Business intelligence makes up all the infrastructure, tools, and best practices that organizations use to access and analyze information relevant to their business and use it to make more informed decisions or improve business processes. Business intelligence reporting, or BI reporting, then, is the process of using software solutions to actually gather and analyze the data to attain insights. A BI report might be anything from a competitive analysis to a financial report on the organization’s industry as a whole.
Similar to other kinds of research, business intelligence may be gathered from primary or secondary sources. A primary source refers to information the business collects itself, such as customer data or product development reports. Secondary source research is insights gained from outside sources like a financial journal or information pulled from a data-driven marketing system. Both approaches can be extremely useful for different purposes. Here are some of the best ways decision-makers can use BI reporting to gain actionable insights and use them to reach business goals and provide better experiences for employees and customers.
Expedite data gathering and analysis
If you’re still gathering business data manually, rather than relying on business intelligence tools to speed up a business intelligence report, then you’re looking at a highly time-consuming process that’s going to keep managers and stakeholders waiting as your IT and software development departments painstakingly scour every data set. So, before you select a Business Intelligence software, find out what your company needs.
One of the greatest advantages of a business intelligence and analytics platform is that it can centralize all your data sources in a single dashboard that can pull real-time data for immediate analysis. Pulling from big data sources can easily bring your workflow to a halt if the process isn’t automated, but with modern business reporting tools, you won’t have to worry about it.
Create visualizations for easy understanding
Automated BI tools don’t just gather data from a variety of sources for end users—they can also format it into visualizations for presentations to stakeholders, business owners, and supervisors. Automated analytics are great, but aside from data scientists, most people won’t be able to parse big data on its own. This is why modern tools help business users present business analytics data in graphs, charts, and maps for easy readability to help encourage better decisions.
A simple example could involve you running a salon chain. You may be trying to upgrade the pedicure chair at all of your locations. You can conduct business research into all the pedicure chairs and manicure tables sold in your area as well as their manufacturers and suppliers. This business information can then go through the data visualization process and be presented as a graph detailing costs, shipping lead time, and other important factors. You can then make a strategic business decision as to which items fit the most of your needs at your salons and pedicure spas.
Identify hidden trends to improve business operations
Traditional reporting methods make it difficult to comprehend the sheer amount of data being presented, much less how to make sense of it all for a useful purpose. Fortunately, modern machine learning techniques make it possible for automated systems to combine both historical data and current data to discover patterns in both sets. This lends itself easily to predictive analysis from the dataset, a crucial element to be able to cater to what is coming in the future. The clearer an idea a business has about what trends will likely appear, the better prepared it can be. This is why predictive analytics implementation has become so important in a world where popularity can be influenced in a matter of days, and what was once a leading idea can quickly become worthless. Drawing predictions from data presents a number of BI applications, one of the most important of which is predicting customer behavior.
With historical data, you can see how customer behavior has been influenced and changed in the past, and combining this with current, real-time data can help you predict future needs and trends. Experts can further examine the information to generate a more comprehensive data valuation report. Such a method helped big companies identify the secrets for improved customer experience and more defined strategies. This is extremely helpful for product development, as you’ll be able to build the products customers will want next and stay ahead of the competition. Real-time capabilities also ensure that your data is consistently accurate and current, enabling you to monetize it in the best ways possible.
