0

5 Ways Excellent Business Intelligence Can Benefit Your Business

“Intelligence” is a word that is rich with collective meaning. In one context, the dictionary definition of intelligence pertains to a human being’s ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills; in another, having “intelligence” means possessing a cache of information that has significant political or military value. Yet another branch of intelligence with key value to its field has arisen in the 21^st century: that of business intelligence.

Business intelligence, or BI for short, encompasses a growing subset of data-driven strategies and technologies that are meant to improve decision-making. These applications can engage relevant data in order to study a company’s evolution over a period of time, to survey a current business decision in near real-time, or to predict the probability of a certain business outcome. Some examples of business intelligence applications that are now in wide use are real-time data analytics, predictive analytics, prescriptive analytics, reporting, process mining, text mining, and the like. The goal of employing such technology is to make large and varied data sets easier to understand, back up impending business decisions with solid evidence, and establish a clear picture of the company’s workings.

Suffice to say, excellent business intelligence could help fulfill those goals for your own company. Investing in data-driven technologies could make your business dealings and decisions even “smarter” than they already are—and perhaps give you the edge you need in becoming a stable and competitive organization.

Do you want to know how better business intelligence benefits your company?  Here are five ways that BI makes the most out of the numbers.

1. It can prepare you to deal with increasingly large data sets. As the company grows, so do the numbers that affect its performance metrics. You might be dealing with wider and more complex data sets that stand for your customer demographics, your supply chain, your revenues, and the like. A business intelligence application like real-time data analysis software is what will help you make sense of all those important variations—and thus, keep your decision-making processes thorough, grounded, and up-to-date.  
   
   
2. It can help everyone visualize what is happening to the company. Imagine yourself as part of a boardroom panel, choosing between agency representatives who are making a pitch to work with your company. One competitor comes prepared with detailed visuals on their process, while the other does not. Which of the two do you think you’ll choose? In a sense, excellent business intelligence works the same way for a company; the technology provides a means to visualize and concretize the company’s workings.
   
   
3. It can democratize access and management of data within the company. Contrary to popular belief, business intelligence applications are not limited to the realm of skilled IT professionals. More BI software specialists have released technology that’s notably user-friendly and accessible, even to those without an IT background. As such, business intelligence can be understood as a set of tools that can serve everyone in the company, and not just a select few.   
   
   
4. It can increase operational efficiency within the business. Having good business intelligence at one’s disposal means that there’s a likelihood of great improvement in business operations. If BI is put to use, matters such as product positioning, product pricing, and customer relationship management can be handled more astutely. The increase in efficiency can lead to fewer losses from disruption, higher revenues from sales, and higher customer retention and loyalty.
   
   
5. It can help company executives imagine their strategic goals more clearly. If business operations are the “micro” aspect in the situation, then the “macro” aspect is strategic decision-making—or, the matters of the business that have to do with setting priorities, planning long-term goals, and implementing company-wide measures across all business locations. Enhanced business intelligence helps companies address not only the nitty-gritty tasks, but also the ones that have to do with year-to-year development. With a better grip on the data, large-scale decision-making can be done with confidence.

The future is ripe with opportunities with the help of business intelligence. That said, it may be the right time for your company to modernize its business intelligence endeavors, and use them as a leverage  to make your organization smarter, more productive, and more profitable.