Every business works with the goal of making a profit and this can be achieved by making the right business decisions. Business leaders make countless decisions that influence work in a variety of ways. However, the ultimate goal is to make decisions effective enough to lead the way to profit for organizations. Therefore, the successful implementation of plans is the main need of all companies and Business Intelligence comes in handy in this context. Let’s see an idea of Business Intelligence and its components:
Business intelligence:
Business Intelligence plays a primary role in the implementation of correct planning procedures and strategies. BI technology helps its users collect, store, access, and analyze data. The set of applications covered by Business Intelligence allows companies to effectively implement the Decision Support System, applying concepts of Online Analytical Processing (OLAP), Statistical Analysis, Forecasting and Data Mining.
Business Intelligence serves to send information to the right decision makers at the right time. BI is preferred by many users as it leads them to arrive at facts based on a conclusion or more commonly known as ‘single version of the truth’. This provides the best end product and leads an organization to convert raw data into useful information; thus, bringing profit.
Characteristics of a Business Intelligence Solution:
- It is a single point of access to information.
- Provides timely responses to business questions.
- It enables the effective implementation of BI tools, applications, and systems across all departments of an organization.
Stages of a Business Intelligence Process:
The Business Intelligence process collects raw data and converts it into useful information; and also transforms it into knowledge that must be used with intelligence. The BI process is based on five main stages that are mentioned below:
Data source: This stage works on collecting data from different sources, including emails, images, formatted tables, reports, sounds, and other relevant sources. The main role of Data Sourcing is to collect the data in digital form; therefore, the sources to collect data are computer files, digital cameras, scanners, etc.
Data analysis: The next stage is to organize the data collected from Data Sourcing and estimate the data based on current and future trends. Also known as Data Mining, this stage also predicts the information that will be needed in the future.
State awareness: This stage of the Business Intelligence process helps to filter the relevant data and use it in relation to the business environment. Users compile the data by looking closely at market or government forces. policies, to make it easier to make decisions. Combinations of different algorithms are used to properly identify situational awareness.
Risks evaluation: Taking risks is part of every business; but, if one can take precautions, it is extremely useful. The risk assessment stage helps identify current and future risks, including costs and benefits; choose the best options; and comparison between two decisions to identify which will be beneficial. Summarizes the best choice among various options.
Decision support: This last stage in the BI process helps to use information intelligently. The purpose of this stage is to warn users about various crucial events such as poor staff performance, acquisitions, changing trends in the market, sales fluctuations, and much more. Helps make better business decisions to improve staff morale and customer satisfaction.
Importance of business intelligence:
Business Intelligence plays an important role in the functioning of organizations and helps them continue to progress. The following is the importance of Business Intelligence:
- BI helps to study the changing demands; therefore, a business can have accurate and up-to-date information on customer preferences
- It helps Managers to stay informed about the behavior of competitors and their actions.
- It helps analysts understand the adjustments that need to be made to maximize earnings.
- It helps organizations to make future plans based on relevant data organized to give better results.
Business intelligence users:
- IT users: These users make use of BI tools for development purposes, including data integration, data modeling, reporting, presentation, and final delivery. IT users also use it to help people in the organization and provide reports to external customers.
- Advanced users: These types of users include “professional analysts” who have been using BI tools. These users study the predefined reports and provide support to make the right decisions, but are not required to make decisions.
- Business users: They review the analysis report submitted by the Power Users. These users can apply their own queries on the data and create reports based on those queries.
- Occasional users: These users have the privilege to make changes to the information in the report and can enter data that can help further high-level investigations.
- Non-business users: These users are generally not part of an organization and are external sources that help companies make more tactical decisions. These may include external partners, customers, business analysts, suppliers, etc.
Therefore, Business Intelligence solutions help organizations make effective decisions and gain deeper insights from business data to meet specified goals. By using all the tools, applications and systems, organizations can accelerate product delivery by achieving goals.
