Understanding Business Intelligence: Why is it Important?

For staying relevant in this era of digital transformation, organizations are constantly incorporating smarter and more effective technology solutions into their operational policies. Business Intelligence (BI) is one such tech strategy which enterprises consider as a key influencer of business growth.

BI helps companies to collect and analyze data from various sources like emails, surveys, databases, videos, etc. and come up with strategic decisions for improving sales, revenue, customer retention and so on. The global BI market is booming and is forecasted to reach $55.48 billion by 2026, says a recent report.

In this blog post, we shall be discussing the importance of Business Intelligence and how it can empower organizations to get a clear edge over their competitors.

What is Business Intelligence?

 BI refers to the set of technologies and practices that aid in the collection of data and its conversion into actionable insights for the efficient functioning of a business. It enables enterprises to identify new opportunities, improve productivity and eliminate unforeseen operational gaps, thereby fuelling data-driven decision making.

Modern BI platforms leverage current and historical data, along with predictive data, that help CIOs, managers and other stakeholders to draw meaningful conclusions about various business operations.

The main techniques employed in BI systems include Data Mining, Big Data Analytics, Statistical Analytics, Predictive Analytics, Prescriptive Analytics, Data Visualization, to name a few. 

Below is a snapshot of Microsoft’s Power Dashboard. BI 

Image Source: Microsoft

As you can see, data is represented in the form of numerical and visual elements. All the key metrics can be viewed in a single glance.

Why Should Businesses Adopt it?

Most companies struggle to compile data, and even if they have enough resources, they fail to properly interpret and understand important insights. This adversely affects the prospects of better business management and decelerates a company’s growth in the market.

That’s where Business Intelligence can play a major role; it can be applied to many business-related activities for getting a better overview of processes and for achieving the desired results.

Sales Improvement – Tools like a customized Sales BI dashboard helps sales teams to understand trends, develop effective sales pitches, and forecast sales, profits and supply changes.

Business Reporting – Standard and ad-hoc reporting can be done using BI software. This allows users to make quick decisions and implement strategies on-the-fly.

Performance Management – An important benefit of BI is the ease of tracking the overall performance of the business. Scorecards and dashboards display visualized data on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Market Trends Analysis – Using BI, emerging market trends can be identified and studied, and marketing campaigns, aligning with such trends, can be crafted.

Customer Behavior Analysis – BI provides clear-cut insights into changing customer preferences and habits. Based on this, customer outreach efforts can be enhanced, promotional offers can be developed, and even new products can be launched.

Operational Efficiency Improvement – BI helps in streamlining internal business workflows, detecting risks and eliminating bottlenecks that cause operational inefficiencies. Productivity of employees is also improved.

Conclusion

Business Intelligence is not just about extracting data or generating reports; it’s a smart way of changing the destiny of an organization through well-informed decisions. 

Hence, adopt Business Intelligence into your work processes by hiring the best web app development company to build your customized BI tool.