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CVM BI Consulting There are numerous vendors and software solutions in the BI market. The main differentiators are price, application and brand. For every price point there is a solution tuned for a specific purpose and with a special capability, even though they share a common underlying technological concept.
A CVM BI Consulting Engagement is not so much about selecting a tool as it is about examining your business and finding the opportunity. Once the opportunities are identified and quantified, it is a relatively simple matter to pick a tool to support them, at which point the variables of price and brand enter the equation. A typical engagement looks like this:
1. Learn the customer business
2. Identify opportunities where data can support business objectives, such as sales targets, inventory control or quality (see list below)
3. Quantify the value of the solution
4. Identify technological requirements (number and location of users, security, etc.)
5. Identify location and structure of supporting data
6. Identify a technology suite to support the solution
7. Implement, test and roll out
8. Document and support
Sales analysis is the most common application of BI technology, but many other opportunities are available depending on your business. For example:
1. Sales analysis: Look at data by multiple parameters and track targets
2. Inventory Control: for distributed operations
3. Clickstream analysis: for ecommerce driven operations.
4. Database marketing: identify target customers for marketing promotions.
5. Budgeting: rollup and track budgets against actuals by department, region or other parameters.
6. Management Reporting: Look at P&L and cash flow.
7. Scorecard or Dashboard: A specific type of management report.
8. Profitability Analysis: Where are profits coming from and what opportunities are not delivering.
9. Quality Reporting: Track quality and process improvement/cost cutting initiatives
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