5 Reasons Why You Need Business Intelligence Tools

Business is an important part of any well-functioning economy. It is something that drives most of our daily lives, catering effectively to our various needs. With such manifold uses and several tasks at hand, the business sector needs to keep up with the technological and other such changes of the 21st century.

While setting up a business, one has to be familiar with several business-related terms and activities, mostly dealing with data. There are large chunks of data that need to be dealt with on an everyday basis, requiring modification, storage, retrieval, etc. and often slow down the growth and functioning of a business.

One of the basics of a successfully running business is the presence of business intelligence. Business intelligence, in simple terms, comprises certain strategies, techniques and applications that help to make several business dealings easier. It makes use of several business tools and technologies to handle data, reducing the load of the otherwise menial task.

In short, business intelligence is being intelligent about business. Several old and newly-emerging business and entrepreneurial advents employ business intelligence to effectively analyse and maintain information about the business.

The term Business Intelligence was first introduced back in 1865 by Richard Miller Devens. He made use of the term in his book Cyclopaedia of Commercial and Business Anecdotes to describe a banker whose success was owed to his knowledge and a better understanding of his business environment.

Business Intelligence Tools

Business intelligence tools refer to the various application software that helps us to successfully implement business intelligence. These business intelligence tools help to analyse, modify, retrieve and store large chunks of data, relaying it for use as and when needed.

The business intelligence tools make dealing with businesses easier. They offer better visibility to the business and also help in several important decision-making processes. Here are some examples of the most common and popular business intelligence tools.

• Datapine: Data pine is a multi-functional business intelligence tool that breaks down complex data analysis to be understandable even by the users that are not familiar with such advanced technology.
• MicroStrategy: MicroStrategy is mostly known for its high-speed data analysis and hyper-intelligence. It helps users to recognize and identify trends and improve the productivity of their business.
• Oracle BI: Oracle BI is a complete power pack when it comes to business intelligence tools. It consists of a host of functions like dashboards, data archiving, proactive intelligence, etc. It works best for large chunks of data.
• SAP Business objects: SAP Business Objects is an interactive visually-aided platform that helps in the reporting, analysis and interaction with different kinds of data.
• Tableau: Tableau is an eminent visually-aided platform that mostly deals with the discovery and visualization of data. It helps to visualize, analyse and share data without taking any help from the IT people.

Business intelligence Advantages

Business intelligence tools are the driving force of any business or other such entrepreneurial onset. It is what makes up for the speed and productivity of the business while making sure that every component of it remains intact.

Here, we have discussed 5 reasons that briefly outline the need for business intelligence tools.

1. Increased Productivity: Any business has to deal with data, no matter big or small. This dealing with data often slows down various businesses, slacking them down in terms of productivity. One of the most important business intelligence advantages is that it makes dealing with data a lot easier, as everything can be automated with business intelligence tools. This saves a lot of time for the organizations and thus, increases the overall productivity of the workspace.
2. Improved Decision Making: In any business or other such entrepreneurial advances, the industry leaders often need to take certain decisions that can be crucial to the growth of the company. One can make use of various business intelligence tools to identify the recent and historical trends of the clients, compare their relationship to consumers and other such important calculations. Similarly, business intelligence aids in other crucial decisions regarding the increase in accountability of the business, catering to the consumers’ needs and so on.
3. Elevating Client Experience: Business intelligence helps to attain knowledge of the business environment. It makes connecting with clients easier while helping businesses to understand the client better through various business intelligence tools. Several business intelligence tools can be used to identify the needs of the clients and recognize their interests and other such relevant and useful information. This helps the business to stand true to the clients’ expectations.
4. Ensuring Security of Data: Before the advent of technology and digitalisation, heaps and heaps of files were stored in offices and organizations that contained the data regarding the business as well as the clients. In such a situation, dealing with data was very difficult as most of it would get destroyed by weather or eaten up by ants or mice. With business intelligence, data can now be stored in technological platforms. This makes sorting and storage of data easier while ensuring that the data remains safely encrypted on digital devices and platforms.
5. Keeping up with Changing Trends: Society is constantly changing, so are the markets and the needs and demands of the same. Constantly staying informed regarding the needs of the market helps a business or entrepreneurial advent stay relevant. With this relevance, they can successfully cater to the current needs of the market and thus, experience a boost in the business. The business intelligence tools also help to compare the past and present sales of the company, identifying the times when the business did best. With this data at hand and some hard work, a business can successfully soar high.

Thus, business intelligence tools are the need of the hour.