Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Is BI-Cycle just a reporting tool?
A. No. BI-Cycle is not only a reporting tool, but more specifically a Reliability Analysis and Performance Management tool that will help you to:
- Understand the full potential of your historical data.
- Manage Maintenance and Reliability indicators.
- Spot trends in equipment performance
- Benchmark with other sites.
- Make decisions that improve the Maintenance Plan.
In doing so, BI-Cycle uses not only maintenance and financial data, but also data such as production loss and start and stop times from equipment.
Q. Can we see how BI-Cycle works on our own data?
A. Yes, BI-Cycle offers a pilot installation based on the customer’s data.
Q. Can BI-Cycle analyze data located in different databases?
A. Without a problem. It is often the case that data related to maintenance resides in different databases in different locations. This is no obstacle for BI-Cycle. Typically BI-Cycle draws every night on data located in four different databases (CMMS, Financial, HSE and Process).
Q. How does BI-Cycle deal with KPI’s that cannot be calculated from automated data extracts?
A. Where there are gaps, these can be imported from other electronic data sources (e.g Excel). KPI can also be added directly by Users in the BI-Cycle KPI Management Database.
Q. How does BI-Cycle handle costs related KPI?
A. Actual cost data can normally be captured into BI-Cycle from the financial system (e.g. SAP) or from the WMS system (e.g. Maximo) where all production assets and the work execution related to them, including estimated and actual costs, estimated and actual labour hours, materials and logistics costs, target, scheduled and actual completion dates are recorded against work orders.
Q. Does BI-Cycle support languages other than English?
A. BI-Cycle also supports Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, German, French, Spanish and Russian.
Q. How often does BI-Cycle release upgrades?
A. BI-Cycle releases an upgrade of BI-Cycle each year which includes functional improvement requests.
Q. Does BI-Cycle require any additional software?
A. BI-Cycle requires an Oracle/SQL Server/MySQL Database Server and a Windows Web Server. BI-Cycle does not require additional software on the Client PC.
Q. What does BI-Cycle cost?
A. BI-Cycle has a transparent pricing model that is applied to all customers.