The document summarizes a presentation about demystifying business intelligence (BI) tools for an organization. It includes an agenda for presentations on four different BI tools: BAASS BI, Sage BI, Info Explorer, and BI Metrix. Each presentation section provides 3-5 key points about the features and benefits of the tool, such as customizable reporting, accessing multiple data sources, intuitive dashboards, and quick implementation timelines.

1. Demystify BI tools for your organization
Presented By: Bharti Meisuria

2. Agenda
When
What
Who
 Introduction
 Your BI questions demystified
 BAASS BI
10:00 – 11:30 am
Bharti Meisuria
 Sage BI
Debbie Hill
 Info Explorer
Rob Lavery
 BI Metrix
Ram Hasson

3. What is BI?
Technology that transforms
raw data into
meaningful and useful information for
business purposes

4. Why BI?
A LOT of time is spent preparing information in MS Excel or
other tools for presentation

5. Why BI?
Data is in various locations over the network (sometime
offsite), with people - often too hard and costly to retrieve
Final report
content
Anna
Dave

6. Why BI?
We spend more time pulling the data together than focusing
on analysis and interpretation of it

7. Why BI?
Inability to report data from multiple databases or systems
without manual steps
Slice & dice data
for various requirements

8. Why BI?
We rely on external
resources to produce
critical information that
drives business decisions

9. Selecting a BI Tool
OR

10. Selecting BI Tool
We offer customized engagement (BI Demystified) to work with
you through the selection process
(See: http://www.baass.com/services/business-intelligence)
o Your needs
o Resources & skill-set
o Budget considerations – short & long term
o Current applications & IS environment
o Future vision & goals
o Much more…

11. Solutions Overview
 What are the different types of reports that can be generated – financial and
operational? Management, analytical, trend, drill down etc.
 What is involved in configuring the tool to extract reports for various needs?
 What are the different sources of data – applications, third party, modules etc.
 Typical installation / configuration / roll-out timelines
 How the solution will scale

12. BAASS BI
One of the recent additions to the
BAASS add-ons family…(demo)

13. Sage BI
Presented By: Debbie Hill

14. Sage BI
Sage Research and Investment
Three key business
issues will be top of
mind for both the CEO
and the CIO in the
coming years.
1 The Essential CIO: Insights From the Global Chief Information Officer Study,” IBM, May 2011.

15. Sage BI
Reporting Trees
• Typical company hierarchical reporting
structure
• “Reporting Units” are either Parent/Child or
Summary/Detail
• Lower units “roll up” to higher units

16. Sage BI
Full Chart of Accounts Flexibility

17. Sage BI
Distribution Options
• Confirm, set and apply distribution settings
• Send now, or select a scheduled command

18. Sage BI

19. Sage BI
New Profitability Dashboard

20. Sage BI
New Profitability Dashboard 2013

21. Info Explorer
Presented By: Rob Lavery

22. Info Explorer
Info Explorer Slides

23. Info Explorer
• Info- Explorer is great for Operational Analytics
• Represents a tool that can play a key role in the
strategic planning process of an organization.
• Can drill down into underlying Sage 300 ERP
screens
• More cost effective than creating multiple Crystal
Reports
• Can easily access other databases
• Does not require advanced Excel knowledge

24. Info Explorer
• User-defined formatting, filtering & formulas helps
you focus on what is most important to measure.
• Summarize, drill down, drill into and “slice and dice”
your Sage 300 ERP data in real time.
• Avoid creating multiple custom report templates

25. Info Explorer
The Problem with Custom Crystal Reports:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Hard/costly to implement
Hard to modify (static)
Not scalable
No process for upgrading
Out of an accountant’s comfort zone
Managers have to ask for them

26. Info Explorer
• Intuitive, multi-dimensional data cubes & graphical
reporting combined in customizable Dashboards.
• Cater for your individual reporting needs by saving
your own “views” on the desktop.
• Clear insight into business operations to help you
make the right decision, every time.

27. Info Explorer
Key Benefits of Utilizing Orchid’s Info Explorer
• Creates a process for consistent, high quality
delivery of value-added data.
• Effectively communicates an understanding of
trends / value in your organization.
• Decision Makers love it!!

28. Info Explorer
Info Explorer Addresses Pain Points Like:
• Lack of accurate and timely reporting resulting in
guesswork and poor decision making
• Key operational data not available for reporting
• Time consuming & inefficient report preparation
• Over reliance on spreadsheets for reporting
• Business and productivity monitored using intuition
and not operational metrics

29. Info Explorer
Orchid’s Info Explorer Lite – How To Get Started
FREE tool can be downloaded and installed in less
than 15 minutes. Runs for 30 Days.
Sample Cubes can be connected to your live Sage
300 ERP database for analysis purposes.
After 30 Days, request an Activation Code to run the
software indefinitely at no charge.
Limitations of Info Explorer Lite:
1) Can’t create new cubes or modify existing cubes
2) Can’t export to Excel

30. Info Explorer
1) Info Explorer handles financial, operational,
management, analytical, budget, forecast and ad hoc
reports.
2) Write a SQL Query to extract data out of the Sage
300 ERP database to create 1 cube file (versus multiple
report templates/files) which allows a user to format
and filter data into multiple views/reports & graphs =
dashboard
3) Info Explorer can access 1 or multiple Sage 300 ERP
company databases (any table) and any other ODBC
compliant data source in 1 cube file.

31. Info Explorer
4) Info Explorer installs and connects to a Sage
300 ERP company database in 15 minutes. Custom
Cubes can typically be developed in 2 or 3 Hours
based on requirements. Training is usually 30
minutes or less. Most implementations are 20
Hours including budget and analytics cubes.
5) InfoExplorer has been based on “in memory”
technology as it enables users to have immediate
access to accurate information which results in
more informed decisions.

32. Info Explorer
5) Con’t Info Explorer handles up to 1 to 2 million
rows of summarized data – depending on number
of fields etc) which translates into many multiples
of individual rows of data in the data base. This is
typically what most Sage 300 ERP customers need
and can afford versus a full blown traditional BI
data warehouse and implementation.

33. BI Metrix
Presented By: Ram Hasson

34. BI Metrix
1.
Supports both financial, operational and management reporting drill-downs, slicing-and-dicing, trend analysis, dashboarding, budgeting,
planning, forecasting, drill-throughs to detail.
• Reports are created through a wizard-like Report Designer where
you drag-and-drop dimensions onto a report layout inside Excel
• We don’t rely on long Excel formulas or pivot tables – Free-form,
formula-free approach
• Drill-downs, Filtering, drill-throughs are done through a double-click
action on report members
• Budgeting, Planning and what-if analysis is facilitated through a
write-back to the data cube
• Forecasting (monthly and rolling) is facilitated through asymmetrical
reports

35. BI Metrix
2. BI-Metrix BI for Sage 300 configures
within a few hours.
• Written using Sage 300 SDK
• Integrates with the Sage 300 toolbar –
acts and feels like an additional module
• Steps required are:
1. identify the Sage 300 database
2. complete an account hierarchy
set-up (GL cube only)

36. BI Metrix
3. BI-Metrix BI for Sage 300 out-of-the-box supports the following
Sage 300 modules: GL, AR, AP, OE, IC
• Additional modules and other data sources are covered
through custom integration
4. Typical installation is to budget 1.5 - 2 days for both configuration
and training
• We offer both remote or onsite training

37. BI Metrix
5. BI-Metrix leverages SQL Server OLAP cubes (SSAS) and portable cube files.
The product scales very well – from a data perspective and other data sources.
BI-Metrix BI-Analyzer
• Designed for the
business user
• Powerful analytics,
reporting, planning
Microsoft SQL Server OLAP
cubes
• Out-of-the-box Cubes
• Custom Cubes
Supports multiple data sources
and databases
Sage 300
ERP
Sage CRM
Other
Databases

38. Thank you!
Talk to your Account Manager,
email or visit our booth for more
information