Tough competition nowadays will always provoke every business owner to consider how BI tools can help them with their businesses. BI tools, or business intelligence software, are an application that facilitates the easy collection of business data from all sources in order to make possible an easy real time analysis of this data in order for business owners to make improved business decisions.
Nowadays, if your business does not have any of the best business intelligence software, then it means that you are still making too much effort to gather data from multiple sources and interpreting them externally. If this is the kind of business you have nowadays, then you will just be wasting time and worse, you will not be making efficient business decisions to gain profit for the company. Reviews of business intelligence software are indispensable in getting more information about these modern tools. Without these, there is no way you can keep up with your competitors in terms of profit.
Business intelligence software makes it easy for any business owner and for anyone concerned in the company to easily access and process data needed to make good business decisions. Ideal business intelligence tools make this possible. Nowadays, you do not have to be an IT expert or data analyst to be able to use business intelligence software. Most BI tools are easily used by any employee in the company even those without a strong technical background in IT. This allows for greater convenience and ease of use.
However, one problem that business owners have is sometimes buying the wrong business intelligence software. They are usually enticed by the price or by appearance in an attractive advertisement. These are five of the most common qualities of bad business intelligence software:
Too Unreasonably Priced
Some business owners would not mind the high price of the BI software as long as the quality is good. However, many of them would purchase business intelligence software that usually has high maintenance costs. With high maintenance costs, there is no way a business can profit from the benefits of the BI tools in the long run.
Good BI tools for the business need not be unreasonably highly priced. Those that are really costly are like those that were once available only to large corporations. These large corporations are the only ones that can actually afford the implementation, operation and maintenance of these business intelligence tools.
Most business intelligence software types for your business are now accessible only through the Internet at affordable prices so anything sold higher than the standard price must be unreasonably priced. Thanks to cloud computing, now there is affordable BI software. This particular innovation is designed for online data storage. Thus there are reduced implementation costs and corresponding reduced maintenance fees.
Buying business intelligence tools for your business must therefore require you to buy something as affordable as those store data online. As long as you have good reviews on business intelligence software, you can always choose the best BI software for your business. Modern BI tools are always those that help your business have an overall lower Total Cost of Ownership, or TCO. TCO refers to the implementation and maintenance costs involving your BI tool.
The key is to buy business intelligence software that makes you save money with their low start-up costs as well as relatively low maintenance costs. With such BI tools you can have the best options for your business and you can begin by not making the mistake of buying an expensive one.
Coming from Different Data Sources
If you make the mistake of buying a BI tool that extracts data from multiple sources, you might just regret it. Business data that is extracted from many different sources will be hard to analyze and will certainly be difficult for business users since it will not help them comprehend the whole business picture.
If you buy a BI tool with an integrated dashboard that pools in data derived from multiple sources, then you are able to manage it well. An ideal BI tool for your business can therefore crunch all relevant data into a unified whole so that you can have a more or less clear and accurate picture of what your business is like. As long as your BI software does not leave out tiny bits of data in the process, you will surely have the best.
A popular professional service company that provides business intelligence solutions to many companies – KPMG – states that an estimated 55% of all businesses are suffering from issues that involve decision making. This is all because of difficulties and problems when it comes to having data extracted from multiple sources before they are analyzed. Thus, it takes so much unnecessary time and effort before certain business goals are achieved.
If you buy the right BI tools for your business, these BI tools will embed data coming from several applications. The BI software can also provide support for any type of database or platform. Furthermore, as more and more new databases come up, every good BI tool will be able to support all databases easily. Thus, if you think your company will still expand in the future, as all companies do, then you should buy one that will be able to accommodate more databases as it continually expands day by day.
Too Complex to Use
Another big mistake that you might make when buying your first business intelligence software is purchasing something that is too difficult and too complex to use. Modern business intelligence software should be tailored as to give access to almost every employee in the business and should be made easy to use like you are just using your smartphone.
If you happen to make the mistake of choosing BI tools that prove to be too complicated to use, then the major problem would be that it will take up too much quality time that could have been used for better things. Thus, choosing easy-to-use BI tools will save you precious time and will not make you waste days or months just learning how to operate it.
One of the business intelligence tools that are not only easy to implement, but also ideal in terms of maintenance costs, is SaaS software. If you use this particular BI software, it does not give you any more headache since you do not anymore need to buy hardware for it since you can install the software directly from the Internet. Moreover, with the SaaS software, you can run your business operations directly online.
User-friendly interfaces are also necessary in making the BI tools particularly easy to use. Such a feature means that you can use BI tools with real time data. It should also mean that they are reliable and fast. Reliable means being able to provide not only timely but also accurate information needed at the moment.
The easier to use your BI tools are, the better equipped you are for business competition. If your BI software is as easy to use as your tablets and smartphones, then you have an edge over so many businesses that do not have any business intelligence solutions to rely on. Tablets and smartphones are the easiest to use nowadays and they are the most popular. Thus, if your BI tools are as easy to use as these gadgets, then you’re in for the most efficient business operations.
Unsecure
When you choose the right business intelligence software for your business, do not make the mistake of buying one without data security and privacy protection. The right BI tools for your business must be equipped with the most advanced password complexity, access control and data encryption systems, plus other features that prevent any unauthorized access to the company.
Nowadays, hackers are everywhere and if they are good enough, they can strip business operation systems down to the last detail. Thus, business intelligence software that has no security features can never be trusted.
One more important thing before buying your business intelligence software is that you have read exactly the fine print that illustrates the terms of services concerning this particular BI software. This is to prevent any kind of dispute or complaint later about the product. This is also to ensure that your BI tools can align with your business goals when it comes to system monitoring, user access control, backup and recovery.
Security is also dependent on your management of data handling and processing. If you try to make data available to all employees in the company without due discretion, then expect that here is a tendency for the data to be misused. Moreover, the security of the company and your clients might be put in jeopardy. Aside from buying a secure BI software for your business you should also try to ensure that your BI system will be aligned with the security standards of the company.
Does Not Allow Independence
The usual type of business intelligence solutions have CEOs and executives having to rely on IT experts and data analysis to obtain insights on their business. Nonetheless, the wasted time would be a serious problem to the business. Self-service in business intelligence software is a new trend but it is very crucial. This means that with self-serving BI tools, executives can have their questions answered right away without having to wait for assigned experts. Furthermore, the addition of new user interfaces can make the task useful and rather straightforward in terms of application to the business.
If you make the mistake of buying BI software that is not self-serving, you will buy one that requires technical IT skills. Thus, you might buy software that cannot eliminate complex scripting and coding. These BI tools cannot deliver multiple tasks to many different departments without the hassle of complications. What you need to buy is something that will be able to channel data efficiently from the marketing to the operations department anytime.
Buying the right BI tools for your business is a serious matter, that’s why mistakes have to be avoided. If you have efficient BI solutions for your company, you do not only improve its internal operations – you also give your company a great edge in terms of competition. Thus, you should avoid the mistake of buying something too expensive to maintain, too complex, too unsecured, not self-serving and not dependent on a unified source of data. If you want to find the best business intelligence software for all your needs, then do take time to check out our list of recommendations at CrowdReviews.com.
Keith Moore
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