Getting Started with Business Intelligence
Business intelligence (BI) is the process of collecting, organizing, and analyzing business data to support decision-making. BI tools connect to your data sources, process the results, and present them through reports, dashboards, charts, and maps, giving you visibility into the current state of your operations.
Using BI in your organization helps you to
- Reduce time spent on analysis and reporting by centralizing and standardizing your data.
- Empower users to analyze and report on financial and operational data independently.
- Simplify distribution of relevant information across your organization.
- Support better decisions with consistent, high-quality data.
About SEI
SEI is a BI platform that connects to your data sources, structures them, and makes them available for analysis and reporting. It includes a real-time data analysis engine, an ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) tool for data processing, and support for multi-dimensional cubes.
- One platform that connects to multiple data sources and is accessible through the web, mobile devices, or the Excel Add-in.
- Prebuilt templates let you start analyzing data without configuration or technical setup.
- Sharing and permissions allow you to distribute reports and dashboards to the right people in your organization.
Different interfaces
SEI is accessible through three interfaces, each designed for a different context and workflow.
| Interface | What it does |
|---|---|
| Main Interface | Analyze enterprise data directly in your browser, with no dependency on a specific operating system. Covers operational reporting, role-based dashboards, financial reporting, and more. |
| Excel Add-in | Brings SEI data into Excel in real time, removing the need for manual data entry or static exports. |
| Mobile Interface | View reports and dashboards from any mobile device on an interface built for smaller screens. |