Sage 200 BI (Business Intelligence) from Sage Software
The most recent addition to Sage's range of Business Intelligence solutions and
to the Sage 200 Suite is Sage 200 Business Intelligence (BI).
Sage 200 BI is a new and exciting addition to the Sage 200 Suite launched in August
2008,
The initial launch delivers cubes which report on financial data within Sage 200.
Below are highlighted the feautures of Sage 200 BI divided into three areas:
general, standard and advanced.
Sage 200 BI general features
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Reporting and analytics within the comfort of Microsoft Excel
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Sage 200 BI brings business data into the familiar Microsoft Excel environment allowing
quick analysis of company data from many different angles. Furthermore, because
the data is now in Microsoft Excel, users can make full use of existing functionality
and add their own calculations or bring data in from other sources. |
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Pre-defined reports out-of-the-box
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Sage 200 BI is supplied with pre defined reports allowing the user to analyse and
understand financial information within their Sage 200 solution For example - Profit
and Loss report, worst paying customers and average sales month on month
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Easy to understand terminology and usage
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Sage 200 BI uses easy to understand business language rather than technical or complex
terminology. No knowledge of the Sage 200 data schema or join relationships are
required to use Sage 200 BI.
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Make faster, more informed and confident decisions
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Sage 200 BI is an easy to use product that allows quick access to Sage 200 data.
Multi dimensional analysis means that data can be easily viewed from different angles.
For example sales by region, customer and month
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Save essential time on reporting
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Sage 200 BI provides a superior alternative to complex spreadsheet reporting with
reports easy to create, from easy to access data that is automatically refreshed.
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Easy and fast deployment
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In the majority of cases a complete installation of Sage 200 BI takes less than
an hour from beginning the installation process to viewing the standard pre- defined
reports with data.
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Uses reliable Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services
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SQL Server Analysis Services is a market leading OLAP technology. The Sage
200 BI solution is therefore built over a reliable and robust platform. Having a
server based solution also ensures that the BI data can be accessed by all users.
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Sage 200 BI standard features
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Report Wizard
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The Sage 200 BI Report Wizard allows the user to change the report layout to meet
their business requirements. For example if customers were shown on the rows of
the report, but the user wants to see products, the wizard will allow this change
to be made easily. |
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Drill down
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Drill down through increasing levels of detail or to the transaction data for more
detailed analysis. For example look at an overview for the current year and then
drill to look at the data by month and then at a daily level.
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Drill To Detail
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Allows Sage 200 BI users to show the underlying values that make up the totals that
are shown in a report.
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Change the report parameters
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Enables multi-dimensional analysis, by selecting a different slice of the data.
For example users can view sales figures for Customer A and then change the customer
report parameter to be viewing figures for Customer B within seconds.
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Sort, Filter and subtotal functionality
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Allows the data to be manipulated making it easy to view and analyse. For example
users can crete a Top 10 report to see their 10 best custom or sort the data based
on sales value.
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Conditional Formatting
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Allows Sage 200 BI users to highlight anomalies in their data by colour coding the
data based on the criteria they specify.
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Dynamic Charts
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Dynamic charts can be created using any chart type within Excel based on the data
in a report to show a graphical view of the data. The chart is automatically updated
when the report is changed. |
Sage 200 BI Advanced features
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Ad-hoc analysis via Report Layout Panel
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Sage 200 BI allows users to create reports however they require by specifying the
fields required on the rows and columns in a report. Users can then slice and dice
the data, drill up, down, across and back to the underlying transactions as required.
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Flexible layout options to produce formal reports
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Layout all forms of reports exactly as required within Microsoft Excel. Insert new
rows and columns into the reports, and format the reports using Excel knowledge.
Users can also build dashboard reports [Fig. 2] with multiple linked queries and
charts.
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Report Sets
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Sage 200 BI allows users to create report packs to create static reports which can
be distributed via e- mail or saved to a server. A report pack automatically generates
the reports the user specifies. For example a user may create a Top 10 Customer
report for January, but want to see the same report for each month. All they need
to do is set up the parameters for the report pack and then run it.
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