Making the Most of Data with Business Intelligence (BI) Tools

Not many years ago, employing integrated BI or Business Intelligence systems and processes, was a luxury that only big guns could afford.

However today, with the rise of scalable and affordable advanced analytics tools, any business having vision and willingness can use a more holistic use of BI to their advantage.

In the future, to survive modern data-driven world more and more companies of all sizes will be looking to modernise their infrastructure and drive towards the insights that can be gained from the use of credible BI analytical tools.

A Bit about BI

Business Intelligence refers to the strategies and technologies used by an organisation for the analysis of business data and information and the use of BI technologies to provide historical, current and predictive views of business operations. These gather data and present it in such a way as to inform the recipients for them to make insightful decisions.

From the activities of data mining to operational business performance management, it includes a wide array of tasks and functions.

Rather than looking at just historical trends it is now important to Identify patterns in the data a look towards predictive analysis so that business managers can make crucial strategic decisions.

Making the Most Out of Data Available

As a business in the digital landscape, you need to make full use of data available at your disposal and increasingly data from external sources. Data is rapidly becoming a major business asset as people recognise the opportunities to add value by understanding this information

Using the right set of BI tools is now essential help manage in such an environment Here are some ways you can do that:

Start with the Data You Already Have

In the beginning, build your understanding and try to keep things simple. You do not want to overwhelm your team by to help them to grow and develop in to this new landscape.

For example, you might have more data than you think: From website traffic, hits and likes to newsletter signups, online enquiries you already have a lot to work with.

BI tools can be aligned to and used to identify analyses data and help to recognise patterns and to make sense of this data.

Get Insights about Your Customers

Knowledge of your customer is the key to any business. From, knowing their past preferences to predicting how they will behave in the future, BI tools can help you link to Customer Response Management (CRM) tools and gather, analyse and report this such data. For instance, you come plan campaigns e.g knowing that your customers from a part of the world have, for example, a festival coming upyou can offer seasonal discounts. Analysing the response to such a drive can provide valuable insights about its validity.

Measure Data in Real-Time

With the advent of mobile phones, data is shared, analysed and displayed on the go across a range of mobile devices. This real-time analysis has also been made possible through BI tools Where managers can see results and forecasts directly in the hands when they are on the go.

Many of the shelf BI products offer such functionality as standard and the is therefore relatively simple. In fact, the IT department does not need to be involved.

With the correct configuration employing KPI dashboards to generating real-time reports on sales directly to your handheld device shows that a lot can be achieved through BI tools to keep pace with the fast turnaround for information needs.

Predict the Future

The traditional Excel spreadsheet has been the standard way for recording information and keeping track of it. However, it is labour intensive, error prone and not entirely suited to allow you to make predictions for the future.

This is where integrated BI tools can come in. Providing analysis of data in such a way as to define trends, identifying growth opportunities. Being able to look forward and steer the ship is a lot better than looking back at the ship’s wake and trying to make your decisions, BI these tools can help you make an impact.

We at Centelli are one of the leading Business Intelligence Consultancies  in the UK and across Europe. We have experience in helping our clients to organise themselves and to leverage off the right technology, to help them to make better informed business decisions. Gaining insight from data.

With a team of savvy data analysts and gurus, we help businesses make use of BI tools to face complex challenges and modernise their infrastructure.