Tag: data lake

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Mo Bigger Data

Losing valuable business data is a terrible thing. It is worse when it’s done on purpose. Every business faces changes in accounting or operational systems over the lifetime of the company and these changes more frequently than not include losing data of some type. And that means losing business intelligence.

The frustrations of changing business systems are compounded the further into the business life cycle the change comes. Much of the historic intelligence of the business is derived from the earlier days of operation. This is data which reflects the stages and activities of the business over time. When a business reaches a point where data volume or list sizes force a systems change, much of that early historic data is ultimately abandoned. There is so much data to load into a new system that the task often proves too daunting for the company, so valuable historic detail information is lost and summary information is loaded into the new system.

As a business matures, and for the business to mature in a healthy manner, specific and detailed information must be captured and analyzed. Software addressing a broad view of the business, offering only generalized functionality and basic process support, will not provide a growing business with the operational support and resultant business intelligence needed at this level.

For example, a manufacturing business needs to fully understand and manage the manufacturing processes and materials supply chain to ensure profitability and consistent product quality. A retailer needs to know which products sell in which markets to ensure product stock and availability to key customers. And all this information is time-critical if the business is to make necessary adjustments in time to benefit from them.

In the end, it is the demonstration of well-defined processes, deep insight into the business operational metrics and financial performance, and the ability to effectively and accurately report on this information that creates a basis for provable business value.

Mendelson Consulting understands how important it is to not just collect the right data to support various processes, but to use that data to better understand operational and financial performance. As operations grow, so does the need to collect data from a variety of possible sources, from phone systems to time clocks and more. Even getting data out of the accounting system can be a challenge, but there is tremendous value in having transparency of business data.

From data warehouses to data lakes, Power BI and data visualization, we help businesses access their information and develop reporting that not only informs but helps deliver greater insight which leads to improvements in performance and profitability.

When information is power, we help owners and stakeholders gain mo power by being mo better informed.

jm bunny feetMake sense?

J

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Write it Once – The Value of Integration

It’s amazing how much time and energy continues to be spent on duplicate data entry and re-keying information generated by one system into another.  Human-based data entry is prone to errors, takes time, and carries with it the burdens of employee costs and resources.  It is a problem that businesses of all types have battled for years even though enabling solutions have been around for a while. 

Methods of integrating applications and data have existed for quite some time, and in recent years these methods have expanded to include a wide variety of platforms and more open standards-based approaches.  Even in the small business world, business owners using traditionally limited software products can enjoy sophisticated extensions and integration of their applications and business data.

To provide a simple example of the problem: when an individual writes a check, that check must be recorded for several purposes including the recording of the cost or expense as well as the reduction of funds in the bank account.  When a product is sold to a customer, inventory is relieved, sales are increased, accounts receivable or cash is increased, costs of goods sold are experienced, and customer activity is captured.  All of this information must be recorded, and the activity accounted for throughout the financial and operational systems and can represent a tremendous burden if not automated. This also means that data exists in a variety of places, increasing the challenges of information collecting and reporting.

 Cloud-based integration and infrastructure services such as DBSync and Microsoft Azure enable seamless collection, transformation, aggregation and storage of business data. Whether linking accounting with sales CRM or pushing financial and operational data to an Azure data warehouse for analytics, Noobeh and DBSync provide the data engine and the infrastructure to put it all together.

A small business owner’s situation offers a direct illustration. He sells computer parts through an ecommerce website.  Orders from this website are emailed to his order operators, who then turn around and re-key the orders into their accounting system where the inventory is also tracked.  Because of the increasing number of sales orders and product purchase orders to enter on a regular basis, there were three operators working in the department responsible for making sure website orders make it into the accounting system. Orders were frequently missed or misplaced, entry errors caused problems in accounting and product delivery, customer satisfaction went down, and the cost of handling web orders was increasing.

By implementing a single software solution, the company was able to not just address the current problem, but was set up to seamlessly increase business without increasing headcount. The solution was a system which takes transaction data from the ecommerce system and imports it into the accounting/ERP system. This single step allowed the business to reduce and redirect personnel costs, improve accuracy and timeliness of data entry, and increase customer satisfaction as well as overall business performance.

In even a small company, one piece of information may be used in a variety of ways and in a variety of systems. This complexity is found in simple business models as well as larger and more complex enterprises, revealing the value of integration solutions and automation tools at every level of operation.

Mendelson Consulting and Noobeh cloud services recognize that every business needs the right information at the right time to operate effectively. Our expert teams help businesses implement the solutions which bring business data together, empowering workers to be more productive and giving stakeholders the decision-support tools they need.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Cloud and Digital are Transforming Business

Businesses, whether small or large, must change how they operate. They need to find ways to leverage the technologies and influences shaping society. Transformation is essential for companies to face today’s rapidly changing environment and embrace the opportunities it provides. This means mapping out a strategy and prioritizing activities which will fundamentally shift the operation towards greater intelligence and agility.

Digital transformation is about changing how businesses operate at a foundational level. It involves transforming processes and capabilities. This is done to leverage digital technologies across all strata of the business. 

Change in business is an ongoing process and not a one-time activity.

Transformational change is enabled in large part by cloud technologies. Cloud computing solutions are in high demand. They allow businesses to scale easily and affordably. They also provide the mobility and remote access that workers require. 

More fundamentally, cloud computing services improve collaboration by users. They also enhance collaboration by applications. This improvement enables seamless integration of functionality and data from various sources.

Microsoft Azure platform provides infrastructure and services previously available only to larger businesses and enterprise IT departments. Noobeh, Mendelson’s cloud services team, uses Microsoft Azure to deliver SQL data warehouses for structured data. It provides data lakes for the storage of unstructured and different data types. The Azure Data Factory and Microsoft Fabric are used to transport, transform, and weave it all together.

Converged wired and wireless networks and smarter telephony solutions deliver location and usage data that were not previously available to most IT departments. Today’s imaging technology can easily reduce a picture to searchable and identifiable metadata. The introduction of IoT brings an even further integration of data from virtual and physical realms. This enhances potentials for intelligence. It also improves understanding and interaction.

Mendelson Consulting recognizes that true transformation is guided by the vision and objective but is supported through operational efforts.

The collection of data for inspection and analysis is the first requirement. Only through the proper establishment of processes and workflow is the required information developed.

Mendelson Consulting partners with businesses to define the scope and strategy for advancing into the digital future. They take fundamental steps to introduce greater agility in platforms and services. These platforms and services support an ever-changing business environment. They also ensure visibility, which drives greater business intelligence and operational insight.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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PowerBI, Data Warehouses and Combining QuickBooks Enterprise Data with Other Data

Businesses of all types are looking for ways to discover more useful information hidden in their systems. With a desire to implement business intelligence tools such as Microsoft PowerBI, companies need the ability to combine and analyze data coming from a variety of sources. The data can help businesses inform their conclusions rather than leaving it up to “gut”, supporting decision making in all areas of the company.

The tools for exposing and combining data are many. Enterprise ETL (Extract/Transform/Load) products have been available for many years. When it comes to SMBs and the applications they utilize, the options aren’t quite as prevalent nor as powerful. In most cases, businesses are left to working with data exports and a bunch of linked Excel worksheets.

Noobeh understands that businesses need their data available for integration, analysis and reporting. Noobeh are experts in deploying SMB applications such as QuickBooks Enterprise desktop, Acctivate Inventory, Sage ERP, MISys Manufacturing and more, all on the Microsoft Azure platform, positioning the applications and their data perfectly for use in business analytics and data warehouses.

Data warehouses and data lakes are growing in popularity because there is simply too much disparate data present in any growing business to effectively analyze it one data silo at a time. The number and variety of data sources in a single small business can be far larger than the company realizes until it attempts to capture and report on that data.

Any approach to data warehousing should consider the potential number and variety of data sources involved. This is among the reasons for Noobeh electing to work with Microsoft Azure and PowerBI. The Azure platform provides the infrastructure services and platform tools to enable data connections needed, powering the data warehouse and exposing the data to PowerBI and other reporting and analysis tools.

Even QuickBooks Enterprise desktop data can be extracted into its own standalone data warehouse, connected to a broader data warehouse and then combined with other business data. When businesses can combine data from their various solutions, even those which may still be desktop-bound, the power of the information and intelligence contained in it can be revealed.

Whether the purpose is process improvement, performance monitoring, management reporting or combined operational intelligence, collecting and storing the data is the first step. Noobeh is there to help make it happen.

jm bunny feetMake sense?

J