Business Intelligence (BI) is perhaps the most talked about technology topic at the moment. Businesses are getting a greater return on BI investments and new generation BI no longer only focuses on the decision-making needs of senior management.

BI tools’ emphasis is to get the right information to the people that need it the most in real-time. BI is now helping frontline staff to take part in the business decision-making process. Frontline staff come into direct contact with the customer which sometimes gives them a better understanding of the customer’s needs. If frontline staff are given access to timely, specific information it increases their effectiveness and helps them to make better decisions in their working environment, even while on the phone with a customer! Employees need easily understandable BI tools as their decisions influence company performance. Having access to the same information, in real-time, helps employees to all dance to the same tune.

QBCon, a business solution provider, is changing the light in which BI tools are seen. As the leading implementer of Progress EasyAsk, QBCon is at the cutting edge of new generation BI tools. To date, QBCon has implemented the application for four different companies, namely Matrix Vehicle Tracking, IHD, Nedbank and Europ Assistance.

EasyAsk fills the gap between search engines and traditional BI systems. It goes further by keeping executives, analysts, business managers, operational staff, and now frontline staff in the loop. The flexibility of EasyAsk makes it easy to use and implement into a company’s current application architecture stack, regardless of the database type. Implementation and training can be done in only ten days. EasyAsk gives frontline staff answers to questions written in everyday language instead of letting them waste time going through irrelevant data.

When you give frontline staff the chance to take part in profitable business decisions, you empower them to make decisions that are not based on assumptions and guesswork, but on facts and corporate strategy.