Earlier this year our company provided an up-to-date review of the new Business Intelligence Landscape for Fishbowl 2018. But, in the new 2018.6 update, there was a new module that was quietly introduced: the BI Script for Fishbowl Inventory. Today we will discuss what exactly the BI Script is, what problems it solves, and more. Let’s get started…

What Is BI Script?

BI Script is a new report strategy that Fishbowl is putting together as apart of their new Fishbowl launch for 2019. BI Script is apart of Fishbowl currently, but there will be a few upcoming changes.  Instead of using iReport: a specific report designer. Reports will now be designed in the standard HTML, CSS, and JavaScript formats. These are codes that web designer’s use to design pages, design user interaction, and control the overall rhythm that happens on your screen.  The design process now happens inside of Fishbowl, instead of having to use an external design program for reports.

BI Script is the design tool for reports to rest and run inside of Fishbowl.  In the current version of Fishbowl, you can only see the BI Script designs inside of the program. However, in the future versions, there will be a BI Report module where you should be able to publish the reports that you are designing to the greater audience inside of your business. It’s primarily designed to work with the query data that is in Fishbowl: it’s rendering the output, design, and the interaction through an actual browser.

To access the BI Script module, you can find it under the “general section.” Check out our video above to see a demo of all of the different charts, templates, styles, scripts, and pages.

Why The Change?

This new change is in progress because iReport is at the “end of life.” In iReport, you can technically migrate the files into an editor named JasperStudio. But Fishbowl wants to make things much simpler for it’s users. Fishbowl is turning to HTML because more people understand it than other design formats such as JRXML. It takes a lot of time to learn how to use and be productive in iReport because of the format it uses. But most businesses have a web designer on hand who are able to handle the most of the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript formats quite easily, and will be able to get the reports much faster as they don’t need to wait for a consultant or team member to be available to help them build a specific report.

What Problems Does BI Script Solve?

There are a few important solutions that the BI Script provides. We are able to create table and data reports where you are able to see the result and just peruse through it and see the overall results. You are also able to do self-service pivoting to create custom results. You can also expect more user interaction with these reports as your company figures out different ways to interact with the end-user. For example, a production manager will be given the data that they are looking for, and you are able to design the interaction that you want.  The customization on this module is great and will be taken advantage by many users! Most likely, many consultants will be designing their own templates so they can have their own spin for their clients.

Who Can Help Me With BI Script?

There are a few things that you need to know before using BI Script (or hire someone who does). You will need to know HTML- which is the layout language in design, CSS- which stands for Cascaded Style Sheets (it is the styling that allows you to keep a color a certain shade, or have rounded edges on a strip on the webpage, or having hover capabilities, and you will also need to know JavaScript programming. You need the programing to build and receive data from Fishbowl; it is formatted a certain way, can be displayed in a specific way, and converted in a particular format.

These are all of the design tools you will need to understand to use the module.

In addition, you will also need to understand the SQL Database for Fishbowl.  It is important to know where the data is located, where you need to transfer it, why it is useful, etc. Not only do you need to understand the Fishbowl database, you will need to understand how Fishbowl uses it, and it’s business process around picking, packing, shipping, — and what fields work for what you are looking for.

Finally, you will need business tribal knowledge such as knowing what a custom field is used for, how a company uses Fishbowl, where to input certain data, etc.  A partnership with a consulting company is critical in order to understand what needs to be built, how it needs to be built, and what problems it is solving. Consultants know everything about Fishbowl so it could be critical to work with one to be able to develop a very useful report.

You can hire web designers or even interns for the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript solutions. But you will need more of an internal champion, someone who truly knows the business for the SQL database and business process.

When Will iReport Be Sunset?

As far as we know, there will be no changes in the near future. However, if you are using older versions of Fishbowl 2017…we would strongly recommend to upgrading to at least 2018.6—or even better to 2018.8 only so you can start to gain experience with BI Scripts. You should have experience using it, especially if you plan to be using Fishbowl for at least five more years.

The Legacy Reports will eventually be removed, and the iReport is already at the “end of life.” We can tell it is at EOL already because even the consultants at our company are noticing that it takes a bit of effort to get the program up on our computers.

But the BI Script is now available so try to install any version after the 2018.7 so you are up to date on the latest and greatest! You can start playing around with it and seeing how to get data out of Fishbowl, how to get data on the screen, and how to use certain JavaScript libraries. This all is apart of Fishbowl installation.

It is rumored that that the new Fishbowl databases and the new companies will be on BI Script only reports starting in 2019. If you have customer reports designed around iReport you should be able to reactivate the report again. But any new reports will be BI Script only.

The actual sun setting of iReport will probably happen sometime past 2020, and there will most likely be some transition costs. It is important to know that not everything that is currently done in iReport has an immediate translation to BI Script.  It will take some work to fully translate everything from one program to another, and it is important as a company to plan for that budget. We have an approximate budget of $200-$300 per report plus consulting hours to transition reports to BI Script. Beyond this, we do not expect any more product challenges.

How Can ILC Help?

At Israel Lopez Consulting, we can help you create new BI Script reports. Obviously, this is new to everyone in the industry but we are doing our best to be as knowledgeable as we can! We have a new BI Report Developer on our team strictly for these new changes. They are someone who has iReport experience and is currently learning HTML and CSS.  Working together helps the transition process.

We able to help you convert the Jasper Reports and iReport solutions into BI Script reports. But keep in mind that it will take some time and money. It is a good idea for companies to start planning their budget for that now.

We are also able to support an internal designer with SQL queries. Our consultants, support techs, and Israel Lopez himself are pretty handy at being able to design SQL, and go through our library of queries and show you want you are able to use. We are even able to help your employees or interns understand where the data goes in these programs. We support the queries through a billable retainer, and can ever provide courses and consultations on business intelligence best practices. There are certain things that are best in BI Script, and others that are better in OBDC SQL queries, or Tableau, etc. We are able to advise you on whom your company should use depending on what outcome you need.

At Israel Lopez Consulting, you will find that we’re easy to talk to and always ready to help foster intelligent business solutions. Whether your needs are Information Technology, ERP Implementation, business logistics or custom software solutions, we’ll help maximize your bottom line.

We work with Fishbowl Inventory, QuickBooks and a host of other applications that drive many of today’s modern businesses. Aside from our professional expertise, it is our overall business acumen and quality of service that truly sets us apart from the competition.