Need advice on implementation of a senior management BI software.

I have been tasked to implement a senior-management reporting software for our company. The question I have is: What should be the keys points to focus on when considering data exporting from our accounting software to the new reporting software? Our company office uses different accounting softwares in different geographies..viz SAP, Hyperion, etc. Also, should we first import accounting data from all different softwares to one accounting system and then export to the reporting software or is a direct import from the various softwares into reporting software OK? thanks for any help.

Answers

Donald Koscheka Principal • March 16, 2012

The first thing you need to do is make sure that your charts of accounts are consistent enough that when you export data, you can make sense of it.

You should not need to import into one accounting system - your reporting system should be able to handle the aggregation.

CV Sudarshan Manager • March 18, 2012

I would not recommend transferring data from various accounting systems into one. It is not trivial, and if messed up, can be painful to fix. I assume there is a reason why the company has disjointed systems for different geographies.

Most reporting can be setup to integrate with more than one accounting system independently. Having said that, I cannot comment on the feasibility without knowing the actual reporting system.

Nikola Antonov CIO • March 19, 2012

Hello,

I would recommend using of Business Intelligence software such as Qlikview (http://www.qlikview.com/), which is very flexible and allows to merge quickly and easily information from different kind of systems.

Best regards,
Nikola

Tim Brands CEO • March 26, 2012

The most important and critical first step is to determine what information you need to:
1) Communicate what has happened,
2) Influence what is happening, and
3) Anticipate what will happen.

Defining your reporting needs based on these three concepts should drive what you do for a reporting solution, from a tool like Qlikview to a full blown data warehouse. The available options must be driven from the business value you need to create, and starting from this perspective narrows the options very quickly.

There may also be other needs that can be combined into a solution that solves multiple problems at once. For example, there are some very nice and relatively inexpensive budgeting applications that integrate with your different G/L's for reporting and analytics. With this approach you could get a top-notch budgeting and reforecasting solution that also integrates your actuals from multiple G/L's for budget-to-actuals reporting. Add to this a little extra data (e.g. headcount from HR, sales forecasts from CRM, etc.) and you very quickly can have a well-rounded senior management reporting system that parallels the chart of accounts, organizational structure, lines of business, etc. that management uses (or wants to use) for budgeting.

Tim Brands
iBusiness Solutions

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