I read an article by Jay N. Nisberg (jaynisberg@snet.net) while on a recent flight. Among other things, he said as a business leader it is your job to study and analyze business problems. He also implied that to perform the in-depth analysis required in these uncertain times requires very rich data.
Mr. Nisberg is right, real analysis requires real data. Data for a business can reside in a variety of repositories, CRM and accounting applications to name two. I am particularly interested in those two applications since we provide an application integration package that connects them (Pervasive DataSynch). CRM applications (like Salesforce.com) record data that relates to customer activities leading up to and following the sale. Accounting applications (QuickBooks) keep track of business transactions; they are essentially the till of the business. Between these two applications a lot of basic business information is recorded.
The process of analysis starts by rearranging data into ordered lists or graphical charts so that perspectives can be drawn and behaviors can be predicted that are not readily apparent in the default state of the data. Most CRM packages deliver pipeline reports, lead generation reports, marketing campaign reports, order history reports and plenty more out of the box. Accounting applications allow you to report on inventory levels, sales, outstanding invoices, vendors, payables, and of course receivables and much more. While these canned reports provide some valuable and in many cases required business insights, there is more interesting intelligence available when the data is combined.
Application integration can get the accounting data from your business into your CRM; and application integration can get CRM data from your business into your accounting application. Once the data is combined, new reporting can be leveraged. How about a report that shows outstanding invoices by sales rep? Or a report that shows the current inventory levels, but filtered by the order history of a set of customers in a specific geographic? Or, how about sales, by region, with current inventory levels linked to a marketing campaign, performed last year at the same time? Ok, I think you get the point.
Normally this type of hybrid data would mean some type of batch job run to extract the data from both systems, then another job used to combine it, and finally a third process to actually produce the report. Or it could mean you have a person whose sole job is to copy sales orders into your accounting application. Ouch! Application integration not only eliminates the extra work, but it means that the reports can calculate in real time things like sales commissions to date or for a specific range, as soon as you decide you want to know, not when the IT guy gets time pull your data for you. Or better yet, a dashboard with the critical business values could be sent to your mobile device as you travel from client to client.
I am about to pitch our product and tell you to buy. Not quite, I am pitching an idea. I am giving you a new toolset to take to work tomorrow. I am not even going to say you have to use my tools, but you should look into this. If you have not connected your business applications; you can’t being doing your job as effectively as those who have.
What are you waiting for? Get to work!