Businesses are taking advantage of client related information to enhance the entire business process and this has proved to be very advantageous in ensuring that a company remains competitive in a very erratic environment. The use of data associated with business operations has brought about the aspect of business intelligence, where the statistical information acquired from clients is used to develop strategies that will be utilized within the enterprise.
The real power of information becomes evident once a proper analysis is undertaken and decisions are made to implement results obtained from a particular set of data. Business Intelligence primarily relies on technology for collection and analysis. Presentation is carried out using software analytics tools. The data employed in BI varies and can be collected from both the internal and external environment.
Once data is obtained, the information is analyzed and queries are run against the data set to understand how the business would perform under different conditions. The final step involves generation of reports and presentation of results using appropriate visualization tools.
Employing business intelligence tools comes with numerous advantages. They include optimization of the process undertaken within the business environment, enhancing better decision-making, improving the operation methodologies that are typically employed and enabling the enterprise to achieve higher revenue gains.
Additionally, using the data that has been obtained, it is easy for the business managers to quickly identify trends that are about to set in within the business environment. From that, they can take advantage of the upcoming opportunities and remain competitive. Business Intelligence serves five major functions which include:
Reporting
Reports ensure that business managers can understand what happened in the past. In case success was achieved or an error occurred that led to losses in the enterprise. Reports help to provide a clear picture of what happened. Since reports are backward, they fail to outline what can be done in future to ensure success is achieved. However, by understanding the past, then it is easy to know what can or cannot be repeated. Decisions that have been made in the past can then be altered to fit the developing trends in the business environment.
Analysis
Analysis tends to be more complicated as it involves taking an in-depth look at how results were affected by business decisions. Analysis helps to ensure that practical actions can be taken from the information that is obtained with fewer chances of making errors.
The analysis process uses online analytical processing tools such as infographics and graphs to present the relationship that exists between different data elements. Digging deep into a set of data using the OLAP tools helps to establish the association that exists between data points both laterally and vertically. This helps analysis experts to identify how decisions were implemented.
Monitoring
Monitoring is probably the most crucial role played by any Business Intelligence System. Managers no longer need to rely on reports to generate information on the mistakes that were made. It will analyze the reason why unwanted results were obtained. Monitoring helps the business managers to understand the current happenings in an enterprise.
As a result, it is easy to know what is being undertaken correctly and processes that are bound to fail. This will then allow for the implementation of measures that will drive a company in the right direction. Scorecards and dashboards help to show how different decisions end up impacting on different processes.
Improvement
Decisions are made on a daily basis within an enterprise and they affect the business process in a variety of ways. Proper monitoring may help company managers to understand the decisions that need alteration to avoid the possibility of encountering losses. Based on trends that develop within an enterprise, it is possible to know what needs to be modified and what is working as expected. Once proper monitoring has been done, decisions can be made on whether it’s necessary to make improvements on previously implemented actions.
Predictive analysis
Predictive Analysis is considered to be the holy grail of any business undertaking. When combined with monitoring, it becomes almost impossible to make mistakes. Predictive analysis mainly looks into the future and outlines what will happen when a particular decision is implemented.
Common applications that are used when undertaking predictive analysis include revenue management systems and credit scoring applications. The former predicts the level of optimal rents that should be applied, while the latter helps managers to know the standard of pricing and what actions may lead to bad debts.