What is Business Intelligence and what are its advantages? Find out here.
Before addressing the question: “What is Business Intelligence?”, let’s start with something that might be new to you: Did you know that since the 80s it has been possible to capture and collect data about virtually any object?
The sensor-equipping of tools, machines, processes and organizations has generated an enormous amount of raw data.
Judging by the current boom in the business intelligence industry, however, it is not so easy to decipher this data, separate the wheat from the chaff, and apply the right conclusions to business optimization.
What is Business Intelligence and what is it used for?
A good definition of business intelligence should clarify that it is the entirety of technologies, processes, and activities used to… Data collected, stored and analyzed to transform them into information that provides added value for the company.
Business intelligence is closely linked to the need for companies to have a comprehensive picture of their business, which helps to make better decisions and to manage historical, current and, where possible, future data.
Advantages of Business Intelligence
Formulated in this way, one might think that business intelligence is the domain of computer scientists who spend many hours in front of the computer creating abstract analyses.
In fact, it is a discipline with great potential, as these advantages show:
Information in real time
The past few years have shown that no one can rest on their laurels. Our supply chain, or an entire market, can change rapidly and unpredictably in just a few days. change.
Information is visually presented in the form of tables and graphs with just one click using business intelligence, enabling real-time decision-making.
Automate
One of the most outstanding features of business intelligence is its ability to automate recurring processes in the course of digitalization, allowing users to focus on tasks that actually create added value.
Furthermore, it helps to reduce human error, which can account for almost 30% of the time spent, depending on the industry.
Analysis of customer behavior
Like any other company, your business thrives on satisfying a need. Using BI technology, you can keep track of your customers, identify trends, and discover patterns.
Peak demand, changes in consumer behavior, times with the highest visitor numbers, new routes in large shopping centers – the application possibilities of this discipline are almost unlimited.
Cost savings
Using information gathered through business intelligence methods, you can identify bottlenecks or below-average performance.
Business intelligence allows you to identify where you are losing money due to poor process performance and to take corrective action.
Business Intelligence methods
It’s one thing to be able to collect all kinds of data, and quite another to know which data is relevant and which is not.
In fact, a major challenge for the industry is to train professionals who can classify, structure and present information in an appealing way, in order to help make this discipline an essential business requirement.
You should have the right business intelligence indicators to know what you need to measure. These are also called KPIs and are very industry-specific, but usually located in key business areas such as finance, marketing, customer service, and human resources.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are measurable results that demonstrate a company’s performance in relation to its objectives. You need to identify which aspects of your business you want to analyze and have all the relevant data readily available to define KPIs.
Investing in a powerful business intelligence tool should allow you to calculate your indicators faster, enabling you to make decisions in an agile and effective way.
Types of Business Intelligence Tools
BI tools are software solutions used to collect, process, and analyze large amounts of data from the past, present, and future.
The goal is to generate actionable business information, create interactive reports, and simplify decision-making processes.
These business intelligence platforms integrate important features such as data visualization, visual analytics, pointer areas, and dashboards.
Furthermore, users can utilize self-service features such as predictive analytics and automated reporting – all in a single solution – making the analysis process efficient and easy to understand.
Therefore, there are different types of business intelligence tools, depending on the requirements for data collection and analysis. Here are some tips:
- Reporting tools for report creation
- Tools for online analytical processing (OLAP)
- OLAP analysis: search functions, pivot tables, etc.
- Solutions for displaying information (Executive Information Systems)
- IT applications for decision support systems
- Tools for developing the Balanced Scorecard (BSC)
- Data mining tools
- Knowledge Management Systems (KMS)
Conclusion
Equipping your business with powerful business intelligence tools will allow you to scale your business and beat the competition.
If you don’t know where to start, then… SAP Business Objects is a business intelligence platform designed to create complete reports, analyses, and data visualizations.
It features Office integrations for Excel and PowerPoint, allowing you to create hybrid presentations and analyses connected to your ERP, both on-premises and in the cloud.
Now you can answer the question: What is Business Intelligence? and also know how it helps companies improve processes and results. Are you considering implementing BI tools in your company? Let us advise you without obligation! We offer industry-specific solutions at affordable rates for organizations of all sizes.