Going to industry related conferences can actually be fun.  Is it okay to say that out loud?  It’s more than the cocktail receptions, and the schmoozing that goes on.  There can actually be some really informative and eye opening presentations.

I remember sitting in a presentation, that wowed me with how they were able to extract all that data from their system.  People around me were nodding and the general body language indicated that they were all up to date and on board with what the presenter was doing.  So, I nodded my head too.  Who wants to be the person in the room whose company isn’t using current analytic tools.  I certainly didn’t, but what I did want was to get more information.

At the end of the presentation I hung around like a groupie at a concert, just hoping to talk to any member of the band.  I needed to know how to get the kind of data they were getting out of our system. When I finally got my chance to hit one of those rock stars up for the information that I needed, his response was, “It’s BI man, it’s BI.” Business Intelligence.

After further questioning, I began to understand the true capabilities of a well structured ERP system, and how the ERP systems that were revolutionary in the 1990s and early 2000s, were relics.

Companies are going deeper into the massive amounts of data that are housed in their ERP systems, and they are using tools that are available within the ERP structure to do it.  Data analysis used to require data dumps and separate analyzing tools to get information that was intuitive and suggestive of trends.  Now, these tools are built into the architecture of the ERP framework, and according to Frank Scavo, president of IT research firm Computer Economics, “…business intelligence reporting is more useful if it is delivered at the point of use within the transactional system.”.

The need for high level functionality in ERP systems has become an even greater asset to companies, and it is more attainable than ever.

Infor offers Business Intelligence, or Infor BI as a product that can be integrated into ERP architecture.  Business Intelligence is not just for large companies anymore.  Infor has created a BI platform that is embedded in the ERP applications, and isn’t expensive to run.

The ability to implement Business Intelligence is more accessible than it has ever been, and is an indication of the intuitiveness of new ERP systems.