IBM’s new tool streamlines data across departments

Business intelligence (BI) and analytics tools are invaluable to businesses: data drives insights, improves performance, and enables forecasting.

But different departments have different needs, so organizations often have different tools from department to department. And even within departments, dashboards can be spread out based on the level of technical knowledge and skills of users.

Taken together, this can create a complicated environment where data is shielded by department and not democratized, said Alvin Francis, VP of Product Management, Business Analytics and Watson Applications at IBM. This makes information exchange difficult and bureaucratic.

“Data is critical to help organizations address everything from inflation to shifting consumer expectations to supply chain disruptions,” Francis said. “They want to be able to give more of their team members access to data and analytics, but data silos and lack of specialized skills are big problems.”

To streamline this process, IBM yesterday announced Business Analytics Enterprise, a suite of business intelligence planning, budgeting, reporting, forecasting and dashboard capabilities that give all users an overview of data sources across the company.

“Having a collaborative platform allows data from supply chain reports, inventory analysis, and even sales reports to be reviewed together by multiple teams in the same dashboard,” Francis said.

Progressive insights enable differentiation

Organizations can end up with multiple BI and analytics tools for a variety of reasons, said Dave Menninger, SVP and research director at Ventana Research.

In some cases, he said, it is the result of mergers and acquisitions. In other cases, different departments may have made independent purchases. In addition, different tools provide different sets of functionality.

Menninger pointed out that in Ventana’s research, only five of more than 20 BI vendors include scheduling capabilities in their offerings.

But according to Forrester“advanced insight-based organizations” are 1.6 times more likely (compared to novices) to report using data, analytics, and insights to create experiences, products, and services that differentiate them in the marketplace.

Slowing down the carousel

As Francis noted, having multiple analytics tools can create bottlenecks in productivity as many decision makers may not be able to access self-service data when they need it.

For example, if a member of the sales team needs a report that only the operations team has access to, they’ll have to reach out to request it, which can often lead to a waste of time and resources.

“Having access to multiple tools can mean getting stuck in a carousel of windows and tabs and having to contact multiple different people across the organization,” Francis says. Or maybe users have to train for hours to learn how to use the tool with the necessary analytics.

And information gaps arise, which can eventually lead to errors in estimating the required inventory.

“A user needs to be able to go to a dashboard and get real-time insights that can inform their planning process,” Francis says.

Data all in one place

With IBM Business Analytics Enterprise, users of all skill levels can find the data they need in one place, Francis said.

“It’s like taking 10 open tabs in a window and merging them into a single, customizable page,” he said.

But it’s important to note, Francis said, that the tool isn’t just for data scientists, but for “information consumers in general.” Algorithms recommend role-based content so that even the least technical users can view managed dashboards, Francis said.

At the same time, he stressed that broadening access to data does not mean organizations have to compromise on data security and privacy, he said.

“It’s certainly not one or the other,” Francis said.

Organizations can automate data management and access control guardrails with a “strong data architecture,” he said, which can help mitigate the risks associated with data sharing and system breaches.

A single environment

Also announced today, IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson now includes new integration capabilities and improved forecasting. The company also announced that IBM Planning Analytics with Watson is expected to be available as-a-Service on AWS later this year.

IBM Business Analytics Enterprise has a wide range of capabilities, says Menninger of Ventana. This includes planning, reducing the need to have multiple tools. The tool also provides access to analytics from various sources and vendors.

“Without any additional development,” Menninger said, “the existing analytics across the organization can be accessed from one environment.”