One of the main skills offered by Blue Star Software is business intelligence, or the whole set of tools and processes capable of obtaining valuable information directly from internal activities. This is with the aim of improving its flows and supporting the decision makers. In short, it is a question of collecting and making the best use of the data generated by the company itself and the reference market (orders, production, costs, etc.) to provide support for corporate strategies.
From niche technology, used only by large companies, business intelligence has become increasingly pervasive and fundamental, providing the necessary support for decisions at all levels of the organization.
The business intelligence project normally expects to be developed by following these steps:
- Process analysis: in this phase the strategic objectives and the available data are analysed. The definition of the former is a critical phase as it will define the methodology to be used in the following phases.
- Definition of data warehouse: IT and architectural flow aspects are defined. The experience gained in the sector by Blue Star Software allows not only to define a functional, scalable and expandable design, but also to carefully evaluate the aspects concerning performance, a fundamental problem in any approach regarding big data.
- ETL development: the processes of retrieval, normalization and aggregation of company data are implemented, allowing to always guarantee a coherent, consistent and validated database.
- Configuration of the reporting system: Through the use of the most innovative platforms on the market, such as PowerBi and Tableau, end users are enabled to take advantage of the most advanced reporting and refined and intuitive dashboards, offering essential support for analysis and to decision making.
Business intelligence projects can often present an intrinsic difficulty, deriving from the need to harmoniously integrate skills in many different areas, such as:
The specific know-how of the data of interest: Their strategic importance, their correct interpretation and their retrieval among the various IT systems across the company. For this it is essential to work alongside the customer, who, with the support of our expert analysts, can get to define their needs and the final objectives of the analysis precisely and effectively.
Theories and design paradigms on data warehouses: in order to obtain an optimized business intelligence system, tailored to specific analysis needs, a detailed knowledge of the various design philosophies is required. The processes of “Data transformation” (ETL), “Data preparation” (data warehouse) and “Data presentation” (Olap, DataMart) are just some of the aspects of this sector that require constant updates to keep up with the times.