If there's anything your business produces, it's data, mounds of it! What a waste, right? Well, if you aren't using a business analytics or marketing intelligence platform to consume, organize, and make predictions with all that big data, it probably is. A business intelligence tool (often called BI) helps you do all that so you can make better decisions for your team and for your future.
What to Look For In Business Intelligence SoftwareBusiness intelligence (BI) software, also called marketing intelligence, or business analytics tools, is any measurable business insights and metrics you can gather together to make better decision-making. A business intelligence solution is a Software as a Service (SaaS) that pulls together information from varying sources in order to give you an organized mix of both in-depth and high-level insights. A BI solution automates data consolidation and starts to automate reports to make sense of it all.
Who uses a business analytics tool? When it comes to major company decisions, the c-level execs are the ones that need BI to make decisions, most often the CIO. However, BI solutions dive into other areas like accounting, customer relations and sales, meaning that just about any team member could benefit from better analytics.
Let's face it: Metrics rule our world. If you aren't making decisions based on quantitative analysis, you simply aren't making informed decisions. And when you are still tiny, you can do a mix of Google Analytics and totals at the bottom of spreadsheets and get a bit of insights. But once your business scales, and your data along with it, spreadsheets just become boxy mistakes. You need a BI solution to grow alongside your business and the big data it accumulates, and you need a BI dashboard to see your business at a quick glance. Finding the right data management solution is essential to your business' success.
In fact, MIT has found that high-performing organizations--45 percent of them--are more than twice as likely to use analytics to perform strategy than under-performing ones--only 20 percent of which track data.
Here are some more reasons you need a business software to manage your data, analytics and business intelligence:
Business analytics solutions differ depending on department and use case. Some focus on organizing your analytical point of view, while others help you manage that data. Some dive down deep, mining that data, while others give you more general overviews to present to your investors and top execs. Market intelligence software is commonly split into these categories:
Business intelligence software includes all SaaS that gives you a better view into your organization, which means that it can also include enterprise resource planning software (ERP), accounting software, sales software, and even customer relationship management software (CRM).
With so many BI solutions out there fighting for your attention, it's normal to feel overwhelmed, like all you're getting is marketing fluff. The best way to get real opinions on market intelligence solutions is by trusting the proverbial horse's mouth and reading the best software app reviews. Your objective is to find business solutions that are "just right" for your organization, so why not start by reading your competition's reviews of the software they're using? Most likely, your competition is of a comprable size as you and with similar business analytics needs. These testimonial examples from businesses like yours will help you to start making the right software buying decision. Unsure which seem right? Almost every BI solution has a free trial--use the app reviews to narrow it down to two or three apps and give em a go!