In today’s business world, it pays to be in the know—and it pays to be in the know now. Any delay in reporting is money going down the drain, any time spent compiling these reports is time that your staff could be spending helping the rest of your business, and any time these reports have blind spots, you have the potential to steer your business into an ‘iceberg’ of sorts.
That’s why today’s businesses need to have the right information in the right hands at the right time. As more and more companies turn to business intelligence software—whether it’s built into an ERP platform or built to connect your applications—it’s vital to know what this software does and how it helps. As we begin our deep look into certain functionality within Acumatica, we would today like to look at how they make analysis easy with dashboards, reporting, and intelligence tools.
The Power of Intelligence
Business intelligence (BI) is a technology-driven process for analyzing data and presenting actionable information which helps executives, managers and other corporate end users make informed business decisions. Sometimes considered jargon, other times considered merely a tool for data visualization, BI is much more.
Business Intelligence empowers your people to make smarter decisions with better information, delivered to them with minimal spreadsheet use and manual analysis. Able to be customized for use by every department within your organization, each user can have dashboards tailored to his or her specific needs. Especially in an environment in which we’re generating more data than the 5,000 preceding years, BI helps to connect and analyze data.
A Deeper Look at Acumatica’s Reporting, Dashboards, and Data Analysis
Acumatica’s Reporting, Dashboards, and Data Analysis Toolkit is designed for businesses who need to be in the know. Built into the Acumatica ERP solution, this tool can either integrate with a BI tool like Power BI or deliver easy-to-use inquiries and analytics. Here are just some of the many features it delivers:
Generic Inquiries: Extracting the Data You Need
Getting information all starts with the ability to generate it for easy analysis. Acumatica Generic Inquiries does this—giving you a way to extract the specific data you need and present it to reporting functions for analysis. Whether they’re used for a BI tool, reporting, or tools like Advanced Commissions for Acumatica, Generic Inquiries provide a framework for analysis, drilldown, and more.
Thanks to this functionality, you can access any data you need, do so with minimal coding knowledge, and access it all securely. Simply select the data you need using wizards that walk you through the process. Generic Inquiries can be reused and modified for a variety of purposes.
Reports: New Ways to Look at Your Business
If you rely on your ERP to track all company transactions, such as sales, inventory, and company assets, shouldn’t all the information it provides connect and be useful for your business? All the information is there, after all. Acumatica makes this a reality, helping you to accelerate decision making with reporting tools that deliver customized views of your business overall and focused views of departments and functions.
From the 250+ reports that come standard within Acumatica to the ones you can create, customize, and filter with the information that matters most to you, these reports can be scheduled or generated in real time.
Dashboards: The Information You Need at Your Fingertips
Dashboards can be a powerful reporting tool, based on any information within the Acumatica system. They are visually pleasing and easy to see the data important to you. Acumatica dashboards are generally made up of one or several widgets, which are a report of some kind.
You can also configure several different dashboards and they can be assigned to the home page for any user. You can have different dashboards for your warehouse people, controller, sales, etc. We’ve written an incredibly detailed guide on how Acumatica Dashboards are used and set up for your exact needs here.
Business Intelligence: Taking the Information Further
While all of the aforementioned features make Acumatica smarter, Acumatica also makes this actionable information formatted and ready for analysis in a variety of business intelligence tools. Built to work well with a variety of BI tools, Acumatica and Microsoft were among the first to work together to enhance the reporting capabilities and visibility across the organization.
Get to Know Acumatica: Smarter ERP for Smarter Companies
If you want to make 2020 your best year yet, get to know Acumatica. Sold exclusively through a network of highly qualified partners like Crestwood, Acumatica is built for the cloud and able to deliver the visibility, control, automation, and usability you need from an ERP solution. Learn more about this modern cloud ERP and contact us for a consultation.
