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Published June 18th, 2016 by

5 Ways That Business Intelligence Tools Can Enhance Your Business

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Nowadays, there is no company or business that does not need business intelligence tools, or BI Tools, to be able to efficiently run his business. Every business owner should bear in mind that only the top BI tools can actually possibly enhance the operations of his business organization not only to increase profits but to become at par with its toughest competitors.

Business intelligence tools make up all the tools that facilitate business operations such as search engines, online libraries, and company websites. Moreover, business intelligence tools have become the key to facilitating better and faster collection of business data both from internal and external sources, as well as accelerated decision making processes and optimal business operations.

A few years ago, BI tools could only be used by IT professionals and data analysts who would normally be assigned tasks to conduct business analyses as well as generate reports from these analyses. However, if you do not have adequate knowledge as to which business intelligence tools to use, then you will simply be wasting time and money on buying the wrong ones. Thus, you have to identify those that can give you the main expected benefits that you can get from these BI tools.

BI tool reviews reveal that the best BI tools for your business are those that improve the business in a number of ways. Here are five things that your new business software can immediately assist you with:

Improves Competitive Intelligence

Competitive intelligence is information regarding the competitors of a particular company. Based on the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, or SCIP, competitive intelligence is the legal and ethical collection and analysis of information about the vulnerabilities as well as capabilities and intentions of a competitor in business. Competitive intelligence is the collection and analysis of information pertaining to the strengths and weaknesses of a competitor in a manner that is legal and ethical and for the purpose of making better business decisions.

Good BI tools for your business must be able to enhance the business organization’s competitive intelligence. Competitive intelligence activities may actually be strategic, or something that determines and focuses on the risks and opportunities that may be facing the enterprise. Competitive intelligence may also be tactical or something that focuses on shorter-term issues that capture increasing revenues or market shares. Tactical and strategic forms of competitive intelligence are different from corporate espionage. Good BI tools suitable for your business can provide your business with these benefits in line with competitive intelligence.

Good business intelligence software can actually help you business improve its competitive edge by analyzing data and by turning it into a more actionable form. Without good BI tools, there will be no way for you to be able to make more strategic business solutions and decisions that should propel the business to be at par with its rivals in matters of competition.

Improves Market Intelligence

Market intelligence refers to the information that is relevant to a particular company’s markets as gathered and analyzed for the purpose of providing intelligent business decisions that can potentially benefit your business. Good BI software reviews reveal that business intelligence software for your company can actually determine market opportunity, as well as develop market penetration strategies and metrics for market development.

Thus, to put it simply, market intelligence involves gathering information about the company’s market in order for the business owner to come up with better and more informed business decisions. BI tools are therefore indispensable in conducting intensive market research as well as the systematic gathering and recording of business data as well as the analysis and interpretation of essential information pertaining to markets and customers.

Without BI tools, there is no way that one can ever come up with more informed decisions concerning how a company should increase profit, revenue and market share by maximizing its market. Good market intelligence as determined by the appropriate BI tools can therefore help the company achieve high returns on investment if bad decisions are avoided. Moreover, the purpose of good market intelligence is to help in decisions of business expansion, to minimize risks in decision making, to keep ahead of the competition, to better satisfy customers by tailoring products to their needs, and to establish a reputable corporate identity.

Improves Internal Analysis

BI tools do not only provide your business with a good boost against its competitors and it does not only maximize market research. Good business intelligence software also helps decision makers in companies look within the company structure in order to find ways to improve existing systems, structures, policies and procedures. The purpose is always to have increased revenue as well as improved productivity.

As internal analysis is enhanced and boosted by the right BI tools, these BI tools can actually be used to retrieve, analyze, and consolidate all business data regarding the transactions and financial systems of the business. The purpose is to see the existing situation as well as the areas where improvements must be made.

Improvements in internal analysis through the right BI tools can actually make several positive changes to a business. Good business intelligence software can provide actionable information though unified data sources, can provide up-to-the-minute information concerning the present state of the business, can show data using simplified forms labelled as good or bad, can provide useful links to operational systems in case corrective actions have to be carried out, and can deliver collaborative data with all those concerned.

Furthermore, good BI tools can show current trends, deal with relevant information, can present data using intuitive visualizations, and can shorten the gap between analysis and decision making.

Empowers Employees

Top business intelligence tools can also make the business maximize the information capital and thus make every employee of the business a significant decision maker. In fact, the greater the number of people who have access to business data, the greater the value organizations will have as a result. As decision makers, employees have access to real-time information and can therefore make better informed decisions that impact the company’s revenue.

BI tools always inspire employees to work wherever they are even while they are cooking lunch for the kids or when they’re on the way to work. The current structure of business intelligence software actually mobilizes employee productivity and foster collaboration. In fact, when BI tools are integrated with large businesses, what can be developed is efficient strategic solutions for managing and monitoring employees.

Business intelligence tools simplify the monitoring process and add to the system various special features like fast monitoring of reports and organizational tracking of employees’ productivity. Thus, BI tools essentially shape the entire process of evaluating an employee.

Furthermore, with BI tools, there is a quick access of company tools and resources for all employees. Thus, employees are empowered and consequently become adept when it comes to handling daily responsibilities in the job. Naturally, there are quick and positive ramifications that arise from the development of this character. With such empowerment through BI tools, the employee is therefore equipped to maintain the company’s edge against its toughest competitors.

Gets Fast Answers to Critical Business Questions

According to Jason Cook, the chief architect of BT Global Services, U.S. & Canada and Consumer Packaged Goods, BI tools can help companies extract significant facts from massive amounts of data at a rapid speed. With a simple quick access to internal data using the right business intelligence software, you can make good use of your time in conducting an in-depth analysis of internal information and make informed business decisions. Thus, with the right BI tools, executives can decide their course of action much more efficiently.

The right business intelligence software helps executives make better decisions that can tremendously benefit companies and provide rich and up-to-date information since it allows users to engage with data themselves for further investigation. Thus, appropriate BI tools can give the sales person the capability to decide whether to give a specific customer a particular discount.

Faster decisions also result from the purchase of good business intelligence software. Executives and even employees should make faster decisions for the purpose of making the organization more responsive to immediate opportunities as well as to sudden threats. Furthermore, faster decisions afforded by the right BI tools for the business can shorten the time gap between thought and action, thus ensuring productivity.

BI tools can bring about fast decisions by integrating multiple data sources extracted from common reports, by providing adhoc reporting and analysis to allow users to quickly retrieve the specific data that they need, and by providing reduced system response times using techniques that make fast data aggregation possible.

Without the right BI tools for your business, you can reach out to employees and empower them, you can improve your company’s market and competitive edge, you can deal with internal analysis faster and more efficiently, and you can get answers to the most pressing questions right away. Thus, BI tools help you and your business make intelligent and critical decisions more efficiently for whatever constructive purpose you may have. Check out CrowdReviews.com for the latest business intelligence software that will cater to your needs.

John Tovar

John specializes in the creation and planning of business-centric mobile applications and mobile website design and development.

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