Have you heard all the buzz about business intelligence? It’s all anyone’s talking about, but it isn’t always the easiest thing to understand.
However, it’s worth looking into if you want to improve your business. After all, the adoption rate for business intelligence software jumped to 26% in 2020. If you’re going to keep up, you’ll need to invest in business technology yourself.
Are you asking yourself the question, “What is business intelligence?” Keep reading to learn what business intelligence and how to use it for business.
What Is Business Intelligence?
Business intelligence is a technology field that provides a company with the tools to organize, understand, and manage its data. These capabilities let companies take advantage of and anticipate business opportunities.
Here are a few questions that business intelligence can help answer for your company:
- What is our impact on revenues?
- How much money should we spend on R&D?
- How does HR’s performance compare with the industry average?
- How do we improve our health and safety levels?
- What’s the latest about our competitors’ sales and profitability?
The above insights are only the start. If you can find data about part of your business, the chances are good that you can use business intelligence to gain insights about it.
How Does Business Intelligence Work?
Now that you know what business intelligence is, you need to understand how business intelligence tools work. Below are four steps to getting started.
Data Preparation
This step collects data from different places and formats it so business intelligence software can use it properly. One example of a tool used to automate this process is a data extractor. This type of tool pulls data from sources like social media, documents, and websites to convert them into a useful analysis format.
Query Your Data
Now that you have data, it’s time to turn it into information that you can analyze. This step strips away irrelevant elements, so business intelligence software can focus on what’s important. It also helps to normalize the data, which makes sure it all fits together.
Report on Key Performance Indicators
With your data prepared, you can analyze it and learn more about your business. Business intelligence tools like knowi.com will create reports that pull from your different data queries. These reports will show you the insights you can use to make business decisions.
Make Decisions Based on Your Data
This step uses the information you’ve collected, analyzed, and reported on to make data-driven decisions. You’ll use this data to answer the questions above. You’ll be able to improve your profit, improve customer satisfaction, and improve your business’s efficiency.
Invest in Business Intelligence Today
Business Intelligence can seem like it’s out of reach for many business owners, but it doesn’t have to be. Now that you can answer the question “What is business intelligence?”, you have what you need to get started. Invest in business intelligence tools today to start the process.
If you found this post helpful, head back to our blog. We cover more great business tips that will help your company succeed.