BI + Obi-Wan = A New Hope 2.0?

Data is akin to the Force in the Star Wars universe: it is all around us, but do we have the tools and experience necessary to harness it correctly? Do you feel confident in your ability to steer your company in the right direction with the help of on-point business intelligence insights gleaned from recent company data? If not, will you discover how to embrace the new generation of business intelligence (BI) tools, cloud options, and technology that have a lot to teach us, regardless of whether they’re dressed in a new, rebooted format like the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series?

Let’s examine a few BI tools, technologies, and methodologies that offer more agile, powerful, and flexible ways to understand the data around us than old-school behemoths. Your on-premise legacy software may not be as iconic as the Millennium Falcon (from the original 1977 film, “Star Wars: A New Hope”), but you may be just as hesitant to let it go. Hang on while we show you there’s new hope to be gained from the force of data.

Business Analysis Versus Business Intelligence

How can we understand business analysis—the art of unpacking business intelligence insights and applying them to future business goals and direction?

We can compare the ability to utilize BI to receiving the counsel and instruction of a Jedi master like Obi-Wan Kenobi. There are plenty of tools and software available to those interested in BI solutions. However, good BI also needs human minds well-versed in data analysis and translation to create truly transformational results.

When we think of business intelligence, we visualize charts and reports—but BI also incorporates performance measures and trends like descriptive analytics, data mining, process analysis, and performative benchmarking. In short, business intelligence (BI) is the technical and procedural infrastructure that analyzes, stores, and collects data produced by a company.

Beyond the infrastructure of data collection and analysis, BI produces reports and information to help team leaders and executive management make better high-level decisions. While business analytics is predictive (telling you what’s going to happen) as well as prescriptive (telling you what you should be doing), business intelligence is descriptive: “telling you what’s happening now and what happened in the past to get us to that state.”

 Any comprehensive corporate BI strategy should incorporate lucid, straightforward methods of describing a company’s progress. Savvy BI is easy to understand and multi-faceted, appealing to various audiences. Here are a few specific tool-centered software solutions you may employ in your quest for better BI.

Business Intelligence Software Solutions

Over the last decade, one of the biggest business intelligence trends has consisted of cloud-based BI options. Since the ongoing pandemic spurred a widespread transition to remote work, cloud-hosted BI solutions are some of the best tools for accessing advanced business analytics.  

A few advantages to cloud business intelligence solutions include lower operating costs, increased collaboration, and improved accessibility. As an example, let’s look at the specific cloud-based BI program applications you may opt to utilize via the LoadSpring platform:

Crystal Reports[DS1] 

Marketed by SAP SE, Crystal Reports is an application that specializes in business intelligence for small to medium-sized businesses. SAP Crystal Reports allows you to create custom-formatted BI reports for clients, colleagues, and partners.

Eos Cortex

Eos Group’s next-generation project history application transforms historical cost data into strategic corporate assets based on cloud technology, predictive analytics, and big data.

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher (BIP)

Oracle BIP is a BI reporting solution that lets users quickly deliver, author, and manage reports. You can create customer-related documents and interactive management reports using a web browser or desktop.

Oracle Primavera P6 Analytics

Primavera P6 Analytics allows users to forecast costs, uncover trends, and discover the root of operations-related issues. This application can also correct problems throughout a project’s lifecycle and make better portfolio decisions.

Power BI

Power BI’s analytics solutions allow you to get more from your data and find answers to your most pressing business questions. This application offers data insights, analytics solutions, unified reporting, and business intelligence.

PRC Enterprise Cost Risk Analysis

PRC Software offers this web-based solution to determine risk hotspots, cost contingency, and cost drivers. Along with importing files from Microsoft Excel, Project, and Primavera P6, this program can also simulate estimating costs.

Tableau

Tableau utilizes built-in visual practices to help people see and understand data. This solution provides data exploration without limits or interruptions to analysis flow.

Business Intelligence People Solutions

As mentioned earlier, business intelligence (BI) is more than just plug-and-play apps and tools-based BI. Instead, fully evolved business intelligence solutions require human intelligence well-versed in understanding the vital fundamentals of what makes a company great.

At LoadSpring, we recognize that the human component is critical to gleaning better business intelligence. In addition to LoadSpring Cloud Platform and ProjectINTEL, we offer business analyst (BA) services. Now, you can have your own consultant to help guide you through the process of understanding cloud-based project management tools and BI from an experienced, industry-specific perspective.

Eric Leighton, CEO & Founder of LoadSpring, says, “We’ve been working in the construction and engineering space for over 20 years with hundreds of customers. Most have the same frustrations: applications are extensive to maintain internally; it isn’t easy to keep application hardware running smoothly; and getting app support for simple questions is extremely difficult.”

We recommend our award-winning Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), LoadSpring Cloud Platform. Choose the BI solutions that work best for you, regardless of industry, project management, or project control needs. LoadSpring’s cloud project controls and advanced cloud BI solutions offer highly-evolved guidance that may rival Obi-Wan Kenobi’s wisdom – while tailored to fit your business needs.

See how LoadSpring’s customer-focused BI and BA solutions utilize tech-forward methodology and experienced mentorship for digital transformation.

As another wise teacher, Yoda, once said, “DO. Or do not. There is no try.” DO give LoadSpring a call and ask about our personalized BA services today.