One additional factor to consider in your decision is that Peachtree Accounting is less expensive than QuickBooks. Both starter versions of Peachtree and QuickBooks are priced at $99.95 each, but full-featured version of Peachtree is priced at only $199.95 while full-featured QuickBooks Pro is priced at $299.95.

At end of day, biggest advantage QuickBooks offers over Peachtree is compatibility with other applications. For example, most commercial banks (Bank of America, SunTrust, etc...) provide you with files designed to work directly with

QuickBooks, so that you can read, study, and decipher transaction details. Also, some banks will allow you to update account information in real-time with QuickBooks. Check with your bank to see what accounting software their online services support, and you should be able to make your decision.

BI Tools

When using business intelligence, a company has to collect a vast amount of information. BI tools can help businesses store, organize, and even collect business data. Some data tools are data warehouses, data modeling, and data mining. Using data tools helps to improve efficiency of business intelligence. While data tools are used for organization, Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) is used in analyzing process. OLAP is commonly referred to as simple Analytics, which is based on hypercube or “cube” dimensional analysis.

There are also vendors who help business with business intelligence. A vendor provides a company with business intelligence tools and support needed for successful implementation of a business process. Siebel Systems, Microsoft, Altius Consulting, Business-Soft, and SAS Institute are just a few of companies offering business intelligence tools and support.

Conclusion

The better a business understands its market (everything from customer to its competitors), more effective that business can be. Businesses that have as complete, 360-degree understanding of what their customers need and want will be better able to devise successful strategies and implement successful processes to make their business thrive. Business intelligence is path that businesses can take to achieve their goals, which can be either short-term or long-term. Some may wonder about ROI of business intelligence. No doubt, if a company ends up gaining many customers, and retaining current customers as a result of business intelligence, then it will be a positive ROI. Business intelligence, if implemented correctly, and efficiently, can only help a company.