BI: How Did You Do Business Without It?

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•Article: Business Intelligence

Use BI (business intelligence) to help differentiate yourself and promptly react to today's marketplace.

Below, Rob Garf, head of the retail practice group at AMR, and David Gruehn, industry solutions director for the U.S. retail and hospitality group at Microsoft, discuss the type of information that BI can uncover. This data can help you better understand your customers and, consequently, meet their needs.

How important is the role of BI in today's retail organization? What trends are you seeing?
Garf: Retailer interest in BI and performance management technology has been accelerating in the last 18 months. In fact, cross-industry BI and performance management spending confirms this trend, noting a 2005-2006 growth rate of 26% related to spending on dashboard and scorecarding systems alone. Mandated requirements for regulatory or compliance reporting (most notably Sarbanes-Oxley) have spurred investment in better technology. However, retailers also are showing a strong desire to inject intelligence in both planning and execution processes to more effectively turn analysis to action.

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•Article: Business Intelligence