Power BI with Jet Analytics

Global Data 365
September 24, 2022

Business intelligence is a much better and less expensive choice than data warehousing for 90% of small to mid-size businesses. Both systems used together; Power BI with Jet Analytics have the same overall goal: to improve data analysis. The immense effort and cost needed to define the data tables and relationships required to drive analytics put data warehousing out of reach for most businesses. Due to the extreme minimal effort and expense needed to get it up and running, business intelligence is becoming the choice of small to mid-size companies, irrespective of which of the two most popular options are used.

Jet Analytics from insightsoftware (previously Jet Global) and Power BI from Microsoft are the two most popular business intelligence options in the Microsoft Dynamics environment. Jet Analytics can use either Excel or Jet Reports as a reporting tool, allowing you to have the best experience. Jet Analytics uses pre-defined data cubes to describe the patterns in the data necessary for reporting. Because the table relationships required for accounting, which are focused on financial processes, are not always the same as those required for business analysis, which could be more operational, this method works. This method has many disadvantages, including a higher initial cost, more work to create new data relationships into the data cubes, and the fact that data is only as current as of the last update.

A major benefit is the simplicity with which new reports can be created if they match the data cubes, as well as the improved accuracy since the reports are run against a replica of the output database rather than the live database itself. Data can be processed into data cubes from various sources, not all accounting systems.

Benefits of Using Power BI with Jet

Power BI depends on one or more databases to provide real-time or near-real-time data. This means that data is updated in real-time, but output for more detailed reports will not be optimal. Almost any form of the report can be created and distributed through the web or mobile devices. Every consumer can create their own dashboards, each with its own unique insight. It is possible to set up alerts. The details behind the reports can be drilled down by users. To use Power BI, you will need an Office 365 subscription.

You cannot really go wrong anyway. Invest a little more upfront to identify data relationships using data cubes in Jet Analytics or subscribe to Office 365 and use Microsoft BI Power to provide your users real-time access to important analytical data. To explore more about these better, less expensive alternatives for your company, we offer 30 days free trial license for you to test it on your very own database or get a personalized training for yourself.

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Global Data 365 is composed of highly skilled professionals who specialize in streamlining the data and automate the reporting process through the utilization of various business intelligence tools.

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Optimize Processes with Data Visualization

Global Data 365
August 24, 2022

Every aspect of a company relies on making prompt, well-informed decisions. Data is at the center of the financial services sector. Traditional business intelligence (BI) methods aren’t up to the task with so much data to rummage through. These techniques were designed for tabular reporting and can only handle small volumes of homogeneous data; they also require advanced technical expertise. Today’s software can process and interpret massive amounts of data in real-time, with a level of elegance previously unseen. By leveraging modern tools to optimize processes with data visualization, companies can transform complex datasets into actionable insights, enhancing decision-making efficiency across all departments. According to a report conducted by Gartner on the top priorities of CFOs, here’s what they looked at:

– Enhancing Financial Analytics:
Even after a 50% rise in financial analytics expenditure in the last three years, only a few businesses have advanced analytics capabilities. As analytics becomes a central responsibility of the finance department, this must change.

– Reorganizing Finance Teams:
Traditional approaches for coordinating and using finance teams are becoming less effective as the popularity of finance teams grows. To stay relevant, the department needs a shakeup from the top down.

– Finance Technology Optimization:
Finance teams must maximize the value of their ERP systems while also adopting newer innovations and planning to become more tech-savvy. If this isn’t done, the finance department will become less intelligent and agile.

Any of those projects could keep a CFO busy for a year without yielding much progress. However, if such executives consider these problems analytically, realizing how the challenges and goals intersect, a surprising approach emerges, data visualization.

Data Visualizations

There has almost certainly been some kind of data visualization for as long as there has been data. Charts and graphs have recently become commonplace in business due to Excel spreadsheets. Users soon realized that visual interfaces help them understand complex information. Instead of manually examining a spreadsheet, they could quickly recognize the key takeaways by looking at a pie chart. Digital visualizations provided the finance team with a unique outlook on data and a game-changing method for decision-making, compared to what was previously available.

Today, visualizations have taken yet another step forward, possibly the most important yet. Advanced visualization features are included in today’s top financial reporting tools, which run on top of ERP and beyond the constraints of Excel. Such visualization tools do more than improve on what has come before; they turn the relationship between the finance team and the data on which it relies more highly than it has ever been.

Advances in Data Visualizations

So, what’s the difference? To begin with, visualizations have progressed well beyond basic graphs and maps. They can now visualize data in new systems that provide more context and information. Users can view the optimal visualization to encompass the data rather than trying to settle for a sufficient option with this enlarged toolkit at their disposal.

After you have made that decision, creating the visualization is nearly seamless. It only takes some clicks to move data from one area to another in several cases, rather than a lengthy manual process. This not only saves time and eliminates mistakes, but it also helps everyone inside or outside the finance department to create their own visualization without any need for advanced training.

Lastly, and perhaps most critically, visualizations have moved to the foreground of decision-making. The finance members can quickly integrate them into financial reports and structure them to optimize the insights they contain as well as the ease with which they can be extracted. The design features within such reports are also not static. They update themselves as new information becomes available, making them more like interactive indicators that monitor key metrics in real-time than visualizations.

In addition to finance, operational and supply chain management teams benefit from these dynamic features. Inventory dashboards, for example, provide real-time insights into stock levels, supplier performance, and demand forecasting. This allows organizations to streamline their operations, reduce costs, and make informed decisions across departments. Integrating financial reports with operational data ensures a comprehensive view of business health, enhancing decision-making at both the strategic and operational levels..

Everything in today’s visualizations is vastly superior to previous versions. Despite this, it’s always easy to underestimate their effect on the economy. The CFO, the finance team, and the company are all involved.

Using Data Visualizations to Optimize Processes

Data visualizations not only help people view data in new ways, but they also help them see it more clearly, presenting insights, opportunities, and challenges that would otherwise go unnoticed.

One form of data visualization does this is by compressing large volumes of data into a readily available layout. Financial reports influence decision-making, but in the past, they were either too simple to show anything of value or too difficult to stir up an action. Today’s visualizations bridge the gap, allowing reports to include what decision-makers need to know while still revealing those insights in real-time.

Advanced data visualizations also allow F&a to investigate financial data on their own terms. Decision-makers know what knowledge they want better than everyone else, and once it’s simple to find it and visualize it as needed, understanding differences disappear. To look at it another way, visualizations open a vast array of nuanced financial data to the point that it can be explored. Anyone interested in delving deeper into the data now has a great starting point.

Visualizations help practitioners outside finance grasp a topic that can be perplexing to the general reader, in addition to CFOs. Executives and heads of departments need to consider how their decisions impact the company’s finances on a micro and macro level, but many lack the knowledge to do so from a dense spreadsheet presenting a financial report. However, when presented with visualizations, the material emerges in a manner that everyone can comprehend. As a result, financial knowledge grows across the board, helping companies optimize processes with data visualization for better decision-making.

Data Visualizations: a Modern Solution

Finance teams will use innovative data visualizations to make significant progress on every one of 2021’s top priorities. Once implemented, analytics improve dramatically, accountants spend less time manually processing data, and the ERP ceases to be a barrier to understanding.

Global Data 365 offers visualization tools to optimize finance processes. In terms of usability, precision, and variety, these resources far exceed what you’ve come to expect from Excel. Even better, they’re just one of many features available in purpose-built financial reporting tools that are designed to work with today’s most common ERPs.

If you’re searching for a new perspective on data, we offer a comprehensive upgrade. To see how this all operates, request a free demo today.

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