Big data promises to give businesses a significant competitive edge. Collecting, processing and analyzing data provides businesses with a detailed picture of what’s going on in their business, target market and industry so they can respond proactively and stay ahead of the curve.
However, data isn’t particularly useful unless it takes the form of actionable insights. That’s the purpose of business intelligence (BI), garnering applicable insights from data that can reliably inform business decisions. Business intelligence software has been developed to help even non-techy business owners retrieve insights from data and transform them into elevated business analytics reports.
Types of Business Intelligence Tools
Data analytics takes lots of different forms so there are multiple types of business intelligence tools to fulfill various needs and purposes. The main ones are listed below.
Spreadsheets
It’s software that turns data into enhanced BI reporting in the form of tables, graphs and other representations of calculations.
Digital Dashboards
Analytics software tends to have a BI dashboard as a central hub that uses charts and graphs to visualize data for business intelligence at a glance.
Corporate Management Software
Data analytics is embedded in various types of platforms such as corporate management software that is used to monitor and optimize business operations through data collection, analysis and strategy.
Data Visualization Tools
There are BI tools designed specifically for data visualization to fast-track the process from datasets to interpretable insights.
Reporting and Querying Software
Reporting and querying software is used to efficiently sort and extract data from data warehouses for immediate insights and presentation in business intelligence reports.
OLAP Tools
Online analytical processing (OLAP) is a higher level business intelligence process that analyzes datasets from multiple angles and perspectives.
Is SQL a Business Intelligence Tool?
Yes Structured Query Language (SQL) is a BI tool because it’s a data analysis language that enables many of the processes needed for business intelligence reporting such as data discovery.
Is Excel a Business Tool?
Yes, as a spreadsheet software Excel is considered a BI tool even though it was around long before business intelligence has been a hot topic. It processes inputted data to produce insights that would be useful to a business.
5 Benefits Of Using Business Intelligence Tools
So, what positive business outcomes can be derived from ordinary business owners using BI tools in their normal operations?
Informed decision-making
It’s much better for businesses to base their decisions on data instead of guesswork or speculation. Business intelligence platforms that turn real time data into actionable insights enable business owners to make suitable decisions considering the current state (and with predictive analytics, the future state) of their business, customer base and market to not miss out on opportunities to make or save money.
Customer experience optimization
Business intelligence reporting can also be used to build a greater understanding of the customer experience. BI tools can collect data and generate reports on customer satisfaction and behavior that inform the optimization of key customer touchpoints. For example, a follow-up email that recommends a specific product to a customer who has already purchased a certain product because that is a popular next purchase according to analysis of purchase history data.
Enhanced employee outcomes
With business intelligence software, you can monitor employee satisfaction and behavior just like you would with customers to identify where in the employee experience improvements can be made. With the accessibility and simplicity of business intelligence platforms, you can also give employees access to self service business intelligence tools that help them track their progress towards KPIs for increased engagement and motivation.
Market and industry analysis
Reporting tools aren’t limited to producing business analytics. BI reporting also covers market and industry analysis. Predictive analytics forecast what is to come in a market or industry. Prescriptive analytics are designed to find solutions that prepare a business to weather changes while minimizing disruption and maximizing new opportunities. This type of business intelligence gets you ahead of competitors.
Driver of efficiency and productivity
With the availability of real time data, we’d like to have business intelligence reports as soon as possible so decisions can be made and interventions implemented sooner rather than later. The best way to do that is to step away from manual data processing and utilize business intelligence software. Not only does this speed up the process, it frees up employees to focus on high-value tasks such as developing products for new opportunities identified by BI.
What Are The 4 Concepts of Business Intelligence?
When looking to invest in business intelligence software to take advantage of widespread data availability and advanced data analysis, look for an analytics platform that aligns with these 4 concepts.
Data collection
The usefulness of business intelligence relies on establishing a steady stream of relevant real time data from various internal and external data sources. You can set up BI tools to manage data collection automatically.
Data analysis
Next, you need BI tools that interpret the data to find trends, predictions, opportunities and other insights that provide greater business intelligence.
Data visualization
Once insights have been drawn from the data, it needs to be represented in an easy-to-understand way. Good reporting tools enable you to use data visualization to turn insights into charts and graphs which are collated on relevant dashboards.
Data-driven decision-making
Finally, the data has been processed to the point where conclusions can be drawn and decisions made based on the insights gathered.
Top 10 Business Intelligence Tools of 2024
With all that in mind, it’s time to choose your infrastructure for business intelligence. There are a lot of options on the market. Here are some of the most popular.
SAP
The fact that SAP offers enterprise-level business intelligence tools is both a pro and a con. Its capabilities are advanced such as granular customization, widespread integration, and effortless data flow from multiple sources. This higher level BI can make it more complicated to use for non-experts.
Datapine
This business intelligence platform takes a self service approach while maintaining high level business analytics. Users can build dashboards that suit their business intelligence needs. However, consider your knowledge level because some users have reported a steep learning curve with Datapine due to insufficient tutorial materials.
MicroStrategy
Boasting high-speed dashboarding and hyperintelligence with a focus on cloud solutions, MicroStrategy is an attractive option for a BI platform. However, setup is a hurdle that necessitates extensive platform knowledge or third-party support according to some users.
Yellowfin BI
Yellowfin is presented as an end-to-end analytics platform. Its capabilities include machine learning, intuitive filtering and low-code/no-code visualization. However, it’s not perfect. Users have requested improvements such as a cloud-based version, streamlining the Google Analytics connection, and fast-tracking data extraction.
QlikSense
Qlik’s business intelligence platform is definitely focused on the evolution of tech. The user interface is optimized for touchscreen devices making it perfect for users on the go. It also utilizes AI and the cloud. You can even use Search & Conversational Analytics to ask questions. Although it has been said that software familiarity or training is needed to complete complex tasks.
Zoho Analytics
It has great customization features for creating reports and dashboards personalized to your business intelligence needs. When sharing reports with team members, it has a native commenting section which eases the collaboration process. However, maximizing its capabilities can be a learning curve because the assistance videos have been criticized by some users.
Sisense
Sisense is a highly rated business intelligence platform. It’s regarded as a BI tool that can be used organization-wide to reduce bottlenecks in the flow of business intelligence. It’s also very speedy due to the in-chip technology Sisense has developed to manage large datasets. Its main downfall is that its user-friendly nature means that it’s not as easy to customize.
Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is a web-based business intelligence platform that is known for excellent data visualization that enables the identification of trends in real time and implements them into dashboards and reports. That being said, the range of features can be overwhelming, especially if you don’t pay for the advanced customer service in the higher subscription tiers.
Looker
Looker is Google’s business intelligence platform so it integrates directly with other Google applications such as Google Sheets and Google Analytics. It has a heavy focus on accessibility for business intelligence beginners which is why it offers a free version. However, the free version may not be suitable for large enterprises, especially seeing as Google Cloud Customer Care support services are only offered to pro users.
Tableau
Tableau combines advanced data discovery and visualization with easy integration via pre-built data connectors. It’s furthered its mission of accessibility with Tableau Public, a free platform for exploring and expanding data visualization skills. That being said, its focus on visualization has left some users feeling like it’s lacking in other areas of business intelligence such as data preparation and report scheduling.
With a whole host of business intelligence software available to meet different needs, priorities and experience levels, all that’s left to do is to choose the tool that’s the best fit for your organization so you can get started with establishing a flow of data insights that drive sustainable business growth.
