Overview

Business intelligence tools are helpful for companies to stay competitive and maximize revenue streams. Organizations at every size and stage use BI software to analyze, manage, and visualize business data.

Every business has its quirks and the right business intelligence (BI) software typically takes these quirks into account and offers a complete, customized solution. One of the main functions of business intelligence software is data analytics and the type of analysis a company needs depends on their goals.

Data analytics can help companies describe their businesses, look at reasons why positive or negative things have happened, generate information they may not have, and advise on possible action plans to take. Business intelligence tools can help companies perform these types of analyses, monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), and generate accurate reports. When analysts use these tools to communicate their findings to stakeholders, they can turn their insights into action.

Why Is Business Intelligence So Important?

In today’s data-driven world, companies are facing information overload and companies who are interested in working smarter, are investing in ways to control and understand this information. The era of big data is upon us. In fact, we are producing so much data that 90% of the data out there has been collected in the past few years. Although adopting new technology may seem like a daunting task, BI software usually has a good pin today’s data-driven world, companies are facing information overload and companies who are interested in working smarter, are investing in ways to control and understand this information. The era of big data is upon us. In fact, we are producing so much data that 90% of the data out there has been collected in the past few years. Although adopting new technology may seem like a daunting task, BI software usually has a good pay off even if the benefits aren’t seen immediately.

Business Intelligence helps companies monitor trends, adapt to varying market conditions, and improves decision making at all levels of the organization. The BI tools a company uses depends on their goals. Some companies are interested in gaining insights into consumer buying, other companies are interested in improving employee productivity or seeing who the best performers are. There are an infinite number of ways companies can deploy a business intelligence solution. Here are just ten ways business intelligence can improve businesses.

Business Intelligence

VS

Business Analytics

Folks tend to disagree on the differences between business intelligence and business analytics. The reason why no one can agree? Business intelligence and business analytics, or BA, are also very similar and are connected. Some folks believe the main difference comes down to time: business intelligence helps in the day-to-day operations and how things look in the present, whereas business analytics helps business planning for the future, such as using predictive analytics to figure out why things are happening and how things will look in the future.

Individuals that handle business analytics, typically have a background in mathematics or statistics or an x. Business intelligence experts should also be good with numbers and have an analytical mind.

The Benefits of Business Intelligence Software’s

Valuable business insights

Businesses can gauge employee productivity, revenue, overall success as well as department-specific performances. It can uncover strengths and weaknesses since BI tools help organizations understand what’s working and what isn’t. Setting up alerts is easy and can help track these metrics and help busy executives stay on top of the KPIs that matter the most to their business.

Competitive analysis

The ability to manage and manipulate a large amount of data is a competitive edge in itself. Furthermore, budgeting, planning, and forecasting is an incredibly powerful way to stay ahead of the competition, goes way beyond standard analysis, and is also easy to perform with BI software. Businesses can also track their competitor’s sales and marketing performance and learn how to differentiate products and services.

Identifying market trends

Identifying new opportunities and building out a strategy with supportive data can give businesses a competitive edge, directly impact long-term profitability, and gives the full scope of what is happening. Employees can leverage external market data with internal data to detect new sales trends by analyzing customer data and market conditions, as well as spotting business problems.

Increased operational efficiency

BI tools unify multiple data sources, which help with a business’s overall organization so that managers and employees spend less time tracking down information and can focus on producing accurate and timely reports. Armed with up to date and accurate information, employees can focus on their short and long term goals and analyze the impact of their decisions.

Improved, accurate decisions

Competitors move quickly and it’s important for companies to make decisions as quickly as possible. Failure to issues with accuracy and speed could lead to lost customers and revenue. Organizations can leverage existing data to deliver information to the right stakeholders at the right time, optimizing time-to-decision.

Fast and accurate reporting

Employees can use templates or customized reports to monitor KPIs using a variety of data sources, including financial, operations, and sales data. These reports are generated in real time and use the most relevant data so businesses can act quickly. Most reports include easy to read visualizations, such as graphs, tables, and charts. Some BI software reports are interactive so that users can play with different variables or access information even faster.