12 Reasons Why Business Intelligence Is Vital for Your Business
Business intelligence
is the process of using technology and strategies to analyze large volumes of
data and come up with data-driven insights to make better business decisions.
Historical data, real-time data, and predictive data are combined to find
patterns in market trends and customer preferences. This helps enterprises in
staying ahead of competitors and capture markets to improve sales and profits.
Business
Intelligence in 2022 is no different.
In a world where
technology is an inherent part of our lives, not investing in the latest
software solutions such as artificial intelligence and machine learning would
be a disadvantage for enterprises.
BI can either be
in-house or outsourced. However, taking the assistance of a business
intelligence services company will provide a broader and more accurate insight
into their own business processes and improve their decision-making skills.
With the Covid-19
pandemic wreaking havoc on world economics, it has become even more important
for enterprises to avoid losses and reestablish their businesses in the market.
What else other than business intelligence can help achieve their goals?
Make the most of BI
Consulting services by adopting business intelligence strategies in a smarter
way to enhance the business processes and gain a competitive edge over others
in the global market.
What are the Stages
of Business Intelligence?
Business
intelligence has four stages, which together are called BI processes and are
used to manage data in an enterprise.
Gathering Data
The first stage of
business intelligence is to collect the required data from various sources and
store it in a centralized location/ database. Existing data and new information
from internal and external sources are gathered for cleaning, formatting, and
processing.
Data can be
structured, semi-structured, or unstructured. Information from social media
platforms, emails, testimonials, competitors’ websites, feedback surveys,
polls, etc., is used for business intelligence purposes.
Data Analysis
Data analysis is
the second and vital stage of BI. The collected data is processed and then
converted into actionable insights and predictions in this stage. Raw data is
of little use if it cannot be analyzed to help enterprises with
decision-making.
Data analysis is
generally categorized as follows:
Spreadsheet
Analysis: It uses spreadsheets like MS Excel and Power BI to analyze data.
Software-based
Analysis: AI-based software like SAP BI, QlikView, etc., are used to collect
data automatically and process it to derive insights.
Data Visualization:
Tools like Tableau are used to process big data and present the insights in
graphical and pictorial formats.
Generating Reports
The information
derived from analyzing data should be converted to reports that the employees
can easily understand. Though reporting is the third stage of BI, it is
considered an extension of data analysis. Data visualization software like
Power BI and Tableau are commonly used to generate reports.
Monitoring
Business intelligence
is a continuous process. Monitoring is the last stage of BI, where the entire
process is monitored in real-time. This helps identify KPIs and measure results
to determine if you are meeting your goals or not.
Data is all around
us – Use it
Business intelligence
is majorly about how enterprises manage their data to get accurate insights
from it. But where does this data come from? It is everywhere around us.
However, knowing which data to consider and how to process it is crucial if
enterprises want to effectively improve their business processes.
From accounts to
sales to inventory to customer relationship management and real-time data on
the internet and social media, every piece of information has to be collected
and moved to the Data Warehouse for processing and analytics. The more data an
enterprise can add to the warehouse, the more chances to gain in-depth
insights.
A predictive report
that considers various factors can help the management in making the right
decision and grab market opportunities before others can.
Tracking KPIs More
Often
Every enterprise
has a set of key performance indicators against which it measures how the
business is doing. The analysis was usually done once every quarter to make the
required changes to the business strategy and realign the processes with the
goals.
But is that enough
in the current scenario? Maybe not. Survival has become rather important for
many businesses due to the pandemic. Enterprises need to compare and analyze
the business performance with the KPIs on a weekly or a daily basis.
A business
intelligence consultant can help enterprises achieve sync between what’s
required and what’s being delivered. The margin for error needs to be close to
zero.
Investing in
advanced tools such as AI-based software and machine learning algorithms will
make it easy for enterprises to run the comparative analysis in less time and
adjust the business strategies to the minute level.
Intuitive Data
Designing
Business
intelligence is a time-consuming and effort-intensive process. Identifying and
processing data hidden in various folders and documents is not as easy as it
sounds. That said, it is possible to create an interactive dashboard where the
employees can find everything they are looking for.
A smarter way to
make the most of business intelligence would be to have processed data and
insights at your fingertips. One way to make this come out is by having
everything on the dashboard. Instead of asking the employees to gather insights
from various systems and software tools, bring it all together on one screen.
Arrange this data
in a neat and user-friendly layout. Let the changes be updated in real-time so
that employees will not end up working with outdated data. In today’s world,
data from the morning gets outdated by noon.
Having a Smart
Strategy in Place
This might seem
like a no-brainer. After all, which enterprise would be stupid enough to not
have a proper strategy? That’s where quite a lot of businesses go wrong. The
strategies to run a business and the strategy for business intelligence are not
the same.
We will need to
know why we are investing in BI and what you want from it. Unless we know what
kind of reports we want the software to generate, how will we work on data
analytics? Imagine spending days processing data and creating reports. And if
the top management were to say that the reports are of little or no use,
wouldn’t it be a loss for the enterprise?
Set the parameters
for data analytics. And to choose the right parameters, one needs to know what
to consider and how to consider them. This strategy will decide the success of
business intelligence solutions in the enterprise.
Exporting and
Sharing Data Insights
BI tools are
fantastic. There’s no doubt about it. But how many employees can actually
understand a report generated by the BI tool? Only the trained employees and BI
specialists are capable of it. Wouldn’t it help an enterprise if the BI report
can be simpler? When a majority of employees can read and understand the
report, it will make things easier for them and their teams.
Business
intelligence consulting services offered by the leading service providers are
now focused on improving communication between the BI tools and employees. The
focus has shifted to creating better BI solutions so that the data-driven
insights can be exported in easy-to-understand files and shared with
non-specialist employees in the enterprise. By empowering more employees to
become better decision-makers, the enterprise can increase the quality of the
workforce.
Clarity of Ideas
and Requirements
We’ve already
talked about the importance of a smart strategy to make the most of BI.
Similarly, clarity in ideas and customer requirements is also essential if
enterprises want to generate the right kind of reports. To put it simply, a
wrong input will naturally give the wrong output.
For example, if a
business conducts a survey about a product to know whether customers will like
it or not, the questions in the survey form should be specific to the product.
But even before that, the enterprise should know who the target audiences are.
One reason many BI solutions don’t deliver results is the lack of understanding
of the core concepts.
The Advantage of
Using a Common Business Language
The
language/terminology used by experts would be different from the one used by a
layman. The HR team may not know what an IT developer means by certain terms
and vice versa. The reports generated by each department have specific
terminology related that is hard for others to follow.
Quite a lot of time
is wasted on translating and explaining the meanings of these terms to help
employees understand the context.
Now, if an
enterprise can create its own dictionary, or better yet, ask the business
intelligence consultants to use the terms that are common and familiar among
the employees, would it become easier for everyone? Would it enable employees
to understand better? Would it not reduce the risk of miscommunication? And
when all such risks are eliminated, the solutions offered by BI can be implemented
to the dot.
Changing Needs of
an Expanding Business
What worked for a
business a few years ago wouldn’t serve the purpose in the present times. The
business has grown, the employees have doubled, and the systems are outdated.
Constantly investing in IT infrastructure is the biggest concern for
enterprises. Is there a way to find a way around this?
Well, cloud
migration is one solution that has managed to take the world by storm. We see
that many enterprises (small, medium, and large) have migrated to cloud
services. The IT infrastructure is managed on the cloud. Employees are
encouraged to use personal devices at work. Working from home has become
synonymous with the year 2020, thanks to the pandemic.
Investing in
flexible and scalable business solutions can help enterprises gain accurate
insights from BI tools. Managing data on the cloud is definitely easier because
of the software tools available for it.
Build Brand Image –
Benchmarking Standards
Every enterprise
aims to go higher than its current position in the market. Benchmarking quality
standards is one way to ensure that the employees do not compromise on quality.
Similarly, building a brand image in the market is crucial if an enterprise
wants to compete with other businesses.
Since most of the
business intelligence tools are integrated with social media platforms,
enterprises have the chance to collect data in real-time from customers,
followers, prospective leads, competitors’ customers, and more. Using this data
will not only help in improved data analytics but will also show enterprises
what the public thinks about the business. Working on building a brand image
becomes easier. The enterprise just needs to provide what the customers expect
from the business.
Data Protection and
Security
Business
intelligence can also be used as a data protection tool. The leading business
intelligence consulting companies use tools with advanced data security
features. The data in the Data Warehouse is precious and confidential. With
cybercriminals working round the clock to target enterprises and hack into
their systems, not taking the necessary steps for data protection can be a
disaster for an enterprise.
Include BI tools as
a part of the security protocol in the enterprise. Keep data safe from online
threats and attacks at any given point in time. Provide restricted access to
employees. The multiple security features will let employees filter data based
on various parameters.
The BI tools also
prevent access to the entire database for every employee. Confidential
information is available for mid to high-level employees, depending on their
job.
Dynamic Data and
Employee Productivity
Automated and
customer-centric data insights can change the way employees think about their
job. When the BI tools present fully-processed information with a detailed list
about what to do and what not to do, employees will find it easy to manage
their work. It’s no secret that all employees are not equally efficient or
capable of making the right decisions.
If the BI tool can
do it on their behalf, the employees will directly implement the steps. This
makes them more productive at work. Data visualization can boost employee
confidence and make them take up challenging jobs.
It doesn’t have to
stop here either. The same business intelligence tools can also be used to
collect, store, and measure employee performance details. This will help the HR
department to manage the gaps in the talent pool.
Cost-effective
Investment Opportunities
One of the main
reasons to use BI consulting services is to know where to invest and how much
to invest. Enterprises are always looking forward to ways to cut down costs.
But not compromising on quality when doing so is a bigger challenge. Business
intelligence tools generate reports that help understand the investments,
expenses, and returns of the enterprise.
When enterprises
can find ways to save money by managing inventory and avoiding additional costs
or late payment fees, it creates a healthy financial system in the business.
The business intelligence tools let enterprises identify such areas and make
the necessary changes to their business process.
An effective
business system is one that requires minimum investment and delivers optimal
results. This increases the efficiency of the business and also improves the
return on investment in the long term.
Conclusion
Business
intelligence can help enterprises revamp their business processes and come up
with advanced and error-free systems to improve the overall efficiency of the
business. We live in a world where even the smallest of mistakes could cause
multifold losses to an enterprise.
Our current
scenario doesn’t allow enterprises the luxury of making such mistakes and
learning from them.
Consult a reputed business intelligence company
and get in-depth insights to enhance the processes and services of the
business. Use the BI tools wisely and get more than just reports about customer
preferences and purchases. Process data in real-time and let the data-driven
insights help in making better decisions.