The Data Is In The System

The data is in the system! Yes, that's right. Whatever you want to know about your business, your customers' spending patterns, your stock level, your financial performance, your customers' profile, and many other questions you want answered.

Citibank, in an article published in 6 Dec 2005 of Singapore Digital Life, reveals that they use the data in their system to identify customers who fit their assumptions of the potential customer base like age, salary and spending behaviour.

Business Intelligence is not confined to BIG companies. A specialised system normally can cost tens and hundreds of thousands. But there are always alternative and the solution is right in your computer. Excel is a powerful BI tool that is commonly used in Europe and US. The question is: Do you know how?

Using Excel, a travel agency was able to profile their customers using the data they have diligently captured into Gilboa, a travel management system. They were able to identify their niche and to allocate the optimal amount of resources to grow their customer base. And they spent only a fraction of the cost big companies are paying because they use tools they already owned, that is, Microsoft Excel.

For big companies, an expensive system does not necessary mean they are able to get the data they want. From system design to implementation will take at least 6 month and as long as 2 years. By the time the system is launched, the business environment would have changed and the information they need to capture has already changed. Therefore, a lot of people resort to using Excel to present the information they need to their bosses. And without good Excel Skills, it is going to be a painful process for them.

You can make use of readily available worksheet functions to transform those raw data from the system, present them as useful business information used for making critical business decision and planning. For those working in big corporations, you do not have to rely on your IT department to generate the reports for you. You will learn how to analyse those data using readily available function provided by Excel.

For SME, you do not need a powerful BI system to get what the big companies are getting. Using Excel, you can make the data become valuable to your business without the need to purchase any software. All you need is to make Excel comes in power and you will be able to gain insights into your business like never before.

A combination of Excel and MsQuery provide the most direct way to tap into databases and retrieve those information real-time so that you could prepare your report with ease. I used to use Excel to tap into our accounting database server directly and create my financial statements. When it is set up, I just need to open the file and the statements will be refreshed without me having to do anything. It makes closing the account a breeze for me.

Is the evidence strong enough for you to use Excel as a tool for business intelligence?

Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com

Jason Khoo is the author of the website Advanced Excel Profit Centre. He hopes to share with his visitors how to simplify complicated calculations through the use of Excel. He also develop templates such as the NPV template, IRR template to help users gain a better understanding of these concepts and make it more convenient for users to derive the values. He has also developed a business solution that helps budget planners consolidate budgets in SUPER quick time. The solution is also very useful for personal budgeting and analysis.

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