IBS ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE SOLUTION

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE Software Module

IBS Business Intelligence is fully integrated as a part of your greater supply chain. Information sourcing, storing, data washing and extraction become more accurate, less time-consuming and more straightforward. Coupled with other IBS applications, it's the perfect instrument for reporting and making sense of all of your system's information.

HIGHLIGHTS of Features & Benefits

Performance measurement of supply chain processes, with a tool designed by supply chain specialists
Centralized data warehousing for multi-system sourced information
Scalable application suitable for single entities or multi-company enterprises
Planning and analysis tools designed to support decisions on all employee levels.

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IBS has long been a leader in developing and delivering performance measurement for integrated supply chain software. IBS Business Intelligence software empowers you with efficient analysis capabilities that help steer your business in the right direction. Our centralized data warehousing lets you take advantage of integration by accessing, consolidating, comparing and handling information from multiple systems and data sources.

PRACTICAL BUSINESS BENEFITS

Business intelligence is a concept that gives tangible benefits to your business. IBS Business Intelligence is focused on creating structured information that provides insight and decision support for reviewing, analyzing and re-engineering your business processes.

IBS Business Intelligence offers a comprehensive overview of your entire business operations. You can analyze and gauge the business performance of all enterprise areas with data that is collected in the solution's data warehouse. For instance, purchase orders, sales orders and inventory data are all collected in the data warehouse. This enables comparison of amounts and quantities on purchase time with supplier-invoiced amounts and quantities; of amounts on order time with order amounts; and inventory analysis on stock levels and movements in the warehouses.

The IBS solution can help you improve profitability by helping you identify your most efficient processes, as well as ineffective processes and strategies. Identify new and profitable opportunities with the help of quickly accessed historical data, projections and an overview of cost factors. In addition, the software can also help you recognize areas for improvement, ways to offer better value and customer service and how to meet future challenges.

MAKE SMART DECISIONS

The application enhances your ability to harness the power of accurate and fast data analysis for decision processes. It calculates and reports top management Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and ROI facts to help you realize improved business partner performance overviews, competitiveness analysis and internal efficiency control.

Data can be supplied from a range of business systems, letting you use the tool to plan and make decisions for activities that span an entire group of businesses. The application is scalable, to grow and adapt to the changing needs and size of your company.

Advanced analysis features and pre-loaded business applications can be used by managers and a wide range of other employees. The easy-to-use functionality is designed to reflect your management model and deliver the facts accurately and swiftly. It's easy to create new, tailor-made reporting applications specialized for your business data.

SOURCING DATA

Information gathering is not limited to data contained in your company's IBS applications. Accurate benchmarking and assessment of your processes and balances require information from all internal databases. The IBS system is able to access and process relevant data from all of your connected systems, enterprise-wide.

To obtain an even more accurate picture of reality, IBS Business Intelligence also lets you leverage data that is collected from external databases, such as those of your business partners and other external sources. You can have access to trade statistics and benchmark data, forecasts on general market development, credit information from credit-rating agencies, etc.

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Asset turns analysis from different perspectives

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An example from pre-defined application for sales order analysis

UPDATING DATA

Information gathered from different operational sources needs to be analyzed in a way that makes sense of the data. With the IBS solution, you can effortlessly route data through Extractions, Transformation and Loading (ETL) processes.

The use of data from many sources requires further conversions. IBS Business Intelligence effectively 'washes' information, making it comparable and clearly defining the content for each value type.

The cleansed and converted data then progresses through the IBS system and is reflected as updated information in the data warehouse.

OLAP, DATA MARTS

To ensure accuracy and more reliable reporting performance, a consolidation and report preparation process immediately follows the data update. IBS Business Intelligence supports various techniques to create data extractions from the data warehouse that can be tailored to suit different applications.

Industry-standard OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) lets you summarize, consolidate, view and apply formulas to data in several dimensions. This process sorts data into cubes, giving you rapid access to large volumes of aggregated information.

The data extraction process results in data marts, with each data mart prepared for a specific end-user application. These data marts address the fact that extracted data can have many different origins, such as sales, purchase, inventory, warehousing, receivables, payables, General Ledger, assets, etc.

Depending on reporting needs, the data can be extracted, aggregated and summarized at several different detail levels. For example, for sales statistics purposes, data is probably needed at order-line level, while account balances in the general ledger might suffice for day level or even month level.

CLIENT SOLUTIONS FOR DECISION SUPPORT

With IBS Business Intelligence software, you can analyze and leverage all aspects of your supply chain processes. Easy-to-use functionality reflects your management model and delivers real facts, with tools that are designed to support any employee in your company, no matter how large the organization.

The application comes pre-loaded with several client solutions that calculate and display specific KPIs and key data that are commonly used for business analysis. New client solutions are easily configured for your particular business requirements.

Pre-loaded client applications make use of Cognos8, a business intelligence suite from Cognos Inc. The Cognos client solution is bundled with the IBS software. Microsoft Analysis Server is used to create OLAP cubes, sourcing the uniformly structured information that has been washed and ordered in the data warehouse.

APPLICATIONS FOR EVERY NEED Pre-defined reports that come with IBS Business Intelligence include a huge range of reports within five major operational areas, as follows:
Operational area	Examples of pre-loaded reports include these areas:
Sales order analysis	Sales (General Sales Analysis, By Customer, By Product), Open Orders, Fulfillment (Delivery Performance, Requested Date Fulfillment, Lead-time Fulfillment, Order Fulfillment), etc.
Purchase order analysis	Purchases, e.g. Net Value Chart (and By Supplier, Product, Cost Center, Geography, Agreement, Company, Order Type), Open Orders, Fulfillment (Delivery Performance, Requested Date Fill Rate, Fulfillment Lead-Time), etc.
Inventory analysis	Executive Summaries (including Inventory Dashboard), Inventory Control (Supply & Availability, Inventory Quantity, Inventory Value, Tied-Up Capital, Inventory Turns, Inventory Aging & Incurrances, IC Analysis), Inventory Management, etc.
Financial analysis	General Ledger (Income Tax Statement, Balance Statement, Budget Deviation, Budget Achievement), Budget (P&L Budget Deviation, P&L Budget Achievement), etc.
SCOR	Delivery reliability, responsiveness, flexibility, costs and asset management efficiency in different detail levels as defined in SCOR.

Information presented in the client applications accommodates 'slice-and-dice' functionality as parameters (such as Item, Business partner, Supplier, Currency, etc.) are arranged in columns and rows. The dimension of the data can therefore be manipulated through simple 'drag and drop' functionality, letting you analyze information from different views, angles and detail level by using the filter of your choice. Moving, re-aligning, adding and removing parameters result in the immediate re-calculation of the current data.

Totals shown in the client applications are the calculated metrics that provide measurements in the reports.

The definitions and calculations of totals are carried out in the data warehouse system behind the application. The list of available totals, in both pre-loaded and configured applications, can be easily reached via the field list in the report tool. If you want additional totals, you can simply create these directly in the report tool.

Data can be formatted in email, MS Excel, HTML, XML or PDF. The applications also include powerful formatting capabilities for charts or graphs. You can display information in the most effective, straightforward and logical manner for all your employees and decision makers.

PRE-LOADED BUSINESS APPLICATIONS

IBS software comes pre-loaded with several business applications that are ready-to-use. For instance, purchase and sales statistics solutions allow you to generate reports of these critical processes, moments after installation has been completed.

The applications use a pre-defined default data warehouse, containing detailed information for analysis, which is sourced from IBS software gathered on order line detail level. For example, purchase statistics data would include all relevant information regarding purchase values, discounts, dates, etc. In addition, external data can also be smoothly incorporated. Wide ranges of dimensions (or parameters, such as item, business partner, etc.) are included in the creation of the pre-defined business applications.

You are not limited to using IBS' preloaded default applications. You can easily configure the client applications that best suit your planning and reporting needs, so that you can gain timely access to needed information.

SCOR METRICS

SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference-model) definitions and terminology are used throughout the IBS Business Intelligence solution. The international Supply Chain Council has developed and endorsed SCOR as the cross-industry standard for performance benchmarking within supply chain management. IBS software's use of SCOR means that you can rely on the methods used to gather and analyze your business process information.

With SCOR, you can use IBS Business Intelligence to define key values and measure processes. By analyzing these results, you can take steps to improve business performance and eliminate weak links in your supply chain.

SCOR metrics focus on critical performance attributes within supply chain operations, including delivery reliability, responsiveness, flexibility, costs and asset management efficiency. SCOR metrics with IBS software enable you to measure, analyze and set goals for your company's business performance.

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Delivery performance analysis from different perspectives (SCOR delivery performance by time with baseline)