In a business world where customer behaviours matter the most, Business Intelligence (BI) is becoming indispensable. With BI, gathering data about company performance and customer insightsbecomes quicker and easier. These insights help improve business models and strategies as well as predict future outcomes.
So what is BI and how does it work?
In short, BI technologies aim to improve the overall performance of a company by looking at historical, current and predictive data. There are many different BI platforms that serve different purposes, but they all primarily center on analyzing the operational and strategic functions of a business. BI works by helping businesses derive valuable insights by examining data and understanding trends.
Regardless of the size of your company or what you sell, here are six reasons your company needs business intelligence.
1) BI works for businesses of all sizes.
BI is not just for large businesses as it works equally well for small and medium-sized businesses. The purpose of BI is to help companies improve their business strategies and business decision making. While small and large companies comprise of different strategies and business models, custom BI solutions are tailored to the specific needs of each company regardless of the business operations and technology used.
2) Anyone can use BI.
BI is no longer just for Information Technology companies. With the evolution of BI tools, platforms have become more intuitive and user-friendly. That means that you don’t have to understand the math behind a solution to use it. With the help of a business analytics company to set up a BI platform, businesses across various domains can easily tap the tools to improve operations.
3) BI is not just for people in Operations roles.
In addition to Operations, Executive Management and Sales are among the top three roles adopting BI. Other roles that have made a jump in BI adoption are Human Resources and Marketing.
4) BI can identify inefficiencies in business processes.
With BI tools, businesses can spot inefficiencies and address those areas with dynamic solutions to make business processes more efficient. Industries such as healthcare, manufacturing and financial services are just some of the industries that can benefit from BI tools in regard to improving efficiency and productivity.
5) BI helps improve sales and revenues.
By using BI tools, companies can determine buying patterns and improve inventory management, distribution and, eventually, sales. In addition to improving sales and eliminating inefficiencies, one study reported that other top goals of BI include enhanced customer service, compliance/risk management and increased competitive advantage.
6) You will understand your customers better.
BI offers a way to gain a deeper understanding of your customers’ needs and behaviors, while also providing insight on how they interact with your brand. With a spike in popularity of inbound marketing techniques, it is clear that old sales techniques that push a service or product at the customer are no longer effective. Instead, companies must find a way to draw in customers by providing them with engaging and valuable content. BI can help with these efforts by providing data-backed insights on buyer behaviors and trends, thus enabling your business to hone its sales and marketing strategies accordingly. As a result, you will also provide improved customer experience for consumers.
