In recent years, it seems like everyone in the worlds of business, finance, tech, sports, and government have been talking about big data, data analytics, advanced analytics—as they say, a rose by any other name, right? The chances are that you’ve heard of at least one of those terms. However, if you’re reading this article, it’s also likely that your business isn’t using analytics—or at least not to its fullest capabilities.
Another of the many names for big data, at least in the business world, is business intelligence, and as the name suggests, it’s big data for businesses. Business intelligence (BI) is an umbrella term for a wide range of big data tools, strategies, and other solutions, and it’s something your company needs if you want to keep up with the ever-changing business world. Continue reading to learn several more reasons your company needs BI solutions.
Business intelligence can help improve business processes.
The basic goal of business is to make more money from your products and services than you spend providing them. The problem for many businesses is they have to spend money all over the place to break even. Business intelligence solutions include tools that provide business users with actionable insights into business processes, enabling them to improve efficiency and grow their bottom line.
BI tools provide actionable insights for making better business decisions.
Another function of business intelligence systems is providing business leaders with the insights they need to make critical business decisions. Data visualization enables data scientists to convert raw data into graphs and other materials, making data analysis simpler for business users. Data visualization allows business users and other stakeholders to see data in clean and digestible visuals so they can make quicker and better decisions.
Business analytics can provide metrics for employee productivity.
Another common use for BI systems is workforce management. Some BI platforms enable supervisors and other business users to monitor employee productivity and provide interactive reports for employee evaluations. These tools enable leaders and team members to identify an employee’s strengths to place them in the best position to succeed. Fleet telematics is a great example of workforce management tools. Fleet managers use telematics solutions to monitor driver behavior, including how much pressure they apply to their brakes, how fast they turn corners, and their average traveling speed.
BI solutions can provide valuable insight into customer behavior and preferences.
One of the most valuable uses for data analytics is gaining insight into customer behavior. Have you ever thought about how easy it would be to run a successful business if only you could read your customers’ minds? Okay, maybe you’ve never had that thought before, but you’re certainly thinking it now. We’re not saying BI tools will enable you to read minds, but it does allow you to learn a lot about customers based on their historical data, enabling you to create unique customer experiences.
Data analytics can make predictions about future events.
Predictive analytics might be the most exciting field in big data because it has countless applications. As the name suggests, predictive analytics gives decision-makers insight into future events, enabling them to implement changes to adjust to future trends.
Your company’s business data is its most valuable resource, so it’d be a shame not to capitalize on it merely because you don’t understand it. After all, that’s what data analytics is for—to help your decision-makers make sense of the massive amounts of data your company already creates and consumes. The right business intelligence tools and strategy can help your company refine its best practices, create more effective marketing campaigns, build better customer relationships, prevent equipment failure, and much more. Instead of wondering why you need BI solutions, you should be wondering how you’ve lasted so long without them.
