Business Intelligence is no doubt one of the most used buzzwords in the modern business landscape. Newer BI models are easier to use, have simpler interfaces and can be operated and understood even by the most technologically-adverse team member in a company. Given the accessibility of today’s BI software, the questions to now ask is, “Do I really need a BI system in my company?” or “How can it help me make better business decisions?” Here is a breakdown of the 10 most obvious benefits of implementing Business Intelligence software in your business:
- It removes guesswork.
Too many times, running a business is treated almost like gambling, and it shouldn’t be that way. Executives are left with the option of ‘making the best guess’ or ‘going with their gut feel.’ When it is your company’s future at stake, neither of these methods should be taken as a serious means to arriving at a strategy. When you run your business based on guesswork, it means that you lack the comprehensive business data to form a dependable structure that allows you to make informed decisions.
With Business Intelligence, you are given accurate data, updates in real time, trending and forecasting means and even allows you to predict “what-if” scenarios, therefore removing the need to guess or estimate.
- Gives you quicker responses to your business-related queries.
Another great incentive for business intelligence users is that you can get immediate answers to your business questions. You can make quicker decisions based on these responses without having to go through pages and pages of written reports and lose valuable time.
- Obtain important business metrics reports whenever and wherever you need them.
With today’s business intelligence software, any qualified member of the organization can gain access to important company data such as business metrics, dashboards and other critical reports through mobile devices. As long as there is Internet access, important business data can be accessed and utilized by key people from the organization.
- Gain valuable insight into your customer’s behavior.
One of the biggest benefits of having a BI platform in your organization is having the ability to look into what the market is purchasing (or not). You are given the opportunity to turn such information into profit and hold on to your valuable clients.
- Pinpoint up-selling as well as cross-selling opportunities.
Business Intelligence platforms enable you to make use of valuable customer data to make, polish and improve traditional models that will, in turn, help your sales personnel to cross-sell and up-sell goods at the most appropriate client touch points.
- Get the knack of streamlining operations.
When a BI system is put into place, you are given the ability to make detailed insights into your performance. They can easily pinpoint the areas that they need to modify in order to streamline their operations.
- Develop efficiency.
There are many organizations that throw away valuable time looking for information from within their different data sources when they need help in gaining a deeper understanding of their business. When they do find this pertinent information, they still need to convert, merge and report said data, communicate their opinions about it and discuss whether it is accurate, etc. With a BI system in place, all of the needed data comes from one source and can be accessed from one dashboard and converted into a report. This saves much time and energy while removing inefficiencies from the process.
- Find out what your real manufacturing costs are.
BI software can give you a bigger insight into the manufacturing costs of your company and the ability to make changes to production in order to come up with larger profitability.
- Conduct better inventory.
Business Intelligence software helps you make the right orders for inventory (the right amount at the right time). This way, your customers can receive their goods just when they need to receive them and your company doesn’t have the added burden of having to stock excess inventory.
- Gain a better understanding of your business’ past, present and future.
One of the biggest strengths of a BI system is letting you know your business stats over a given period of time such as how much pieces of a certain product were sold, in which location and by which customer representative. This data can be utilized so that an advantage over the competition can be developed. A complete view on customer behavior and experience is provided by certain metrics and analyses, which in turn helps you plan better for your company’s future.
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