BI & CPM helps you and your business know where you are and where you want to go.
It’s summer and that means family vacation. And for many families, that means road trips. Many of us have fun memories of loading up in the car and seeing our world up close. As a kid, I had terrible motion sickness and had to sit in the front seat (it was the 80s, so kids in the front seat were completely normal!). This meant I was the navigator. The first rule of navigator was knowing where you were. The second rule was knowing where you were going. Those rules are good for considering your business intelligence, too.
Knowing Where You Are
Business Intelligence software falls under the first rule. It helps you and your business know where you are. Collecting and analyzing historical data, preparing a visualization of the data, and reporting the information are the main hallmarks of BI software. It’s like looking back at a map and tracing your journey. BI software provides clarity to your current whereabouts, and that knowledge is absolutely important.
Knowing Where You Are Going
But don’t forget rule #2. Knowing where you want to go is the only way to ensure you get there. The addition of a Corporate Performance Management tool brings in new elements to decision making. Like BI, CPM tools allow you to collect and analyze data and report that data simply. But CPM adds the element of the future. Planning, budgeting, and forecasting for short term and the long term are added benefits found in a CPM tool. Think of your family road trip – planning the stops, picking out the sights to see, and finding lodging – those were decisions that made the trip a true success.
Bill Bryson, famed travel author, once said, “There is something about the momentum of travel that makes you want to just keep moving, to never stop.” When you have done the work of a good navigator, that momentum is even more powerful. With both BI and CPM in your bag, the trip will be the trip of a lifetime.