Lightweight Business Intelligence Dashboard : InfoCaptor
The title above is a one line definition of InfoCaptor. So let me justify it word by word

Lightweight : Because it is on "Low Carb" diet ;-) just kidding...ha ha ha...

Business Intelligence : It meets the definition of a BI Tool

Dashboard : Straight from my previous post mentioning an important functionality
"In its utmost simplicity, it is a simple client based tool and ofcourse would be easy to use and maintain. You build your own dashboards and views(qLets) within each dashboard. It interacts with a database for reporting purpose. Anyone with a good understanding of SQL( structured Query Language) can create Dashboards in minutes using InfoCaptor. You can build high level views and define drills to the minutest details. For e.g lets say you have built a Dashboard using InfoCaptor which shows the high level Sales figure by States. On a monthly basis you pull up the Dashboard to see this data but once in a while you need to click on a particular State to see the City wise Sales in that State and sometimes you need to see the detailed Customer level information for a particular City or State. All this is possible using InfoCaptor.
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- 3:58 PM 1 comments  

 
Business Intelligence, what is it?
Here are some definitions of Business Intelligence (also called BI in short) pulled directly by Googling.


BI is a popularized, umbrella term introduced by Howard Dresner of the Gartner Group in 1989 to describe a set of concepts and methods to improve business decision making by using fact-based support systems. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with briefing books and executive information systems. A Business Intelligence System is a DSS.
services.eliteral.com/glossary/decision-support-systems-glossary.php

Business intelligence (BI) is a category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users make better business decisions. BI applications include decision support systems, query and reporting, online analytical processing, statistical analysis, forecasting, and data mining.
www.informatica.com/solutions/resource_center/glossary/default.htm

Normally describes the result of in-depth analysis of detailed business data. Includes database and application technologies, as well as analysis practices. Sometimes used synonymously with “decision support,” though business intelligence is technically much broader, potentially encompassing knowledge management, enterprise resource planning, and data mining, among other practices. Business process engineering: The analysis and re-design of business processes and associated technology systems, with the goal to eliminate or reduce redundancy and streamline interactions.
it.csumb.edu/departments/data/glossary.html

These are some of the definitions but it gives us the idea. Some kind of reporting system which reports a high level information about an Organization's financial and operational data. These kind of reporting systems not only give a high level view but also have an added ability to drill down into the minutest detail if needed without any significant delay. The complexity of the BI tools depends on the size of the Organization.

There are numerous vendors offering BI tools for the huge corporations, often as part of their Business Software (read ERP suite). Usually these tools are complex to install (Ouch!), complex to buy (Ouch!) and sometimes complex to use and maintain(big Ouch!!). These tools grow so big and complex that they assume a life of their own.

So where does InfoCaptor stand? In its utmost simplicity, it is a simple client based tool and ofcourse would be easy to use and maintain. You build your own dashboards and views(qLets) withing each dashboard. It interacts with a database for reporting purpose. Anyone with a good understanding of SQL( structured Query Language) can create Dashboards in minutes using InfoCaptor. You can build high level views and define drills to the minutest details. For e.g lets say you have built a Dashboard using InfoCaptor which shows the high level Sales figure by States. On a monthly basis you pull up the Dashboard to see this data but once in a while you need to click on a particular State to see the City wise Sales in that State and sometimes you need to see the detailed Customer level information for a particular City or State. All this is possible using InfoCaptor.

Thats all for now, for getting a preview of the InfoCaptor functionality. More later...
- 3:20 PM 0 comments