BI Basics – What Is Business Intelligence?

Business Intelligence is a computer-based technique that is used to identify, extract, and analyze data that relates to your business. BI technology can use historical information and current data to make accurate predictions of business operations in the future.

So why use it? Well, BI is used for reporting, data mining, process mining, complex event processing, business performance management, benchmarking, and so much more. Simply by having the right BI system in place, decision-makers have access to streamlined information. The general aim of business intelligence is to make better decision-making. So you might say that BA is a decision support system. 

Before Implementation

It is worth considering the different factors that you should pay attention to before you implement a BI solution or system. Here they are:

• The level of business need for creating a BI implementation – 
• The level of commitment and sponsorship from senior management
• The amount of quality and business data available. 

Why Are They Important?

Well, data is produced at a rate that we are slowly being unable to keep under control or to process – the importance of business intelligence grows the closer we get to getting lost in the data. 

However, the problem is that you have to be able to know how to handle the data before it all lands in your lap. If all the data is digital, then it makes sense that the best way to process the data is with technology. 

Here are some of the key benefits: 

• They stop you from having too much data to work with – without having business intelligence in your corner, you do run the risk of drowning in the data that you have. 
• The insights that become available but using BI concepts and will allow you to make choices that will improve various parts of your business. 
• Prediction becomes something that you can make the most of too. Because you have the information collated and analyzed – you can then take the further and use the recommendations and predictions to make better decisions. Of course, if you want to maximize this, you’re going to need to explore your own Power BI consultant. 
• Visual data You can turn the output into easy to digest charts and build a whole story around that. 

Application

So now you know the basis is that you can implement BI to improve many of your processes and make better decisions in the future, you might want to know how to apply the concepts in a real-world situation. Here are the key points:

• Neaten up and shorten your sales cycle length – by using the analytics and performance data to make predictions about future opportunities. 
• Behaviors and patterns will become more apparent to you, and you will be able to use a dashboard that will allow sales managers to target and remarket more efficiently. 
• Marketing will become more successful because you will have a clearer understanding of who you are talking to, where, and set and meet goals that make sense. 
• Customer experience is a big deal, and with BI, you can create a range of KPIs based on the data and boost your customer-facing efforts. 

So there is a lot of bonus to having BI implementation; when you get it right, it will be one of the critical factors in your business growth.