∞ Virtues of business intelligence that make your business smarter

Today’s business world is increasingly (and dizzyingly) complex. Traditional methods of navigation through this complexity are obsolete. C-suites admit that they don’t have enough of the right information at the right time, because their inner reports are no longer reliable.

Indeed, having data is key. But a blessing turns into a curse, if this data is not accurate or timely. Business Intelligence (BI) makes all the difference. And here is how.

1. HELPING TO MAKE DATA-DRIVEN AND FORWARD-LOOKING DECISIONS

   Smart appliances and devices tell us more about consumer behavior than we could have ever imagined. The Internet of Things (IoT) has conditioned the rise and the availability of global data, which not just can, but must, be used for business purposes. Due to the power and scalability of cloud computing, we can harness and process millions of signals and clues in minutes to state what really matters. The thing is, to not only have this information, but to be able to convert it into structured and analyzable insights.
   Using the data, based on customers’ own experience rather than on abstractions or mere assumptions, leads to smarter business decisions. This can’t but contribute to better financial performance. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions play a crucial part in intelligent decision-making. By delivering a wide variety of business metrics they make it possible to highlight hotspots, detect processes that can be reproduced in other parts of the business and identify where there’s a need for adjustments.

2. BOOSTING SALES

   
   It’s a fact: who owns the information… earns more. When it comes to sales, the tools that measure customers’ activity and reveal behavioral trends are priceless. They provide information that helps to make perfectly calibrated, strategically correct business decisions. BI solutions shed light on the sales process, analysis and forecasting.

3. GETTING TO KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER. FOR REAL

   It’s difficult, not to say impossible, to reach customers without understanding how they interact with you. Failing to understand it means you lose a competitive advantage to your rivals. Customers don’t want to be sold to, they want their needs to be met. Constantly updating info, which is available thanks to BI technologies, helps to achieve this.

4. DELIVERING CUSTOMER-TAILORED EXPERIENCE

   All the information about your customers is gathered not just to ‘be there,’ but to raise your customers’ satisfaction and improve their experience. Customer Experience is nowadays considered to be a new marketing battlefront since a lot of companies compete primarily on this basis. Being unable to give the consumer a unique product is not the end of the world, as long as you can provide them with a unique experience.
   Having instant access to the information within the sales cycle encourages more advanced service responses and allows it to handle those situations where customer experience can be put at risk. Also, you can pinpoint the typical profile of your most profitable customers and see whether the resources you spend contribute to your business growth.

5. SPEEDING UP THE PROCESS OF ANALYSIS AND SKYROCKETING PRODUCTIVITY

   With the help of BI technologies, real-time reports and dashboards are at hand, making the process of analysis much faster than it used to be. Routine tasks become automated, customer service is more responsive, salespeople use their time better. All of this directly leads to increased productivity.

6. RAISING RETURN-ON-INVESTMENT

   As soon as you incorporate BI tools in your company, the maximization of your ROI will not be long in coming. Deepening the actual knowledge about your customers (not just making unfounded predictions or hypotheses), improving and accelerating the process of marketing analysis, increasing the efficiency of the employees contribute not only to revenue growth but also to investment optimization. Take marketing. Each campaign is tracked and measured thoroughly, which makes future marketing initiatives more effective and profitable. In other words, due to careful analysis of the information and the visibility of it, marketers will know for sure how to allocate the budget.

7. CUTTING DOWN ON EXCESS INVENTORY

   Usually, companies carry a lot of excess inventory, which is costly. They carry more than needed, being afraid to lose their customers’ loyalty in case they’re out of stock. But with the help of BI solutions, you can get more accurate on demand for inventory and, thus, erase millions of bottom-line costs to help the profitability.

8. PREVENTING TEAM BURNOUT

   
   Trying to squeeze your employees like lemons to gain more is a dead end. Nobody is really productive under constant stress. Luckily, today you can decrease the stress level of your employees by bringing intelligence to your business. They will no longer waste time on tasks that can be automated and will be able to remain focused on impactful things that require their skills, knowledge, and experience. The first step in this direction can be a set-up of a collaborative work management (CWM) platform. It brings your teams together to optimize the work processes. It’s possible to connect the data collected within the CWM to a BI solution where it can be transformed into applicable insights on project efficiency and ROI.

Business Intelligence technology does what people don’t have the capacity to do – it brings a lot of data together to deliver a personalized message to your customer. In the age of convenience when everything is available in a click, if you can’t forecast your customers’ desires, they’ll go with someone who can. In letting BI contribute to your business, you’re making the right decision. All it takes is just one. And then it opens up doors for so many.