thinkSmart Business Intelligence Services

A successful Business Intelligence solution is made up of a number of components, any one of which, if missing, or inadequately planned for, will cause the failure of the solution. An integral and probably most important part of any successful business intelligence solution requires a plan with a deep knowledge and understanding of the business under consideration. thinkSmart provides the following services in order to facilitate companies with their business intelligence needs. Whether or not thinkSmart is employed as the development choice for a business intelligence solution, we can help you with the discovery and design phase of your project:

1. Defining your Target Audience
   Defining the audience for your business intelligence solution is key to the success of the solution. Different user groups within the organization will have different requirements for a BI solution. The executive group may wish to see summary high level data reports reflecting overall business performance while a product department manager may wish to have access to full drill down capability allowing for analysis of data at a much more granular level. An effective business intelligence solution will grant different user groups within the organization access to the information they require in an intuitive and user friendly interface.
    
2. Data Architecture
   Design of a solid and scalable database is imperative to a successful business intelligence solution. Data needs to be gathered from multiple disparate sources and collated into a readable, accessible, and well defined single source of truth. Taking the time upfront to adequately understand business requirements will allow for a business intelligence database design that is in alignment with company strategies and goals.
    
3. Data Descriptions
   A good data specification upfront is imperative to a good data architecture, and will save significant future development costs. Data needs to be well understood from the point of view of quality, meta data, transport, updates, and extraction before any data design elements are considered. Investment in a detailed discovery phase upfront will mitigate most risks and unforeseen circumstances later on in the development of a business intelligence solution.
    
4. Data Presentation
   Any business intelligence solution is measured on how accessibility of information. Access to information means that business users have access to the right information in a timely fashion. The goal of business intelligence is to empower business decision makers, allowing them to make better, faster decisions. Data can be presented in a number of formats varying from HTML standard reports, Excel type pivot tables, Charts, and many other formats. Defining a specification for the presentation of of formation as well as Information architecture planning and design, is crucial for effective presentation and access to data.
    
5. Business Intelligence Security
   It is important to define who has access to your business intelligence solution, where they have access from, and to which elements within the solution they are allowed visibility. Thinking about a robust security model and providing the necessary tools for administration is often neglected in the initial discovery and design phases, leaving companies scrambling towards the latter stages of development and implementation.