Business Intelligence aims to support data-driven business decision-making.
Although it is a concept coined shortly before the 1960s, it was not until the 1990s that business intelligence tools began to proliferate, with the aim of obtaining a series of benefits for the company:
- Aggregate and connect relevant data
- Offering self-service analytics that allows business intelligence analysis to be developed without disrupting the IT department
- Make predictions that give the business an edge when making decisions
- Automate processes, especially reporting and data dashboards
- Reduce costs through more agile data collection, analysis and reporting.
Initially, the first challenge was both data and technology: how and from where to obtain reliable data at a low cost; and on the other hand, how to provide powerful yet easy-to-use functionality for non-expert staff.
Main Business Intelligence tools
A wide variety of solutions for business data analysis already exist today, among which we can find:
- Power BI
- Tableau
- Qlik
- IBM Cognos Analytics
- SAS Business Intelligence
- Oracle Business Intelligence
- ZOHO Analytics
- Microstrategy
- GoodData
Debemos distinguir tres principales tipos de soluciones, según apoyan distintos procesos de business intelligence:
- Soluciones para la Integración de datos. Nos permiten conectar los datos de fuentes heterogéneas a nuestra aplicación de análisis.
- Herramientas de análisis de inteligencia de negocios, que propiamente nos permiten realizar el procesamiento de datos, e incluso generar previsiones.
- Aplicaciones de visualización y de reporting, con el objetivo de compartir nuestro análisis y facilitar la toma de decisiones.
Las mejores herramientas del mercado nos ofrecerán estos tres niveles en una solución integrada.
We must distinguish three main types of solutions, depending on which business intelligence processes they serve:
- Solutions for Data Integration. They allow us to connect data from heterogeneous sources to our analysis application
- Business intelligence analysis tools, allow us to process data and even generate forecasts
- Visualisation and reporting applications, with the aim of sharing our analysis and facilitating decision-making.
The best tools on the market will offer us these three levels in an integrated solution.
The origin and type of data for Business Intelligence
The principle of "one data, one place" is key to the success of business intelligence (BI). Not just for cybersecurity reasons, but to seamlessly run the business.
This is a principle that is increasingly difficult to follow because the sources of data in the enterprise are multiplying year on year. Thus, we have growing data from a multitude of heterogeneous sources, such as:
- Point-of-sale terminals
- Our online sales portal
- The forecasts that sales managers manage in CRM
- The Internet of Things (IoT), which is multiplying information generated by the production plants and logistics network
- Market prices of our product categories
- Import/export data on international trade of our product categories
- Media and social media presence (both our own and competitors')
- Financial data comparisons with our direct competitors
- And many others!
The data provided by these sources, and many others, are valuable for decision making in the company (>>enlazar al post de la toma de decisiones en inglés), both for SMEs and large companies.
Competitive Intelligence: key qualitative information for business
But all the information we have referred to so far is based on quantitative data. Don't miss the point that a large part of business decisions are necessarily based on qualitative information such as, for example, the early identification of a customer's serious business problems and the risk of non-payment:
- The early warnings on a customer's serious business problems, and their risk of non-payment
- A new legislative project in a country of export destination, which could affect our product category
- The registration of a new patent or key design by a competitor
- The announcement of a new customer strategy, which will involve technical changes to our product, our business model, our marketing strategy, or all of them at the same time
- The hiring by a competitor of a person with a very specific profile, in a specific market
- The reinforcement of a trend in our sector, which was detected in a market preceding ours.
- ... and many other examples, in which Business Intelligence solutions are not a help.
When we consider how to gather information about a company, we do not only want data or numbers, but also qualitative information that gives us a 360º vision. A Competitive Intelligence solution such as Antara Mussol complements business intelligence tools that only handle data. This way we can develop a comprehensive view of the business, with both an internal and external perspective, to support decision making.