Gain a competitive edge with insights from business intelligence tools to accelerate and enhance business decisions, identify critical problems, identify market trends, and find new revenue streams while discovering new business opportunities.
It is a well-known fact that nowadays, all tech-driven companies routinely assemble a massive volume of data that flows in from their enterprise resource planning software, supply chain, and many other internal and external sources. In order to benefit from these big datasets and engage them in the data-driven decision-making process, modern companies need, as never before, a business intelligence system.
Another well-known fact – business intelligence plays a critical role in boosting revenues. So, how is business intelligence different from the other tools related to analytics and data mining? In this article, we would like to help demystify all the concerns about business intelligence and analytics. Are you in?
Business Intelligence: A Fancy Trend or a Clear Road for the Business Development?
Of course, there is a myriad of emerging tools that enable companies to extract relevant data, gain better insights, and generate a competitive advantage. Business intelligence tool is widely used enterprise-wide to gather and process necessary data to plan, manage, and streamline their performance. To help understand the concept and function of business intelligence, it’s critically important to find out its role within the management lifecycle.
Companies, despite the industry, stick to business intelligence to boost and enhance decision-making, streamline the business workflow, and definitely, increase revenue streams. As a result, business intelligence helps companies reach a competitive edge over their rivals through the opportunity to identify market and consumer trends more efficiently. And what’s more important – to identify and address business issues before they get out of hand. One may come across the term of “business intelligence” being interchanged with business analytics, as well as business analytics term used in a more narrow understanding to cite advanced data analytics.
Why You Should Care
In the ever-changing business environment, all companies, including large, medium, and small-sized businesses, widely leverage business intelligence to gain a competitive advantage in the market. And this is clear, right? Besides, there are many business intelligence services that secure designing, developing, and deploying enterprise processes while integrating and managing the related technology applications and platforms. At the same time, Forbes highlights that the failure rate for business implementations is up to 80%, while the huge market size and growth rate of the business intelligence market is estimated at $24B. Business intelligence plays a pivotal role in improving corporate strategies, tactics, and internal operations. Below you can find a few examples to consider:
Retail and e-Commerce: One can’t deny that it would be best for Retail Managers to equip themselves with precise information assets to launch and navigate profitability and cost management in the modern realities of social media and smartphone usage.
Manufacturing and Production: Do you agree that high demand and supply metrics are critical for manufacturers to address emerging market changes and revamp their product strategies? Definitely, it is true.
Healthcare and Social Assistance: Business intelligence is instrumental when securing qualitative service to patients by carefully monitoring multiple key performance indicators with always precise and accurate data.
Financial Services: Have you ever wondered why leading banks, credit unions, and brokers proactively take on business intelligence tools to reach high customer satisfaction and loyalty? It is obviously due to a dynamic market, changing client demands, and savage competition.
It is clear without saying that small organizations successfully operate with the help of spreadsheets only. However, when growing and developing, the amount of data grows. It means the executives should cope with all new products, trend services, new markets, investments, sales, marketing, and promotion to accelerate business growth. As a result, more employees should be engaged in data collection and analysis.
Business Intelligence Tools: What to Consider?
Many business intelligence tools are used to help a company assess its business processes, improve performance, and follow new market trends. The most important are:
- Reporting: This tool manages information in an electronic report format to facilitate finance-associated planning, budgeting, strategizing, and performance management processes. The reporting tools range from basic report generators to holistic reporting software built into corporate resource planning suites.
- Query: This tool handles general queries while guided systems forecast user aims and make efficient recommendations based on the finding. With this tool, it is easy to streamline the analytics process and get greater results more rapidly.
- Advanced Analytics: It employs predictive analytics to analyze current and historical data and predict future events effectively. This function is the basis for business intelligence with its understanding of the market regarding the competitors.
Real Impact
Senior leadership, with all CFOs and CMOs, appear to be the key users of business intelligence, not to mention business analysts, marketing specialists, and finance professionals. Given the invaluable insights provided by the business intelligence that outlines the efficiency of business strategies, changing quarterly results, and possible reasons, the growing number of executives stick to adopting business intelligence tools.
Business intelligence becomes a significant advantage for most companies, as all business owners naturally seek to use information in more profitable ways, as well as mitigate operational risks and minimize costs. A well-designed business intelligence environment secures a robust foundation for business process optimization and redesign, smooth performance management, and agile marketing.
About the author:
Janet Polson is a graduate of George Washington University in International business. She is an unspoken expert in the study of science and philosophy. Janet is also a blogger, author of tech articles and she works as business analyst at Computools.