Business Intelligence or BI processes help in organizing data and thereby make the process of accessing and analyzing it much easier. As a business owner, you can use this technology to gather all the information you need for making crucial business decisions quickly.
The good news is that BI systems do much more than just allowing people to make more informed and effective decisions. The benefits offered by the technology will be more wide-ranging if you use any of the tools discussed in this Datapine blog post. Read on to know about some of the most prominent advantages of using BI systems.
Benefits of Business Intelligence
Intuitive Dashboards Enable Fast Analysis: You can use the intuitive dashboards of BI tools to carry out heavy-duty data processing either on your company’s server or on a cloud platform. These tools work by extracting relevant data from numerous sources and store them in their data warehouse. The stored data undergoes thorough analyses based on drag-n-drop reports, user queries, etc.
Many top companies have started to use business intelligence for increasing their productivity and coming up with more effective solutions for customers. One big name in that list is that of Lenovo (News - Alert). Their reporting efficiency has increased by as much as 95% after implementing BI technology. Lenovo’s HR department has successfully condensed multiple monthly reports into one snapshot dashboard.
PepsiCo, on the other hand, has managed to decrease its analysis time by as much as 90% by using BI tools.
All these confirm that BI dashboards have made data analysis more intuitive and easier. Thanks to this ability of BI, even non-technical users can now narrate stories using data despite not knowing anything about coding.
Increases Organizational Efficiency: When using BI, you will have constant access to useful data related to your business. In other words, you’ll have an all-inclusive view of your company’s operations. This, in turn, will allow you to benchmark the results against that of the bigger organization. You’ll spot opportunities more easily and grabbing them would allow your business to grow further.
Pfizer, one of the most revered pharmaceutical companies in the world, used business intelligence tools for collaboration between departments. BI has allowed the company to come up with models that optimize the diagnosis process. Additionally, BI has also helped Pfizer to find better and faster ways of performing clinical trials.
PEMCO, one of the biggest names in the insurance industry, uses BI tools for managing and closing claims faster.
By reducing the time required for analyzing and creating reports, business intelligence allows businesses to use available data for coming up with new products, services, and programs.
Allows Users to Take Data-backed Business Decisions: The days of waiting for reports for weeks are over. With BI, you’ll never need to worry about using outdated data. When you’ll have access to accurate data and boast the ability to report faster, you’ll automatically make more effective business decisions.
The famous beer brewing company MillerCoors customized its mobile dashboards to allow the company’s sales team to view sales forecasts and real-time data before they meet potential clients. This allows the sales executives to discuss those prospects’ or clients’ requirements confidently.
Improves Customer Experience: Using business intelligence will allow you to offer a better customer experience. Verizon (News - Alert) Communication, the topmost American telecommunications company, has implemented BI systems in many of its departments. They have created over 1,500 dashboards using the BI systems and successfully increased the efficiency of the company’s staff.
The said dashboards use text data derived from chat sessions with the customer support team and data extracted from various operations for identifying opportunities for improving customer service. Implementation of the technology has allowed the telecommunications giant to decrease support calls by as much as 43%.
Increases Employee Satisfaction: Departments that earlier struggled to get hold of their own operational data without seeking assistance from IT experts or analysts can now carry out data analysis on their own. All they would need to do the analysis is a few days of training.
Business intelligence tools are scalable. So, anyone who needs data can quickly learn using the tools and make them a part of their life.
You’ll Get Governed and Trusted Data: Business intelligence enables more efficient data organization and data analysis. Traditional methods of data analysis required users to have access to multiple databases for analyzing data belonging to different departments.
BI tools work differently. They combine all the internal databases of a company with various external sources of data (examples include social media data, customer data, etc.) to form a single data warehouse. This allows multiple departments to use the same data simultaneously.
Tinuiti, the famous marketing agency, has utilized this ability of BI effectively. They have used BI technology for centralizing more than a hundred data sources. This ensures that their clients don’t need to spend hours analyzing data.
A Few Things to Remember Before Using BI Tools
You may face certain issues when trying to implement BI in your business operations. So, you must draft strategies and roadmaps and allot resources before you invest in these tools. Indeed, if you pick the right BI tools, your job will become a lot easier. However, still, having the right kind of preparation is a must for making the most of this ground-breaking technology.
As a business owner, you should treat the process of implementing a new enterprise system exactly like a client project. This means for the new system to show you desired results, you’ll have to understand it to the core and put in maximum time and effort to use it effectively.
You may need to wait for several months before your BI systems offer a measurable return on investment. However, once they start working, you’ll understand that the wait was for the right reasons.
Conclusion
If you use business intelligence tools in the right manner, you’ll experience a series of benefits. You’ll not only be able to satisfy your customers but will also see a rise in your profits.
