Corporate boards need much data and input from managers, so they can analyze it and come up with solid strategic plans for the future. While boards do all the planning, they also need feedback from senior executives to ensure that their planning is reasonable, achievable and accounts for risk-taking. Board directors need to be able to oversee and monitor plans as management puts them into action.
Management intelligence software assists managers in processing and analyzing data to share with their boards. Boards need different systems called board governance management systems to manage their board duties of planning and oversight efficiently. In a perfect boardroom, board governance systems and management intelligence software systems interface with each other so board directors and managers can share information with each other easily.
The goals of management intelligence software benefit board directors, managers and, ultimately, the corporation. The goals of management intelligence software are greater transparency, greater control and responsiveness, and improved risk management. Overall management intelligence systems support better decision-making by managers because data drives their efforts and creates value.
What Is Management Intelligence and Why Is It Important?
Management intelligence encompasses multiple things, which makes it difficult to pin down an all-encompassing definition. In essence, management intelligence is taking raw data concerning business metrics and combining it, organizing it and formatting it into useful information to help managers manage a corporation successfully. Management intelligence is a system that refers to technologies, applications and practices to collect, analyze and integrate corporate data so that executives and board directors can communicate and present the results accurately and transparently. Before management intelligence and business intelligence software systems came into vogue, intelligence was also referred to as briefing books, or report and query reports. Management intelligence software toolkits combine data in various different ways to assist senior managers in getting the clearest possible picture of the corporation's operations.Management Intelligence Software Toolkits Erase Much of the Guesswork of the Past
Corporations gather lots of data, information and statistics. To organize so much data into a usable form would be exhaustive to try to do manually, even for an expert. Management intelligence software combines historical data, current data and predictive data from business operations, the warehouse, sales departments, production departments, finance departments and other sources to create pivot-table analyses, visual charts, graphs and other reports. Software systems mine data, and using mathematical formulas, create clear visualizations of the corporation's business performance. Managers can break down the data and also use it to present the full scope of the corporation's current and future status. The beauty of management intelligence software is that it takes the guesswork out of strategic planning because the data is based on accurate information. Management intelligence software can also include benchmarking, which is a way for corporations to gather information about their competitors and analyze their own performance against similar corporations within the industry.Using Management Intelligence Software Toolkits
Like many software systems, management software toolkits were designed so that users can operate all parts of the system using an electronic dashboard. Management intelligence dashboards work much like a car's dashboard because they display real-time changes to business information. Managers and board directors can use the dashboard to manipulate real-time data into various charts, graphs and gauges. In addition, the software provides a format to drill down top-level information and break it down into supporting data to present the clearest information. The complexity of business operations today often requires the help and assistance of IT professionals, which is why many boards are recruiting new directors who have resumes with strong IT expertise. Using management intelligence software, board directors can request the types of information they need from the dashboard without needing to know anything about coding or needing to garner extra help from IT staff. The software system is intuitive and user-friendly. With a little training, managers and board directors can use it successfully. The more information managers are able to retrieve, the more ways they can find to use the data to make informed decisions. The idea behind management intelligence as a system is to provide a secure, central, online space that is interactive and visual and allows managers to build customized planning and simulation applications for board and managerial review. Management Intelligence Software Toolkits Help to Create Stronger Relationships Between Boards and Management Board governance management software systems, like Diligent Boards, make effective and efficient work of all the governance processes that boards use on a regular basis. Management intelligence software systems provide much the same benefit for senior executives. The software performs all of the complex calculations and processes automatically, which allows board directors and managers to focus on overseeing and managing the corporation. When boards pull management intelligence software into their board portals, it creates a mighty force by uniting the board and managers, arming them both with the most current, most informative and useful data available. Having comprehensive business information data at their fingertips affords board directors and managers the ability to truly conduct due diligence as they make corporate decisions. It's easy to see how software governance and management software enhance each other to create the best of both worlds for smooth operations while creating transparency and accountability for shareholders.The Trend Toward Enterprise Governance Management
As software provides clearer business information, a new trend toward enterprise governance management is emerging. Enterprise governance management considers data and governance to be separate, but equally important. Successful corporations will need to be managed using an integrated enterprise approach that brings business intelligence and enterprise governance together. Brian Stafford, Chief Executive Officer of Diligent Corporation, states, ''Governance, in its essence, is leaders using the right information and controls to direct an organization, which can be facilitated by technology. Governance solutions allow board directors to consolidate information, so they can ask better questions, make better decisions and better shape the future of the organizations they serve.'' Stafford announced that Diligent Corporation is committed to a future with vastly continued investment in governance products with new solutions built on top of existing solutions to meet the continual needs of managers and board directors.![](https://annyazommq.cloudimg.io/https://dg-staging-450520-cd.azurewebsites.net/-/media/project/diligent/master/au-whitepaper-images/whitepaper-images/a-buyers-guide-to-esg-data-management-software.png?h=511&iar=0&w=765&rev=263be577-e761-4e63-96ef-8ab461f2c7d1&org_if_sml=1&force_format=webp&hash=66FFC6017BFA4AEF4FEB228C028B7AA2)
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