Cianna Medical and iQ for Business four years later…

Dated: 18 Jan 12, Category: Case Studies, Tags:

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Cianna Medical, Inc. is focused on women’s health and dedicated to the innovative treatment of early-stage breast cancer. The company manufactures and markets the SAVI™ breast brachytherapy applicator which provides physicians with an alternative method to deliver radiation to the breast that extends the benefits of APBI to more women. Its unique design enables physicians to customize the radiation dose to the lumpectomy cavity and patient specific anatomy. This selective radiation delivery reduces exposure of healthy tissue resulting in a lower toxicity profile. The SAVI applicator allows physicians to treat patients who otherwise would have been eliminated as candidates for breast brachytherapy.The company was formed in 2007 and from inception; CFO Hugh Neuharth knew the company needed a Business Intelligence software application to maximize the company’s chances of success at start up.“ROI is hard to quantify,“ said Neuharth. “Yes, iQ for Business has helped us proactively work with our customers, enabling our Account Managers to identify trends in real time and respond quickly, but it is hard to put a number to improved customer service and the impact on customer satisfaction and retention. We just know that the solution has paid for itself many times over.” “Having been a long time BI user, I knew the benefits. I’d actually implemented iQ for Business at another company called C&C Vision in 2003,” Neuharth explains. “The company’s ERP software at that time was a program called Expandable, which is pretty germane to the technology and life science industry.” Four years later, Cianna Medical is still using iQ for Business and credits the company’s rapid implementation process, flexible and responsive consultants and timely updates for his long-term commitment to the Business Intelligence software. “At Cianna, we use Great Plains. The iQ for Business people partnered with us to develop a sales analysis solution for Great Plains – they contributed their excellent BI technical team and we brought knowledge of Great Plains and its database table structure.” Cianna Medical participated in a new Customer Case Study which outlined their projections for iQ for Business’s ROI goals. In addition to sales analysis and reporting needs, Cianna Medical is now poised to use iQ for Business as a spending analysis tool. “With the latest product release, we are excited to extend the software uses into another area within the company.” iQ for Business is an international Business Intelligence software company with over 300 clients world-wide and offices in the United States, APAC and Europe. For more information, please visit our website at www.iq4bis.com

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iQ4bis: ITEX – proof that BI can be simple and fun

Dated: 14 Dec 11, Category: Blog Post, Tags:

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This year’s hugely successful conference was an opportunity for the IT business community to share and discuss the ever-changing challenges facing the industry. ITEX was attended by 350 people to learn how to stay on top of developments and hear about what has and hasn’t worked. iQ4Bis contributed to the day with a product demonstration – with a twist! Delegates competed in a game show style event, scoring points using the Analysis system after only 5 minutes of training. Forty people participated and got to experience the system’s simplicity first hand – most particpants answered all the questions correctly, even after such a short training. Our involvement with ITEX couldn’t have been possible without support from our valued clients, Sheppards Industries, Hansells, Mitre 10 and Frucor. The following are some of the pictures that were taken in ITEX

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iQ4bis: Microsoft Big Picture Event 2011

Dated: 14 Dec 11, Category: Blog Post, Tags:

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The Big Picture was a Microsoft discussion on Business Intelligence and the future of Productivity held in three locations across New Zealand. The days began with a Business Intelligence keynote featuring a renowned analyst from Forrester Research. Next, local BI thought leaders brought a closer look at the solutions being used in NZ businesses, and a discussion on how to make the most of specific Microsoft products. Interesting to note that one of the main themes of the day was that the things people are starting to demand from their BI systems are the very features that have set iQ4Bis apart from the rest for more than 10 years. The following are some of the pictures that were taken in Microsoft Big Picture Event

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iQ4bis NZ punching the weight

Dated: 26 Sep 11, Category: Newsletters, Tags:

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After a recent visit from the iQ4bis president Ray Major, we were able to get a top-down view of how our New Zealand office was performing. And we were pleased to hear that yet again, the kiwis were making an impression on the world stage. Major was excited to see our “advancements in product development, sales and marketing”, and made special mention of the way our team functioned. “What impressed me the most about my visit though, was the cohesion within the team and the use of a great model with regards to accountability,” said Major. He noted that the New Zealand team took ownership of our own successes and failures, rather than resorting to blame or excuses, and upheld us as a model for the other offices to follow.

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Intell OnDemand and EnviroWaste

Dated: 26 Sep 11, Category: Newsletters, Tags:

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With one of the first roll-outs of Intell OnDemand, we’re already beginning to see some successes. Envirowaste’s Finance Director, Earl Gasparich, says Intell OnDemand will let them offer their clients more accurate, timely and well-organised information about what they’re throwing away. He says in the past, their clients were relying on static reports that very often raised as many questions as they answered. Intell OnDemand will change all that. “It means they can get right down into the information and identify areas for improvement in their own organisation. And then if they need to make changes, having the numbers there in black and white means it’ll be easier to get buy-in from their staff.” Timeliness was also the key, with customers being able to access the most current data instantaneously, rather than waiting for static reports. Envirowaste will also cut the time they spend on reporting by as much as 50%. According to Gasparich, Intell OnDemand is fast becoming an effective sales tool. “It gives us a competitive advantage. We demonstrate this tool to potential clients as a point of difference. The feedback we’ve had so far is that being able to offer the kind of reporting you get with Intell OnDemand is the key to opening doors.”   With security always an important issue, Intell OnDemand’s simple solution for granting access to Envirowaste’s data is working well – customers simply log in through a simple log in screen but with an ironclad security, hosted in the cloud. “…this way, our data stays safely behind our corporate firewall and as far as our client is concerned it’s as seamless and easy as logging in to Facebook or Hotmail.”

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New additions to our client portfolio

Dated: 26 Sep 11, Category: Newsletters, Tags:

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With our big push towards innovation, team work and introduction of Intell OnDemand in Q3, we’ve seen a number of new clients take the step to making more of their business information, with iQ4Bis system. A special welcome to: Fuji Xerox NZ Fuji Xerox has been in New Zealand since 1964, employs over 500 employees and in 2010 turned over approx $220m. In New Zealand, they focus on partnering with businesses to provide innovative solutions that maximise efficiency and drive out cost.   Quit Group The Quit Group, which operates as Quitline is an incorporated charity committed to helping all New Zealanders quit smoking. They offer support to smokers, through a variety of communications channels, helping them understand the three parts of their smoking addiction and formulate strategies for beating these. They also assist employers to reduce smoking rates in the workplace through their programme Quit@work.   NZPM Group With around 1,000 shareholders, NZPM is the only 100% New Zealand owned national plumbing co-operative. A complex organisation, they manage a nationwide chain of plumbing outlets, have refrigeration focused subsidiaries and joint venture operations in New Zealand, Australia, India and Thailand and operate a revolutionary polypropylene piping division, the country’s leading import distributor.   Tandem Travel Tandem travel began as the corporate travel wing of Air New Zealand, and is now the travel management service preferred by New Zealand’s leading companies. Still affiliated with Air New Zealand they get some very special advantages from the airline which they can pass on to customers.   Atlantic Pacific American Express (APX) APX offers a comprehensive range of Corporate Travel Management services to SME’s and Corporates, making the process of booking and coordinating flights, simpler and easier.

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iQ for Business looks to grow BI market share

Dated: 14 Sep 11, Category: Blog Post, Tags:

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While some IT segments look bleak, it is a good time to be in the business intelligence software market. The pace of acquisitions and IPOs might be off, but companies that write good BI software will command an increasingly bigger chunk of the $2 trillion worldwide IT market in the coming years. One software firm that hopes to be part of that equation is iQ for Business Software (formerly iQ4bis Software), which is in the process of re-energizing under a new CEO. IT Jungle readers may remember iQ for Business as the BI company that puts the entire user manual for its OLAP (online analytical processing) reporting tool on a mouse pad. All that a user needed to know, the company famously said, was how to manipulate a mouse, drag and drop, and right click. Of course, running a sophisticated analytical environment is never so simple. But it’s worth noting…. Click here to read more about it.

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Build or Buy: Business Analytics case study

Dated: 12 Jun 11, Category: Whitepapers, Tags:

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Business intelligence (BI) software originally emerged in response to the need for organizations to access accurate and timely information to support informed business decisions. However, today’s BI market has become a bewildering array of tools and platforms so businesses increasingly turn to their internal IT departments to develop their own BI solutions. While BI software – tools, platforms, and applications alike – holds great potential for helping organizations readily access the enterprise information needed to make informed business decisions, the reality of developing such a systemin-house is extremely challenging. The decision to build a custom solution or buy a package can be the difference in the success or failure of the business intelligence project. Before making the build or buy decision, the following factors should be considered: Effort: the dauting task of developing an in-house Business Intelligence application Expertise: the staff technical expertise necessary to build it Experience: knowing how long it will take, how much it will cost, how to manage…   Click here to read more about it

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Five questions to answer before selecting a BI

Dated: 10 Jun 11, Category: Whitepapers, Tags:

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Over the last decade, Business Intelligence (BI) has been at or near the top of the list of many executive and business users throughout the world. Organizations have made major investments to information technologies including CRM, ERP, and a slew of other transactional systems that run the operations of a department, divisionand subsidiaries. Organizations are sitting on mounds of data and are looking for ways to leverage the data fortheir business advantage. To transform raw data into meaningful and useful information enables more effectivestrategic, tactical, operational insights and decision-making. With the recent expansion in the BI tools market, a selection strategy that integrates business requirements accurately is more important now than ever. This white paper explores five key elements of developing a strong BI vendor selection process, including the following topics: How to assess a BI vendor’s ability to truly access your critical data How to evaluate the present and future requirements of your users and organization The real story behind Professional Services and Implementation fees from BI vendors Key questions you should ask your vendor references The right way to develop a proof of concept (POC) with a vendor Click here to read more about it.

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iQ4bis Analysis V6: Faster, cleaner and more powerful

Dated: 06 Jun 11, Category: Newsletters, Tags:

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iQ4bis is now easier to navigate, responds faster to queries and features a streamlined interface that makes it the most ‘user-friendly’ BI solution on the market. The latest version, iQ4bis Analysis Version 6.0 (V6), is the result of more than 18 months of intensive development and incorporates many innovative features that have been suggested by long-time and new users. “We built V6 from the ground up to take advantage of breakthroughs in browser technology, HTML5 and faster JavaScript engines,” says Asj Smith, GM – APAC at iQ4bis. “The end result is a more intuitive interface for users, simplified toolbars and a much faster experience. V6 delivers on the promise of ‘information at the speed of thought’.” The first time you open the new version you’ll immediately notice the cleaner interface. “We’ve totally retooled the ‘look and feel’ so that you can drag and drop the types of information you want to see,” says Smith. “You can hide non-essential menus and screen ‘trees’ which means your views contain more information and less clutter. For mobile users, we’ve revamped the menu options for iPads and other small format devices. Plus we have added new chart types such as Linear Gauge, Area, and Doughnut charts.” But that is just what you see as an end user. The real excitement is behind the scenes. “While iQ4bis now has a cleaner interface and is easier to navigate,” continues Smith, “V6 has been completely rewritten in HTML5 which means that it is optimised to take advantage of the latest browser/server architecture. We have designed iQ4bis to be ‘browser-neutral’ so that it can run under Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. It is also available on iOS, Linux and Symbian platforms. The end result is that iQ4bis is blazingly fast because the processing is done on the server and only raw data is transmitted for assembly on the client. This also means that remote users over slower connections will see a quantum leap in performance.” The team at iQ4bis are already installing the new version at user sites. “We can upgrade your current iQ4bis configuration with absolutely no disruption to services,” says Paul Hutson, Development Lead at iQ4bis. “Your users will see immediate enhancements to their interfaces and your IT team will find that non-technical users will be even more empowered to customise their views and perform their own analyses. Before, iQ4bis could compete favourably with any BI platform anywhere. But now, with V6, iQ4bis blows away the competition.”

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Affordable solutions in tough economic times

Dated: 06 Jun 11, Category: Newsletters, Tags:

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Right now, with business confidence on the mend, it is the time to be more proactive in streamlining your business processes so that you will be in a position to rocket ahead when the recovery picks up steam. But, in the short term, you face an environment of belt-tightening and squeezed profitability. So how can you simultaneously boost productivity while keeping expenses to the minimum? The answer is to leverage your current information resources so that you can make faster and more informed decisions. And business intelligence (BI) is the solution of choice for businesses…just like yours…to help them thrive in times of economic recovery… “Smart information and knowledge management (I&KM) professionals are leveraging BI as a corporate asset to continue to survive, compete, and thrive — even in tough economic times.” Boris Evelson, Forrester Research. BI is helping businesses all across New Zealand do more with less and is all about helping managers work smarter and leverage existing information resources. To make better business decisions in today’s fast pace environment you need: Up to the minute good quality accurate information A fast and easy and intuitive way to view and analysis that information “Smart information and knowledge management (I&KM) professionals are leveraging BI as a corporate asset to continue to survive, compete, and thrive — even in tough economic times.” Boris Evelson, Forrester Research You already have all the accurate, up-to-date data you need from your enterprise applications. The missing piece which is the part that allows you to see, query and report on all of this data in a meaningful context, is exactly what a BI solution provides. Information at the speed of thought If you have up-to-the minute information at your fingertips, you can manage your inventory more tightly, see at a glance if your special promotion is making an impact, ascertain which colours or models are the most popular and adjust your ordering as appropriate. You can make better sales forecasts and then, measure the metrics against projections; as well as, further refine your business processes. Most importantly, you don’t want to wait for weeks to do it. You can’t afford it. Not if you want to stay ahead of the game. So what should you be doing? “If you don’t have a BI solution yet– it just a matter of time before you adopt BI – you need to be looking very carefully at the type of information your managers need to do their jobs more effectively,” says Asj Smith, GM – APAC at iQ4bis. “Chances are you already have the data floating around in your various enterprise applications. Then you need to look for a BI platform that can access, collate and deliver that information to your managers in an interface that they can drive themselves. Besides that, if your current BI application isn’t set up for ‘self-service’ business intelligence then you should be looking for a more agile solution that provides a more accessible window into your databases.”

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Microsoft’s Business Intelligence Summit

Dated: 06 Jun 11, Category: Newsletters, Tags:

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The message at the recent Microsoft BI Summit was clear: BI is transforming the way smart companies use their enterprise data to successfully compete in today’s challenging economy. “In spite of belt tightening across the board, savvy companies are investing in BI and are reaping quantifiable benefits,” says King Pui, Marketing Manager – APAC at iQ4bis. “Speaker after speaker talked about how Microsoft’s BI offerings are the ideal platforms from which to launch a BI programme that could deliver real value. The key points were empowering people, improving effectiveness, increase IT efficiency and, most importantly, real end results. And, as a Microsoft Gold Partner, iQ4bis is well placed to deliver those benefits to our clients.” In addition, those results can be significantly amplified as more and more people within the organisation tap into the power of BI. Law firm Minter Ellison Rudd Watts (MERW) is a case in point. Their iQ4bis solution has helped them streamline their business processes. In fact, Lynden Glass, the finance director of MERW and a featured speaker at the BI Summit, has stated that “reports that would have taken three to four hours to produce can now be generated in five to ten minutes. Savings from more efficient time tracking and better debtor management has covered the cost of iQ4bis within six months. You really realise the power of iQ4bis when you get that sort of turnaround.” Make the right decision “If you put quality information in front of smart people, they will make the most prudent decision every time,” continues Pui. “But today’s line level and C-level managers don’t have the time to do their own searches for data and then crunch the numbers. To make the best possible decision in the right timeframe, management needs information served up piping hot in an easily-accessible format.” In fact, that was the overwhelming message at the Summit. Many of the people we spoke with had already invested significant resources into various iterations of what we characterise as ‘Big BI’; they had yet to see concrete benefits. Ideally, the most effective BI solution is the one that managers can drive themselves and is fuelled with the freshest information. BI should be able to deliver information at the speed of thought. Another topic that resonated at the Microsoft BI Summit was BI for non-technical users. In the past, it was the analysts and IT staff who had to ‘push’ information out to the users, especially management. Now, with today’s more intuitive interfaces, non-tech types can ‘pull’ the exact up-to-date information that they need with just a few clicks, and then, query and report. The days of static reports are numbered as BI moves into the fast lane.

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iQ4bis growing client list

Dated: 06 Jun 11, Category: Newsletters, Tags:

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Q2 2011 has ushered in a time of intense activity at the iQ4bis Auckland office. Not only have the pre-sales team been flat out conducting a series of ‘Proof of Concept’ (POC) demonstrations that were booked as a direct result of the Microsoft BI Summit but the professional services team has been equally active installing iQ4bis for the ever expanding client list. ‘It’s a busy time for us,” says Asj Smith, GM – APAC at iQ4bis. “Not only are we upgrading a number of our long-time customers to the latest version of iQ4bis (see the associated story), but we had a huge spike in POC requests from the Microsoft BI Summit. And if you add the recent release of our new ‘Intell OnDemand’ solution that provides An end-to-end solution that authenticates your externalcustomers and enables them to directly access elements ofyour corporate data, online, you’ll understand why we are so enthusiastic about spearheading the drive towards providing ‘information at the speed of thought’. Why all the activity, especially when business confidence is stagnant? “Organisations recognise that better access to accurate, up-to-date information increases the bottom line,” says Brett Fraser, Senior Account Manager at iQ4bis. “Managers recognise that iQ4bis’ rapid implementation times and quick return on investment (ROI) make good economic sense. But we’re also seeing a growing trend in which we are seeing more POC’s scheduled due to word of mouth and referrals. NZ is an intimate marketplace and people talk. As people move from one company and role to another, they tend to remember which solutions deliver real results. And iQ4bis has been the beneficiary of this informal network. Once people see how easy iQ4bis is to implement and operate, they are friends for life. And they are not shy about saying so. It’s an exciting time at iQ4bis and we expect to see a continuation of this growth for, at least, the remainder of the year.”

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Intell OnDemand Webinar

Dated: 12 May 11, Category: Events, Tags:

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Compare different Business Intelligence

Dated: 05 May 11, Category: Blog Post, Tags:

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This is a business intelligence review done by Business Intelligence Software Comparison. A short but concise evaluation of iQ4bis and other great BI vendor.

Click here to view the review http://www.comparebi.com/vendor-reviews/page/2

 

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Webinar: Business Intelligence made simple

Dated: 02 May 11, Category: Events, Tags:

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Thursday, May 5, 2011 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM PDT

Join us for this 45 minute webinar and learn how you can:

• Easily combine your ERP or CRM data with other disparate systems…
• Make your Oracle data available on Sharepoint…
• Create a self service platform for reporting and analysis…
• Clean your data to create 100% accurate querys…
• Have it all implemented in less than two weeks for a price that won’t break the bank!

*This webinar applies to JD Edwards, Oracle & PeopleSoft*

Register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/255453521

 

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iQ4bis March Newsletter

Dated: 20 Mar 11, Category: Newsletters, Tags:

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	Welcome to the first issue of the iQ4bis Newsletter. Each month we’ll highlight recent developments, user tips, cliesnt profiles and other items of interest to the business community. We value your feedback. If you have any questions or comments or would like to see specific content, let us know.
	iQ4bis Analysis V6 is due to be launched in April. This release is at the forefront of transforming business intelligence (BI) into a pervasive technology for non-technical users.
	Click here to read more
	Smart companies identify trends before their competitors. Upwards… and downwards. ‘Down Trader’ gives you a jump start by highlighting patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. Down Trader view will keep your best customers clearly in view.
	Click here to read about how iQ4bis can provide the answers you need.
	“With iQ4bis we were able to develop a process where we could track the age and location of our entire inventory and match inventory holdings with customer demand. Within months of initiating the programme we were able to bring our inventories down by $2 million without any reduction in delivery or service. We couldn’t have done it without iQ4bis.”
	Garry Vistarini, Chief Financial Officer of RMD Metals
	Click here to read more
	Successful BI implementations are the result of good processes, good data, good software and, most importantly, good people, on both the client side and with the vendor. Manu Ikkala, one of the senior consultants in iQ4bis with more than 30 years of experiences, understands the complexity of BI where he is able to provide successful solutions.
	Find out how Manu can help you by clicking here
	If you do not wish to receive further iQ4bis newsletters, please click here to unsubscribe.

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iQ4bis Analysis: V6 Release

Dated: 03 Mar 11, Category: Newsletters, Tags:

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	The big event is the Q2 release of iQ4bis Analysis 6.0,” says Smith, General Manager of iQ4bis. “6.0 will be a quantum leap for us as we have rewritten the code from the ground up to incorporate the very latest technology. It is able to allow business users to use it in all decision making process where; at the same time, it is also able to improve the accuracy and consistency of the decision making process. From the end-user point-of-view, iQ4bis 6.0 will be faster, easier to configure and more powerful. 6.0 will run on a variety of platforms including Microsoft Windows, Linux, iOS, and Symbian with support for all major browsers. What this means is that users will be able to access iQ4bis – and by extension almost any corporate information with proper authentication and security – from almost any device including smartphones, tablets and netbooks.” Watch this space for news as it develops.

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iQ4bis Down Trader View

Dated: 03 Mar 11, Category: Newsletters, Tags:

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	Any shop-keeper or small business owner knows exactly which customers buy which products. But for larger organisations with thousands of customers and tens of thousands of transactions every day, individual customers can get lost in the crowd. Successful companies are the ones who can retain a ‘personal view’ of customers and individual transactions.  They have the facts at their fingertips. Which customers have decreased their purchases over the last three months? Which ones have increased? Which brand is underperforming at which branch? And how has your advertising campaign for Brand Y affected sales in your different outlets? You can identify these trends by spending days crunching your sales records. Or you can see them immediately with the iQ4bis ‘Down Trader’ View. “Trend View provides another window into your sales data,” says Manu Ikkala, iQ4bis Senior BI consultant. “You already have all of the information – they are all standard fields in most ERP solutions – so all we have to do is identify the exact data sets that you want to monitor and define the time frames. You can change how you sort the customers – descending to see the best performers at the top or ascending to identify the customers that need some personal attention. And, of course, as you uncover the trends you can drill down into that particular customer or brand to see the underlying data.” Successful businesses are the ones that can react quickly as market dynamics change. “With Down Trader View,” says Brian Gray, one of the key senior consultants of iQ4bis, “you can quickly identify which accounts have changed their engagement with you. If a good customer has tailed off, you’ll be able to see exactly when and by how much. Then you can investigate further to find out why and, more importantly, bring them back on board. If you don’t have a handle on you customer’s behaviour, you might not notice until it is too late. Good customers are the bread and butter of most organisations and Down Trader View gives you the ability to more tightly manage your relationship with your best clients.” For further information on Down Trader View and other application-specific views, email Brian Gray and he’ll be happy to discuss your particular requirements.

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iQ4bis Inventory Analysis

Dated: 03 Mar 11, Category: Newsletters, Tags:

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	How do you reduce your inventories without impacting sales, deliveries or services? Have a direct positive impact on your bottom line, but able to cut inventories without affecting customer services? One tactic finding increasing resonance with smart companies is making more informed decisions by accurately predict buying patterns by branch, by product type and by season. You have the information – within your systems and ERP solutions – to make those decisions, but the challenge is to correlate the key metrics to produce actionable business intelligence. This is an area where iQ4bis can add value to your operation. “You can’t afford to guess when it comes to stock levels,” says Brian Gray, Solution Specialist & Consultant for iQ4bis. “iQ4bis gives you solid information on which to base your buying decisions. You’ll be able to see, at a glance, how different SKUs have performed over time. You can drill down to see which sizes or colours move faster or which products sell better in which branches. And when you add advertising initiatives and in-store promotions into the mix you’ll be able to accurately predict the impact on inventory. Inventory Analysis gives you complete visibility into your entire operation with just a few clicks of the mouse.” “With iQ4bis we were able to develop a process where we could track the age and location of our entire inventory and match inventory holdings with customer demand. Within months of initiating the programme we were able to bring our inventories down by $2 million without any reduction in delivery or service. We couldn’t have done it without iQ4bis.” Garry Vistarini, chief financial officer of RMD Metals. Read the whole story here:here. The team at iQ4bis has developed a number of business templates each designed to improve productivity. “In addition to inventory, we have ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions for sales, finance, KPIs (key performance indicators), accounts receivable and more,” says Gray. “They all link directly to your ERP, CRM or finance solutions and give you ‘one version of the truth’ across your organisation. Once you have the basics covered, you can expand the use of iQ4bis so that everyone – from product managers to sales team to finance – can make faster, better informed decisions.” For further information on managing your inventory with iQ4bis, click here.

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iQ4bis Team Profile: Manu Ikkala

Dated: 03 Mar 11, Category: Newsletters, Tags:

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	Successful BI implementations are the result of good processes, good data, good software and, most importantly, good people, on both the client side and with the vendor. Manu Ikkala, one of the senior consultants in iQ4bis with more than 30 years of experiences, understands the complexity of BI where he is able to provide successful solutions. “Getting the basics right is easy,” says Manu. “Most organisations have plenty of data, well-structured, complete and accurate. At iQ4bis, we simply map the relationships between the data, build the necessary framework to structure the data and then customise the various views for each particular user group. We’ve been doing this for years and it is second nature to us. But every once in a while a customer asks for something different or unusual; we enjoy these challenges as they allow us to push the technology to achieve the required outcomes. And, typically, we include these new procedures into our standard offerings.” “The team from iQ4bis are amazing. Manu Ikkala, one of their lead senior BI consultants, never says no. We ask him to do something different or add an enhancement and he does it quickly. In fact we have subscribed to the iQ4bis Professional Services Programme which provides four days a month of service work.” Earl Gasparich, CFO for Enviro Waste Manu is responsible for ensuring standard implementations are delivered on time and to budget. In addition, he helps customers with any special tasks or views that they may require. “I enjoy working with organisations from every market,” he says. “Each time we deliver a solution we create additional routines and procedures that we can then apply to our client base. It is always quite satisfying to see the positive reaction and the big smile on the customer’s face when we show them our handiwork.” Manu takes immense pride in his work and that translates into successful implementations, rapid return on investment and quantifiable benefits for customers.

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Traceability & the New Food Safety Legislation

Dated: 15 Feb 11, Category: Blog Post, Tags:

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The Food Safety Modernization Act is a significant piece of legislation intended to increase accountability in the country’s food production systems. As companies begin to understand the full impact of what this new legislation will really mean for them, we wanted to shed some light on one aspect of the new law.

One provision of the federal food safety law requires that all players in the country’s food supply chain be able to quickly trace from whom they received a food product and to whom they sent it. Many food manufacturers and distributors have taken the first step in creating an environment of transparency and traceability. Many have adopted sophisticated systems to track vendor activity and to log mountains of data with regard to inventory levels and movement.

The rise and adoption of ERP systems have enabled even small companies with the ability to create databases full of information regarding millions of transactions that take place each day. The inherent challenge arises by design: these systems were designed to log data not report on it.

Most companies rely heavily on an already thin IT staff to access and provide critical information. This creates a recipe for trouble. Imagine the FDA at your door looking for information and you are having to wait hours or even days to uncover where your shipments came from, when they arrived and where those batches or lots went.

iQ4bis provides self service and ad hoc reporting tools that can be learned in minutes with no formal training. Below are three ways iQ4bis can dramatically eliminate risk from a food and beverage company.

1. Ad Hoc analytics

One part of what iQ4bis actually delivers is called an OLAP cube. A cube is essentially a way to organize data to enable for lightning fast ad hoc queries. It allows a user to slice and dice information in ways that may be unanticipated.

For example, you may not know in advanced that you need to view all of your tomato vendors based in Sonoma County that you processed in a facility in Los Angeles County, but sold to a distributor in Phoenix where the goods were delivered in the month of December. And perhaps once you get that report you would like to see all the shift managers who received these shipments.

Requesting that level of a report even within a single database, would potentially take days to produce using typical report writing software. With OLAP based reporting, you can ask and answer your own questions on the fly.

2. Combines multiple systems

Most companies today have taken what is called a “Systems-Oriented-Architecture” approach to their information systems. That is they have numerous unrelated systems designed specifically for different processes within their business. They have a GL system for accounting, time keeping systems, tools specific to manage the warehouse, separate tools that work with managing vendors, HR systems, etc. When traceability begins to involve multiple unrelated systems, the wait becomes exponentially longer.

iQ4bis makes it easy to report and analyze data from multiple unrelated systems. You can easily roll up information from all of your corporate assets into a single location.

3. Simple user interface

Many reporting and analytics solutions were designed for “power users” where a complete understanding of the database is required to use it. While these tools may work for 3% of the business, the remaining 97% of users, including most senior level managers and executives, are stuck in an information blackhole.

iQ4bis user interface was designed with casual end users in mind. (If you have seen us at a tradeshow you may already know, we print our user manual on a mousepad!) Our software takes only 2 minutes to learn and is easy enough anyone can use it.

These are just three ways iQ4bis can help your business comply with the new regulation. If you have any questions or are interested in scheduling a brief web based demonstration please contact us today!

iQ4bis provides a free proof of concept where we will use your actual data for a demonstration and can be delivered in under 72 hours!

Read case studies of iQ4bis Food and Beverage Companies:

Bell Tea

Burger King

EA Sween

Nellson Nutraceutical

Old Fashioned Foods

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