As Business Intelligence (BI) reporting tools have become one of the best solutions to support decision making for auto dealers, many leaders might be wondering what are the requirements they should pay attention to when finding a BI partner? And how to evaluate between different services and suppliers?
In this blog, we will go through 6 fundamental requirements that should be found within a good automotive business intelligence solution.
1. 3rd party systems integration
First, the information within a business organisation is everywhere. For a dealership, the data could be coming from DMS as well as many other different systems. This tool should be able to pull all the data into one place and give you the entire picture of what is going on in the business.
2. Co-developed with customers
The best BI solutions should be co-developed with customers to meet your business needs. To get the best helpful insights, you will need a BI partner that can customise the system for you based on your organisational structure and management requirements. After the implementation, it is also key to have regular customer success review meetings with your BI partner to make sure the solution meets your changing needs, and that your new requirements are clearly understood and taken care of by the developers.
3. Drillable dashboards by job function
Many BI solutions provide dealer management dashboards presenting your KPIs and the overview of your business. However, it is more important that these dashboards are drillable by job function, so that managers at each level can get the ‘why’ information simply within a few clicks and get to the root of the problems as soon as possible.
4. Automated reports
Another key function you should be looking at is automated delivery of reports. Instead of accessing the system to get information, the more efficient way is to get these reports automatically distributed to everyone’s inbox. Each person gets the right information at the right time for them to do their job well. The best solution delivers transparency and accountability across the organisation, which helps you improve your operational efficiency ultimately.
5. Built in the cloud
There are many benefits having a cloud-based solution: cost-effective, agile, easy to install – it takes away all the hassle and complexity of a traditional on-premises solution. A BI solution built in the cloud also delivers services and developments much faster. It works out of the box and allows much more possibilities for future enhancements and integrations.
6. Your data should be secured
Finally, but also the most important, your data should be secured and protected by your BI partner. The solution should be designed in a way that protects your company’s personal and commercial data. Certification to an international information security standard, such as ISO27001, would be the best way to identify those suppliers with required data security practice. A certified supplier will have policies, processes and technologies in place to handle your company’s sensitive data.
The 6 points mentioned in this blog are the key fundamental requirements that we believe are critical when dealers evaluate potential BI solutions. For more details, click here to download our full Competitive Matrix.
Real World Analytics is an ISO27001 certified cloud-based BI solution provider. We help auto dealers to improve their information tools and maximise the value of their data in a more efficient way. If you are interested in getting to know more, please email auto@realworldanalytics.com and we can have a chat.