practice involves all aspects of communication and
dealing an organization has with its client, whether it is product or service
linked.

More clearly, CRM

aims

at increasing customer satisfaction,

consequently increasing a business income (esalestrack.com, 2010).

CRM

systems make life easier and it itself is a discipline that centers on building
better customer relationships, the software enables company to scale up the
process of building those relationships.

Putting a CRM strategy in place

provides organizations with enhanced visibility and understanding into who

are the constituent really area. Ultimately, these systems are designed to
improve customer satisfaction.

In greater detail, CRM systems monitor

record and facilitate the interactions of organizations sales, marketing and

support departments in a single location (Bucholtz, 2011). This software is
also one of the business intelligence software. The companies that use CRM
in managing their customer is Netsuite Inc. with the software called as the
Netsuite CRM+ and IBM company with the software called as the SugarCRM.
NetSuite CRM+ delivers powerful customer relationship management
(CRM)

capabilities,

includingsales

force

automation

(SFA),

marketing

automation, customer support and service, and flexible customization, all in

single cloud CRM solution. And unlike typical CRM solutions, NetSuite CRM+
includes powerful sales performance management, order management,
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partner management and marketing effectiveness capabilities as standard.

It can integrate with the existing ERP investments, providing the company
with a cloud CRM system which merge into broader business processes, or
company can grow into the rest of NetSuites broader suite by adding
seamlessly

integrated

ERP,

ecommerce,

professional

services

automation(PSA), or global business management capabilities when the time

is right for business.

NetSuite CRM+ provide features like powerful sales

force automation, advanced sales forecasting and quota management,

automated incentive compensation management, comprehensive up sell,
quote and order management, mobile access anytime and anywhere,
integration

with

leading

social

and

productivity

tools,

out-of-the-box

marketing automation and others.

Sugar is an affordable and easy to use customer relationship
management (CRM), it is designed to help the business or organization to
communicate with prospects, share sales information, close deals and keep
customers happy. Thousands of successful companies use Sugar every day
to manage sales, marketing and support. SugarCRM is an open-source CRM,
it is easy to customize. It suitable for small and medium-sized companies,
large enterprises and government organizations and it is runs in the cloud or
on-site of the company (Scheneider, 2014).

SugarCRM provide industry-

leading solutions with innovation, unparalleled flexibility, unique value and

also reduced risk.

This software represents the great alliance between

SugarCRM and IBM which it fit with technology, service and vision of both
company. Both of company gives an intense focus on providing customerfacing professionals with best tools to deliver and great experience to the
prospect and customer.
From website g2crowd.com there are comparison made by the admin
about NetSuite CRM+ and SugarCRM software about its pros and cons to
user.

The first factor being compare is the user satisfaction with the

software, where user prefer to use SugarCRM rather than NetSuite CRM+
because of the complexity of the system and SugarCRM meets the user
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requirement with the interface that is easy to understand. Other than that
the SugarCRM is easy to setup and there are available operator and person
in charge to handle question from user rather than the NetSuite CRM+ where
the user need to put a lot of effort and time to get started to use the system.
Other than that the price of SugarCRM is least expensive that NetSuite CRM+
but the SugarCRM only suitable for the small business employee while the
NetSuite CRM+ is suitable for Mid-market size of company and that is why
many company use the NetSuite CRM+ rather than SugarCRM even though
the software are least expensive and easy to install.
Conclusion
As a conclusion, Business Intelligence (BI) helps company nowadays in
analysis and preparing for the strategy on how to maintain and upgrade the
business.

With the software offered by BI help company to know their

customer needs and the market growth of the specific product. Even though
the software are complicated and complex and only the expert can use it but
the software usage can be learn and it will help company in the way of
gaining great data, quick data entry and retrieve, and this will lead to
company to make better and faster decision.

Finally the most important

thing is that BI systems help organizations align all parts of the organization
towards common business objective by centralizing the KPI definition,
providing single source of information and others benefits.

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