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Benefits Of Transforming Data into Business Insights Through Business Intelligence

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Lucas H. Parker
Benefits Of Transforming Data into Business Insights Through Business Intelligence

While a lot of people talk about the importance of data, the truth is that, on its own, data can be quite useless. Think of a raw lump of gold; it’s definitely valuable, but what if you lacked the tools or contacts to process it and turn it into coins, bullions, or jewelry? The same thing goes for data. Unless you can turn it into information, its use for your business will be fairly limited.

However, is information the final step of this journey? Of course not, information is consumed in order to acquire knowledge and once you understand, truly understand, you’ve reached the stage of insight. In other words, in the ideal set of circumstances, a piece of raw data will eventually become a business insight. To get there, you’ll usually need sophisticated analytical tools like business intelligence (BI) software.

With that in mind and without further ado, here are several reasons why this is such an important process, as well as what you stand to gain from all of it.

Business Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence

The comparison of BI and AI may sound natural, but the truth is that these two terms are completely distinct and complementary. Namely, I in AI stands for the ability of a machine to act in a way that closely resembles human intelligence. I in BI, on the other hand, is a process that processes raw data into analyzed and visualized information that people can use to get insight.

Why are they complementary?

By enhancing BI software with AI, all BI processes will become more efficient. Under the influence of these innovative tech trends, especially deep learning, numerous industries are growing at an astounding pace. In other words, instead of comparing the two or ridiculously believing that you somehow have to “make a choice,” all you need to understand is how these two concepts can work hand in hand.

Faster Business Intelligence Process

The first thing you need to understand is the importance of the very process of business intelligence. You see, the biggest problem regarding data is the fact that it’s often in a form that’s nearly impossible to analyze.

Some forms of data are not even structured for interpretation, which is why there’s a division between structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data. In some scenarios, you’ll even need an IIM (intelligent information management) system like M-Files in order to coordinate this landscape. This is a prime example of a scenario where the BI is not enough on its own.

As far as the process goes, to be interpreted, data needs to be harvested first. From that point on, there are stages of:

  • Performance measuring
  • Statistical analysis
  • Data visualization
  • Visual analysis

Once all of these stages are done, we’re finally ready for the final stage – reporting. These reports need to be uniformed, and they need to be based on all the relevant KPIs. This way, comparisons between reports that come from different points in time will be possible.

Improving Business Model

Some of the benefits of using BI to get business insight lie in a chance to improve your entire business model. Namely, through the analysis of customer behavior, you have an opportunity to optimize operations so that you increase customer experience. By growing in other areas, you get to increase your profits and make more accurate predictions.

Another great advantage of using BI is a chance to discover issues before they escalate to the problem status. You also get to spot market trends early on. If there’s one thing that’s certain in the business world, it’s that chasing money is never a good thing. You need to spot a lucrative opportunity before it starts paying off. Once the payout starts, the chances are that you’ve already missed your opportunity to capitalize on it.

Great for Collaboration

The information obtained through the BI process shouldn’t be restricted. Instead, you can share it with the rest of your team. 

Through joint analysis and brainstorming, chances of acquiring insight are far more probable. Also, the information obtained this way can be promoted further in order to improve your standing in the business world. By gaining this insight early, you stand a chance to start your own trend.

This brings us to another advantage of BI – easy access to all the relevant data. Naturally, access to these tools can be assigned or restricted. However, it provides quick analytics, and it is a great way to reduce your company’s need for human analysts. 

Instead of waiting for the analysis process/session to be over, your employees can look up the answers for themselves in key positions. This way, the effectiveness of every project is enhanced.

Constant Evolution

It is also worth mentioning that the BI has evolved over these past several years. For instance, in the past, BI was heavily reliant on IT insight and input. 

Today, a small enterprise no longer needs an IT expert to use these analytical tools properly. In turn, the process is quicker and more autonomous. The emphasis of modern BI tools lies in the intuitiveness of use, user-friendliness of interface/dashboard, and accessibility. These dashboards are fully customizable and only add an additional entry to this already impressive list of features.

As more and more enterprises start relying on the BI, the investment in this sphere will grow bigger and bigger, further increasing the development in this area. So, organizations are bound to take an even bigger interest in these (now even more) sophisticated tools across the globe and industries. This creates an endless loop of progress.

In Conclusion

In the end, all that matters is that you understand all your resources and assets. Relevant data is your starting point – raw material. Business intelligence is the sophisticated instrument of processing this data into information – the tools. 

Lastly, business insight is the end goal – the end product. In a way, insight is the best possible end result that any relevant piece of data can become. Needless to say, this is only possible through business intelligence.

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