Answer 2

Answer 3.a

Answer 3.b

Answer 4.a 

For the purpose of decision making in association with the stated functions, pivot table can serve as an important tool.

Answer 4.b

Pivot table is used for determining charges that will be charged by Simple Contracts Ltd. to ABL construction and the charges amounted to $ 20,330.

Question 2

Answer 1

Business intelligence growth in past years

Business intelligence was invented during early 1990s and under this concept the significance of self service that can be generated from dramatic shift is recognized (Bernardino and Tereso 2013). BI is implemented by various entities for their service department and production department. It is recognized from the above calculation that through implementation of the BI technology worldwide revenue amounted to $ 23.1 billion generated. BI is considered as the strategy for application of the software that can be used for implementing the project plans of the company (Anandarajan, Anandarajan and Srinivasan 2012).

Answer 2

Widely used business tools and their attribute

Common BI tools are mentioned below –

• SAP Business Intelligence– it enables efficient data analysis at the higher level as it can collect various data and then compilation of the collected data in form of report (Rusaneanu 2013). Further, another major feature of this tool is the ability to evaluate multi-dimensional data source.
• Oracle Hyperion system– it offers budgeting, forecasting and centralized planning solutions for operational and financial planning procedure (Loshin 2012). It assists in reducing the cost ownership, improving the transparency of the company and integration of data.

Reference 

Anandarajan, M., Anandarajan, A. and Srinivasan, C.A. eds., 2012. Business intelligence techniques: a perspective from accounting and finance. Springer Science & Business Media.

Bernardino, J. and Tereso, M., 2013. Business intelligence tools. In Computational Intelligence and Decision Making (pp. 267-276). Springer, Dordrecht.

Loshin, D., 2012. Business intelligence: the savvy manager’s guide. Newnes.

Rusaneanu, A., 2013. Comparative analysis of the main Business Intelligence solutions. Informatica Economica, 17(2), p.148.