What’s the Connection Between ERP and BI?

Is Your ERP Incomplete without BI?

Today, the backbone of many small to mid-sized manufacturers is enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. ERP solutions record the details of your operations and transactions while automating process; however, they may not have the ability to quickly and easily translate big data into actionable insights.

Business intelligence, or BI, analyzes data and presents it in user-friendly reports and charts to give you a 360-degree view of your enterprise performance. Together, BI and ERP empower you to make data-driven decisions that drive your company forward. BI can transform data in your ERP software and other applications into critical insights.

The benefits of BI and ERP integration are exponential. Outlined below are a few of the ways connecting ERP and BI will transform your business.

Robust Business Visibility and Control

Rudimentary, traditional reporting methodologies don’t provide the user with data until hours or even days after an event has occurred. However, BI reporting provides you with real-time data and actionable insights that deliver full business visibility.

Instead of shuffling through several applications and spreadsheets, users can view dynamic dashboards to gain accurate predictions and real-time visibility. By combing through your large ERP database, use of these dashboards delivers actionable insights. From testing what-if scenarios to checking real-time scrap rates, BI makes it quick and easy to gain practical insights.

Plus, BI provides businesses with an in-depth picture of what’s happening in their enterprise by not only detecting problems but also identifying the root causes of those problems. For example, your BI solution can measure Return Material Authorization (RMA) rates, show you that customers returned a product because of defective parts, and locate exactly where this quality issue is taking place. With this level of insight at your fingertips, your business is unstoppable!

Easily Store and Access Data

Many manufacturers continue to operate multiple reporting tools along with their ERP systems, even though many ERP solutions include BI capabilities. Functioning with multiple access points for your enterprise data hurts your productivity and accuracy and confuses your workforce. Thus, your BI system should serve as your business’s data warehouse.

For example, Jet Analytics creates a centralized hub for all the data in your enterprise. You can use Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, Qlik, and any other BI or reporting tool to generate insights from your ERP data. In this way, your entire organization has access to critical information and reports against your ERP database. A data warehouse makes it easy for users to access and cross-reference different metrics to identify new opportunities and make process improvements.

Improve Reporting

Automating data analytics and reporting saves time and prevents businesses from making critical errors. If a workforce is manually compiling reports, it likely ends up with incorrectly entered data as well as varying reporting formats and methods of data collection. Executives then waste time and make more errors trying to piece together the mishaps.

When BI is integrated with ERP, everyone is working with the same reporting tools, gaining an accurate picture of your enterprise performance. Plus, the deep insights of a sophisticated BI solution add precision to any manufacturing business.

Improve Your Business

Data is an extremely precious asset for a manufacturer. Integrating BI and ERP will help you leverage that data into a more successful business and experience the following benefits:

• Track and reduce inventory costs throughout multiple locations
• Collect real-time data across the shop floor to improve traceability and compliance
• Track KPIs–profit margins, turnover rates, etc.–and yield rates to optimize decision making
• Gain in-depth insights into production processes to determine how to reduce scrap, improve cycle times, and make other valuable enhancements
• Use real-time machine metrics to improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and schedule preventative maintenance
• Receive instant notifications when there are lapses in quality or efficiency on the shop floor
• Improve demand forecasting

Wrap Up

To truly maximize the value of your ERP software, we recommend transforming your business’s ERP data into actionable insights with BI. ERP and BI will greatly improve your business productivity and decision making.

One of the most effective BI offerings on the market is Jet Analytics. Unlike other BI solutions that take months to install, Jet Analytics can be implemented in hours. Its pre-built data warehouse and analytics tools make it easy to create a central data hub and access real-time metrics. Datix can fully integrate Epicor® ERP and Jet Analytics to make it easier than ever to capitalize on in-depth insights.  

Ready to learn more about Datix’s ERP, BI, and other exciting solutions? Contact us today!