Key takeaways:
- The benefits of business intelligence tools include data-driven business decisions, better customer experience, and real-time reporting.
- Business intelligence tools help teams work faster, share information more efficiently, and improve data quality.
- BI tools make it easier to track business performance, manage costs, and spot growth opportunities.
The days of simply storing data to never be used again are long over. Now, it’s something you use every single day in every part of your business to drive revenue, improve product, boost retention, and raise the bar on anything else that relates to growth.
To help with that, you can leverage business intelligence tools, more commonly known as BI tools. They help you make sense of the raw numbers and present them n a more understandable and practical way.
The benefits of business intelligence are tried and tested, and we will tell you all about getting started with it, what challenges you may face, and several use cases for SMBs.
What is business intelligence?
Business intelligence (BI) is a mix of technology and strategy. It’s great for turning raw data into clear and useful information so that you and your team can make better decisions. You can also leverage it to present findings to your management in a way that they can easily understand.
At the core, BI tools help collect, organize, and analyze raw data. Dashboards give you a visual snapshot of your KPIs, reports show patterns, and data visualization features allow non-tech people to spot certain trends.
Many platforms also include predictive analytics functionality that shows you what’s likely to happen before it does. These features help you anticipate user behavior and better prepare for different scenarios.
Compared to what we had in the past, old-school reporting is slow. You wait on IT, and the information is often outdated by the time you get it. Or, you have little time to prepare and execute an action plan.
Business intelligence tools update either in real-time or predefined intervals. They combine data mining, analysis, and visualization in one place. In short, you get actionable insights very quickly and you don’t need a data scientist to get all that prepared for you.
To top it off, most companies, from SMBs to global brands are already using business intelligence tools to some extent. Teams in marketing, sales, finance, and data operations use business intelligence systems to run better business operations and improve business processes.
10 powerful benefits of business intelligence
As mentioned before, the benefits of business intelligence are manifold. But let’s put that in perspective now by specifying what exactly it brings to the table.
1. Faster, more accurate reporting
Manual reports take time. With BI tools, data updates automatically and you spend less time gathering information and get more time to act on it. That’s one of the biggest benefits of business intelligence to date.
2. Smarter, data-driven business decisions
Gut feelings are risky and can cost more money than investing in a decent BI tool. Business intelligence systems allow you to back every business decision with cold, hard data. It makes your choices smarter and more reliable.
3. Improved operational efficiency
When everything runs through one well-calibrated system, your team can find what they need quickly and without excavating pieces of data from several different sources. It saves a lot of time and keeps business processes running smoother.
4. Increased productivity across teams
Having all data in one place means that you can send a link that shows a diagram and answers the question instead of setting up an hour-long meeting. BI tools help teams share data and insights more easily, so everyone can work more efficiently.
5. Enhanced customer insights & experience
By analyzing customer behavior, you can tailor products, messages, and services. It opens up a pathway to detailed segmentation and personalization, which is your ticket to long-term client satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.
6. Better data quality & accuracy
Messy data leads to bad decisions and those decisions can cost you a lot of money. Business intelligence tools provide you clean and sorted data that’s easy to read and act on. It boosts data quality and accuracy, which leads to actionable insights that could positively impact the bottom line.
7. Stronger competitive advantage
When you have your data sorted, you can notice trends and patterns that your competitors could’ve missed. Knowing what your competitors don’t is a huge edge. So, in theory, BI tools can give you a significant competitive advantage.
8. Real-time access to business performance
You don’t have to wait until the end of the quarter to watch a presentation and see how the business is doing. BI dashboards give live updates on business performance, so you can fix issues quickly or double down on what’s working.
9. Streamlined collaboration across departments
When teams use the same business intelligence systems, communication improves drastically. You no longer need to give tons of context every time. Everyone’s on the same page and cross-team projects can run a lot more smoothly.
10. Increased revenue and cost savings
BI tools allow you to make smarter decisions efficiently, which saves both time and money. Consequently, costs may go down and revenue – up. That’s one of the most direct benefits of business intelligence to your bottom line.
Business intelligence use cases for small businesses
BI isn’t just for market giants. Small businesses can afford it and see decent results, too. Here’s what you can do in different teams using BI tools.
- Marketing. With BI tools, marketers can see the benefits of data mining and predictive analytics that allows them to reach the people who are most likely to buy. It enables the targeting of the right audiences and wasting less ad money.
- Sales. Sales teams can track goals, leads, and close rates in real time. Business intelligence solutions make it easier to spot trends and adjust quickly.
- Finance. BI tools help finance teams understand where money goes and where to cut back. With strong data analysis, budgets can remain tight but optimized.
Small teams often wear many hats. With business intelligence tools, it’s easier to spot bottlenecks and fine-tune various business operations.
Challenges to watch when implementing BI
While it sounds like BI tools have zero disadvantages and everyone should have these systems in place, they don’t come without their challenges.
Your data might be in several different places. Getting it all into one BI system can be tricky and you will most likely need to spend quite some time on getting everything together. Also, you may need to clean raw data so it works well within business intelligence tools.
Another problem is that dashboards don’t help if nobody uses them. Teams need training and time to adopt new business intelligence tools. Especially if they’re not that intuitive and it takes more effort to learn how to properly use one.
Finally, some business intelligence solutions are pricey. Make sure the gains in business performance and actionable insights outweigh the investment. Otherwise, consider more affordable and user-friendly alternatives.
How to get started with business intelligence
There are lots of BI tools out there and you should pick one that fits your team’s size, needs, and tech level. Look for strong data analysis features and decent support and documentation since you will most likely need it.
Also, make sure you establish clear KPIs and goals. Know what your success looks like, then you will be able to track metrics that matter. Data collection only turns into actionable insights when you know what you’re looking for.
As your business grows, your business intelligence systems should grow too. Choose BI tools that scale and offer more advanced features like predictive analytics and deep data mining.