If you are a business intelligence advocate within your organisation, you will be familiar with those who fail to grasp the difference between operational reports and business intelligence. The list below compares the characteristics of operational reports and business intelligence.
| Operational reports | Business Intelligence |
| Application specific | Combined information from all applications |
| Periodic | Real time or near real time |
| Set format reports | Ad hoc information access |
| Data rich | Information rich |
| Time consuming to compile | Automatic & immediate |
| Lack analysis | Extensive analysis |
There are striking differences between what operational reports and business intelligence reveal. Only a business intelligence environment can answer questions such as these in the affirmative:
- Do you know how well your business performed yesterday or even last week?
- Do you know the true labour cost of your offerings?
- Can you easily see trends in asset utilisation?
- Do you have real time visibility of productivity?
- Can you see your key drivers?
- Do you get early warning of issues?
- Can you see your whole business?
- MP
