In most companies, multiple applications support different functions and departments. Your sales team is using CRM, while the finance team uses ERP or an accounting system. The operation teams probably use line of business (LOB) applications that are specific to your industry. Each one of those applications comes with canned reports written for the “average” user.

The “average” user Reports generally allow you to specify ranges of dates, products, document numbers or some other parameter and then generate the report in a standard format. Data to populate the report is pulled directly from the application tables which were defined when the report was designed. The format, including columns and rows, are predetermined based on the expected needs of that “average” user.
But what if you need more than average information? There is undoubtedly information in your systems that is important to your business and that the canned reports don’t reflect.

Above average information A true Business Intelligence (BI) solution will consolidate data from all the applications across your organization. While a BI solution can still deliver “reports” to users, it also empowers the user to look deeper—past the high level information to find causes and solutions. With deeper information, every decision maker in your organization can look at data from new angles to make above average decisions.
In practical terms, BI allows the user to:

• access, build and save views of information that are more meaningful to the user,
• drill down from high level reports, dashboards or cubes to the transactional detail behind the numbers,
• create and distribute charts and graphs that provide information that team members and management can quickly comprehend,
• see only the information that is appropriate to his/her role.

Dashboards, charts and views can be manipulated to look at any combination of data points to provide new insights into causes, effects and solutions. All in real-time, enabling immediate response with more informed decisions.

The applications that you use to run your business, house information that will help you serve customers better. By replacing reports with business intelligence, you can tap that information to respond faster and stay ahead of the competition.

Let’s talk about how you can get above average results with better information from your business management solutions.

Hackers and other cyber criminals are an ever present danger on the Internet. This is a fact that we simply can't escape, and what's more, you can be pretty sure that we will see an increase in the number of attacks against sites as the internet continues to expand and be used by more and more people. One of the latest major sites to be hacked is LivingSocial, so if you have an account with this website, you may want to keep reading.

LivingSocial is a daily deals website that focuses on bringing bargains and original deals to users based on their geographical location. In late April, news broke that the website had suffered a massive cyber attack with 50 million accounts being compromised.

From the reports we have seen, the attack targeted accounts world-wide with only account holders in Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and the Philippines being unaffected. An email sent out by Tim O'Shaughnessy, LivingSocial's CEO shortly after the incident said, "We recently experienced a cyber-attack on our computer systems that resulted in unauthorized access to some customer data from our servers. We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue."

The company assured users that their credit card data had not been compromised, as they are kept in another database. Account passwords were also encrypted, which means they are harder to crack but not impossible.

What should you do? If you have a LivingSocial account, we recommend that you go and change your password immediately. This can be done by:

1. Going to LivingSocial's forgot your password page.
2. Entering the email address you used to sign up for the account with.
3. Pressing Reset Password.
4. Checking your email for an email from LivingSocial and following the instructions in the email.

It is advisable to pick a new password, one that is as different as possible from your old password and, as always, the longer, the better.

Is there anything I can to do protect my company? If you are a business owner who has websites that encourage customers to sign up for updates, accounts, etc. you may be wondering how you can keep your user's information secure from cyber attack. In truth, you can't keep your important information 100% secure, if a hacker is committed enough, they will be able to get the information they need or wreak the havoc they want to. But what you can do is to make it as hard as possible for cybercriminals to get your information. This could be as simple as using multiple databases to store different bits of information, or as complex as using the latest encryption methods and systems.

Each business is unique, and the best way to ensure your valuable data is secure is to work with an IT partner who takes the time to get to know your security needs and develop a solution that is as near to 100% secure as possible.

If you are worried about the security of your systems, contact us today. We may have the perfect solution that will meet your needs and budget.