Badge of the Month: May is upon us!

Miran Saric

The Community Badge of the Month program rolls on as it's time to earn the May badge!

Special mention goes out to March's participants: @Rishabh Shahi, @Carlos Eduardo Meneses Maran, @Andrea Duò, @Nico Weber, @TJ Barber, @Shisong, @Helmut Heimann, @Samson Sunny, @Mindy Waltz, @Hamza Mesbahi, and @Mads Meissner.

We deeply appreciate your thoughts and contributions to last month's discussion.

Remember: it's never too late to take part in this program as anyone is free to join at any point! All you have to do is answer the question below and the badge is all yours. And while you're at it, be sure to visit past months' posts and earn those badges as well, as there's no time limit to this program!

February Badge of the Month
March Badge of the Month
April Badge of the Month

Be sure to also visit our entire Community Voices series to meet some of our Community leaders and learn from their experiences and successes!

Why play along?

When we share our success, we grow as a Community and what better opportunity to share your knowledge than when there's a badge to reward you for your efforts? After all: sharing is caring!

Without further ado…

May question of the month

How have you used the Board platform to overcome a challenge or roadblock?

Find yourself stuck? Traditional solutions weren't quite producing the results you wanted? Tell us about a time you thought out of the box to accomplish your goals using the Board platform and how you did it - let's get creative!

Feel free to go into detail on your creative solution in the comments below and be sure to follow our Badge of the Month series the rest of the year!

Fethi ZERARA

In my experience working with numerous clients, a common challenge arises: leveraging data effectively for both Business Intelligence (BI) and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM). This often involves separate platforms, leading to:

1. Maintaining a Single Version of the Truth (SVOT): Utilizing separate platforms for Business Intelligence (BI) and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) can lead to data inconsistencies and a lack of SVOT.
2. Data Synchronization: Ensuring seamless data synchronization between disparate platforms can be cumbersome and error-prone.
3. Business Codification Consistency: Different platforms may use varying business codes, hindering analysis and decision-making.
4. Limited Functionality: Traditional approaches often lack advanced features like workflow automation, scenario planning, and API integration.
5. Cost Inefficiency: Maintaining multiple platforms can incur significant hidden costs associated with licensing, maintenance, and synchronization efforts.

How Board Addresses These Challenges:

Board offers a unified platform that seamlessly integrates BI and EPM capabilities, eliminating the need for separate systems and their inherent challenges. Here's how Board empowers organizations:

1. Single Platform, Unified Data: Board provides a centralized platform for all data, ensuring SVOT across BI and EPM functionalities.
2. Effortless Synchronization: Data synchronization is automated and guaranteed, eliminating the risk of inconsistencies and discrepancies.
3. Consistent Business Codifications: Board ensures consistent business code usage throughout the platform, facilitating accurate analysis and reporting.
4. Advanced Functionality: Board offers a comprehensive suite of features, including workflow automation, scenario planning, and API integration, empowering deeper analysis and strategic planning.
5. Cost-Effectiveness: By consolidating BI and EPM needs into a single platform, Board reduces licensing, maintenance, and synchronization costs.

Miran Saric

Thank you so much for your valuable insight, @Fethi ZERARA! This is great advice to keep in mind!

Nicolas CHIGROS

I could double down on what @Fethi ZERARA already said but I rather use a niche exemple.

Our customer was using a top-down "bill of material x production unit" model for his 5 year strategic plan in order to drive investment on its production chain. All in a Excel file. We leveraged the entity-relationship model of Board to implement a 22 level hierarchy to model more accurately their production requirement. No other EPM product that I know of you would have allowed to implement that solution so easily, with good performance, considering the volume of data generated by the model, the requirement to be able to input data at each level and the ease of implementation and maintenance.

Miran Saric

Wow, thanks so much for sharing your experience @Nicolas CHIGROS!

Nico Weber

One particular instance comes to mind where I needed to analyze and forecast financial data for a complex project.

Traditionally, this task would involve manually inputting and manipulating data in spreadsheets, which could be time-consuming and prone to errors. However, by utilizing the capabilities of the Board platform, I was able to streamline the process and achieve more accurate results.

I created a customized financial planning dashboard on the Board platform, which allowed me to integrate various data sources and automate calculations. This not only saved me time but also reduced the risk of errors. Additionally, I utilized the platform's advanced analytics and reporting features to generate visualizations and insights that were crucial for decision-making.

By leveraging the Board platform's capabilities, I was able to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of my financial planning projects.

Miran Saric

@Nico Weber This is great to hear - thank you for sharing your experience!

Carlos Eduardo Meneses Maran

A challenge our team has overcome using Board was a BoM explosion, even before the excellent how-to guide:

https://community.board.com/discussion/16856/how-to-manage-bom-explosion

We based our solution on the replication of the BoM entity and the way Board let you convert cubes by BoM to its replicated entity was the key to achieve a high-performance solution.

Miran Saric

Glad to hear it, @Carlos Eduardo Meneses Maran - thank you for sharing!