This article may be useful if you’re surrounded by data and debating if you need business intelligence. Because they are still determining how or why business intelligence solutions add value, many companies continue to operate with subpar technologies. We’ll examine how BI can benefit your company and when it’s appropriate for you to implement one.
Let’s look at the basics of business intelligence first. Several definitions of BI are available, but no real enigma is associated with it. Business intelligence is just turning your unstructured (raw) data into something useful. It is accomplished through BI software. More useful would be to outline the advantages of business intelligence. Most businesses today know they have access to a “gold mine” of data, including information on consumer transactions, internet user behavior, and financial and HR data.
Leaders may use the nearly limitless information at their disposal to better understand the state of the company, and you can use the data at your disposal to support more informed business decisions.
Imagine having access to a magic crystal ball that could show you what your competitors are planning, provide insight into the industry, and assist you in predicting financial or sales performances. Business intelligence, while not quite a crystal ball, can be used to predict potential future events, supporting your strategic business plan by tying it to current events in the actual world.
In our blog, we have highlighted some of the key benefits of employing a business intelligence solution.
- A greater advantage in the marketplace
- Decreased cost
- Higher revenues
- Improvements in both staff and customer satisfaction
Businesses without large pockets may now benefit from business intelligence. A variety of enterprises can now afford BI solutions thanks to significant improvements in the field and various deployment and license choices.
Let’s explore the five indicators that your company needs a business intelligence solution.
1. There is a ton of data but no actual information.
Sounds perceptible? Data collection is simple since virtually every keystroke leaves a digital trace uploaded to your data repository. But if you’re not benefiting from it, there’s no sense. The distinction between data and information is crucial.
The terms data and information are frequently used synonymously. However, they are distinct when discussing business analytics. Data transformed into a meaningful context from which observers can conclude is referred to as information. If you need more information, you might require assistance gathering and turning data into useful insights. This is when a BI tool’s “intelligence” comes into play. The strength of business intelligence is that it improves your capacity to see patterns and problems, unearth fresh perspectives, and hone operations to achieve company objectives. Data serves as the entry point, but business intelligence holds the key to revealing the value hidden in all that data.
2. KPIs are meant to be presented on a pie chart.
Businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the distinction between reports and KPIs. Even though reports are an essential starting point for any study, KPIs allow you to show the key data that will direct your company decisions.
You will only understand the value of business intelligence if your data provides clear, actionable data or indicates which of your business sectors are succeeding or failing. Your tiny pie chart won’t do if you want the true benefits that business analytics can offer.
3. You detest combining facts from several sources.
Big data in today’s business environment refers to the quantity of data combined from numerous sources into a single coherent location.
You need to work harder and probably only get a small portion of the information you could get by using a BI tool to cross-data sources if you’re still running reports in several systems and trying to make sense of all the links between the data sets. You’ll discover how simple it is to incorporate new data sources into the mix once you successfully use a BI tool to interact with numerous data sources and that there is no end to the smart mash-ups you may create.
4. You are separated from your BI report by IT.
Obtaining reports can be difficult if your IT department has complete control over all company data. Without BI software, it is impossible to create reports, let alone complicated reports or dashboards, necessitating the usage of IT for non-technical users. If you frequently ask your IT department to modify and alter reports, it can create a bottleneck and cause significant delays in finishing the work. This indicates that it is time to make the data available to the business users who will gain from its analysis to achieve their objectives.
Business users can create their reports and be free to add or modify any BI dashboard using any reliable BI tool with a clear, simple UI.
5. You continue to use spreadsheets, but your data is huge.
Companies frequently run into issues when they reach the scalability limit of Excel. When reports contain more data than Excel was intended to manage, it can become slow and become the lifeblood of a company’s reporting requirements. Even if you diligently clean and manage your data sets, it takes little time for data to grow beyond Excel’s capabilities in a developing firm. You will therefore be forced to use isolated desktop spreadsheets that do not support real-time data sharing and updating.
Any data can be quickly and coherently analyzed using a BI tool that can readily combine data from several sources to provide a unified, accurate perspective of the big picture. Simple chores like organizing organizational plans, gathering data from many managers, integrating multiple spreadsheets, and troubleshooting malfunctioning macros and formulas will all become much easier.
Final Thoughts
Every contemporary, data-driven corporation needs some BI tool to assist in transitioning from operating a business based on gut instinct to operating one based on intelligence. It’s time to look at how BI can turn your data into information if you identify any of the pain mentioned above. When you decide to invest in a BI tool, ensure that your company develops a BI strategy, completes a detailed Proof-of-Concept (POC), and selects a solution that meets its present and future demands.