Business intelligence portal software: Microsoft Dynamics
Updated: April 10, 2006
Business intelligence portals—those customizable, Web-browser based applications that provide "one stop" access to each user's most relevant data and tools—really can deliver a solid return on investment in very short order. They allow you to unlock business potential and enhance productivity by providing RoleTailored access to information and processes from a single Web-based portal.
Microsoft Dynamics solutions have built-in business-portal functionality to help you deliver applications, information, key performance indicators, and processes to employees, customers, and partners across your organization. Find out if a business portal is in the cards for you.
Note
The features on this page offer examples of business portal features within Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics SL that offer integration and ease of customization with Microsoft Windows SharePoint. Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics NAV also provide business portal functionality.
Why business intelligence portals make good business sense
Information really is the lifeblood of your business, and anything you can do to help your employees, customers, and suppliers make better decisions faster is bound to be good for the bottom line.
Business portals enable companies to deliver business information and processes to employees, customers, suppliers, and other business partners through a single-source Web-browser portal. This makes it easy for everyone who interacts with your business systems to locate the information they need quickly and to complete common tasks with a minimum of extra effort.
Here are just five of the many ways a business portal can help your business run more smoothly and profitably:
Unlock the potential of all your employees.
Accelerate productivity across your business by providing employees with immediate access to business applications and to updated, accurate information so they can make better decisions faster.
Take the hassle (and expense) out of common tasks.
Timesheets, expense reports, requisitions, and other tasks can be delivered through the user's Web browser, reducing the time it takes to manage these processes and eliminating related paperwork and data re-entry. And, by opening the flow of useful business information to your employees, you'll reduce the endless stream of requests for custom reports and the countless calls for simple business facts. Free your IT, accounting, and support resources to drive your business forward.
Give executives at-a-glance access to key business metrics.
Enable executives and business decision makers to assess the current health of your business and respond quickly when conditions change with key-performance indicators (KPIs), such as those you can set up in Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics SL.
| • | Multiple views and alert ranges: Using graphs, tables, and green/yellow/red conditional alerts, companies can create KPIs that draw attention to the most important aspects of each information view. Decision makers can then drill down quickly to discover underlying causes of changing conditions. |
| • | Easy to define: Once you've built the underlying queries, it's a simple process to define and deploy the KPIs most important to your business success, making it easy for decision makers to identify hot spots and act quickly to drive your business forward. |
| • | RoleTailored Access: Individual KPIs can be created for each executive, depending on their areas of responsibility. RoleTailored access enables you to align the right information with each individual. |
| • | Easy Updating: KPIs can be refreshed as often as needed, so decision makers will always be working with current, accurate information. |
Share business information with customers and suppliers.
Work more effectively with customers, suppliers, and other business partners by granting secure access to business information such as order status, inventory levels, and payment data. Provide access to information stored in other systems and deliver it via the Web to the right people at the right time to keep your business moving forward and your customers happy.
Give your organization a framework for collaboration. Microsoft portal functionality in Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics SL is built on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, enabling you to deploy one portal site to deliver access to business applications, information, and processes across the organization. You can extend powerful information-sharing and collaboration tools that foster teamwork and improve performance with Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office System 2003.
| • | Share and collaborate on documents: Business-portal functionality in Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics SL is installed as a Windows SharePoint site, enabling you to store, share, and edit Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and other documents by adding Document Libraries to portal pages. |
| • | Create new pages and parts more easily: Business-portal Web parts in Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics SL are built as native SharePoint Web parts, with drag-and-drop page design that saves time and lets you to create pages that work the way you want them to. |
| • | Add Excel graphs to portal pages: Business-portal Web parts in Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics SL can be connected to SharePoint Excel Web parts, giving your customers new charting abilities for business data. |
| • | Add sites for projects and meetings: Create pages with all the resources team members need—including calendars, participant lists, announcements, document libraries, and other Web parts—to record activities, share and edit documents, track meeting notes, and provide links to other relevant sites. |
| • | Connect to external data sources: Expand the reach of business information by allowing appropriate people secure access to not only Microsoft Dynamics information, but other sources of business information within your business-portal site. |
Integration is automatic, set up is a snap
Business portal functionality in Microsoft Dynamics products deliver out-of-the-box integration to your financial and business management systems, delivering immediate access to customer data, inventory queries, purchasing reports, and much more as soon as you assign access to your users.
