CHARLES RIVER ANALYTICS, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: Although the adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems has modernized and sta

Description

Although the adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems has modernized and standardized business operations throughout the Navy, the resulting increase in operational data has created an enormously complex and cognitively challenging environment for decision-makers. To perform their jobs effectively, ERP users must successfully integrate and manage dynamic, time-sensitive information from an increasingly large number of heterogeneous sources. They must use a variety of specialized software tools because existing solutions do not integrate with the ERP workflow. Even customized solutions typically fail to provide the user with a deep understanding of Navy-specific ERP data. All these challenges, combined with the pressure of meeting deadlines, can have far-reaching consequences on Navy operations. Addressing these challenges requires a highly integrated approach that incorporates: (1) a robust and usable visualization framework based on the user"s workflow; and (2) the investigation of hidden patterns in the data. We propose to develop and evaluate a full-scope prototype of the Business Intelligence Visualization System for Organizational Understanding, Analysis, and Collaboration (BIVOUAC). BIVOUAC will support comprehension and exploration of complex datasets, efficient and effective collaboration between teams of local and distributed ERP personnel, and user-friendly exploration of hidden patterns in the data.