Now you can. By improving your reporting infrastructure & providing business users with quick access to the information they need most – you can start to improve efficiency, reduce churn and allow staff and managers to make better, informed and fact-based decisions.

How?

Our businesses generate a huge amount of valuable data via multiple platforms and mediums – such as ERP, CRM, Stock Control, Time Management, Excel sheets and Social Media. This data offers huge potential and can provide key insights such as purchasing trends and key performance figures. Typically CRM and ERP provide some basic reporting but the tools are extremely limited. If your only tool is a hammer, you will not be able to build the same things as if you had a hammer, screwdriver and saw. The same applies for obtaining valuable insights from your data.

To get the full potential from the data generated by your CRM/ERP , four key CRM/ERP challenges must be targeted:
1. Doesn’t incorporate data from other sources such as essential company software, excel sheets or even social media
2. A lack of advanced analytical capabilities such as drill downs and predictive analytics
3. A weak set of standard visualizations which don’t allow for interactivity
4. Typically no mobile access

By upgrading to a fully-fledged Business Intelligence system you can address these issues and:
1. Provide the full picture to end users
2. Allow end users to answer critical business questions quickly without the need for additional IT requests
3. Present the data so that end users can understand the information without confusion
4. Help field sales reps to improve customer engagement by providing compelling intelligence on the move

Gartner’s 2015 Magic quadrant report mentions that 28% of survey respondents are deploying and 14% are planning to deploy BI in some form on premise, cloud or hybrid cloud and that by 2017, the majority of business users and analysts will have access to self-service tools to prepare data for analysis.

To learn more we have a complementary upcoming Business Intelligence seminar.

For full seminar details and to reserve your please click here, or alternatively you can call Gavin on +353 1 4242420.

The post How to prolong the life of your CRM/ERP appeared first on SAP Crystal Solutions.

Value creation is fundamental to all businesses. We see this as a closed-loop process that drives both strategic initiatives as well as tactical operations. For some this process, or one like it, is well documented while for others it is repeated over and over with little conscious thought. To get the most from your BI investment we recommend implementing the following BI cycle:

Discover – Unlock hidden patterns in your data that reveal new insights, opportunities and risks

• Identify hidden patterns that reveal new or expanded markets and customer segments for marketing
• Make instant decisions that minimize fraud, risk and losses
• Identify safe and secure suppliers to protect the brand

Plan –  You must first decide what to do, balance the risks with the rewards, determine how you will measure success, define measurable objectives or KPIs and establish a plan. Your plans and strategies must be thoroughly communicated to all of your employees.

• Set and translate strategy
• Create plans, budgets, and forecasts
• Balance the risks with rewards
• Define measurement and monitor risk and results

Inform – Once you understand your performance, you need to report out to both internal and external stakeholders. In many cases, there are also requirements to formally disclose financial and regulatory information.

• Prepare consolidated financial statements for management and regulatory purposes
• Disclose data to internal and external stakeholders
• Comply with industry regulations

Anticipate – You must always scan the horizon for opportunities to improve existing processes, new business opportunities and risks.

• Anticipate customer churn or employee attrition
• Predict how risk may impact company performance
• Model and optimize profitability of products

Whether large or small, companies are leveraging technologies to enable this process and to put data to work in real-time.

Analytics technologies can guide you in this process as well as provide critical insights that help you to optimize the business. These technologies can decipher the vast amounts of available data and put it into the hands of critical decision-makers. Investments of this type pay off. Nucleus Research reports that analytics investments return $13.01 for every $1 spent.

You can learn more by reserving a seat in our upcoming Business Intelligence Seminar. Full Seminar Details

The post High level Business Intelligence Cycle appeared first on SAP Crystal Solutions.

Research shows important important areas for marketing to focus on and what the end buyers look for:
61%  less than traditional marketing costs, content marketing generates about 3 times as many leads.
67% more leads per month are generated by B2B companies that blog than those who don’t
86% of IT buyers use social networks and content in their purchase decisions
65% of IT buyers require at least four pieces of content to make a vendor shortlist.

Testing and understanding where you generate most of your leads is important, it allows you to prioritise your marketing activities effectively, we have a free upcoming seminar on how companies are using and understanding their data to gain a competitive advantage. You can view full seminar details here.

You can also download the full report here

The post The marketing landscape has dramatically changed appeared first on SAP Crystal Solutions.

Speed – 87% agree: To meet our targets for profitable growth, managers at my company will need to analyse financial and performance data much more quickly than they can now.

Predictive – 89% agree: To meet their targets for profitable growth, managers will need more forward-looking, predictive analytics than they have now.

Easy to Understand – 83% agree: Better information reporting and data visualization capabilities would help their line-of-business managers make better decisions.

To address these issues, we are hosting a complementary seminar in Dublin, you can view full details of the upcoming event here.

You can also download the full report

The post CFO Reporting Insights appeared first on SAP Crystal Solutions.

Since the six nations started 15 years ago, only five points separate the top three teams, England, Ireland and France.

England not only lead the total points table they have also scored the most and conceded the least.

However, despite England’s impressive overall consistently, it is France who lead the championship wins with five. Impressively, three of which are grand slams.

SAP Lumira:

Using SAP Lumira, it quick and easy to create and share visualisations just like this six nations example. This allows people to make sense of their data using a simple drag and drop interface. Why not download a free trial today and start making sense of your data:

http://www.sapcrystalreports.ie/sap-lumira-download-trial-landing/

Want to learn how SAP Lumira can help improve your business?

Join us for our free upcoming Dublin seminar. Full details are available here:

http://www.sapcrystalreports.ie/s0bx

The post Ireland are 2015 six nations champions but who lead overall? appeared first on SAP Crystal Solutions.

If it was always existed why the sudden hype?

Many systems such as ERPs, CRMs, Excel sheets, Support desks or even social media used by businesses generate a vast about of data. This offers huge potential. Questions such as:

• Which store/department is performing better and why?
• What are the most common problems our customers are having?
• Should we buy more of this product? How many have we sold recently? Is the product becoming more or less popular?
• How many of a particular product is in stock?
• Who is our best performing sales rep?
• If we apply a discount, what effect will it have? What effect did it have last time we tried a similar strategy?

And much more can be answered, using facts instead of people’s perceptions. Up until recently a skilled IT team was required to create complex queries which could take days or weeks to answer these critical questions.

I need quicker access to information when making decisions, is that possible?

With SAP Business Intelligence tools you can answer these questions fast without the need for IT. How? With a simple drag and drop interface or even a google like search box. You can even do it from your tablet or smartphone.

Sounds interesting? Why not find out more with our upcoming free Dublin Seminar? Full details available:

Free Business Intelligence Seminar Details

The post Business Intelligence In a Nutshell appeared first on SAP Crystal Solutions.