Business Intelligence…Not Just for IT Anymore
With the decrease in IT staff and departments as a result of the economic recession, companies have had to rethink ways in which they collect, analyze and distribute data. In the past, sales teams and other people who interface directly with clients would inundate IT with requests for more graphs, charts and different views of data. Those days are essentially gone, and so is the reliance on IT alone to provide a deeper look into a company’s progress.
Business intelligence, by definition, is a broad set of software solutions that enables an organization to gain a better understanding of its critical operations through improved analytical tools and reporting capabilities. BI includes a wide range of applications, practices, and technologies for the extraction, translation, integration, analysis, and presentation of data to support improved decision making.
BI in its original conception was criticized as a fad or a useless business tool with bells and whistles but no substance. On the contrary, techno-savvy organizations have found BI tools as a useful source to analyze data and utilize interactive graphics, interfaces and dashboards. BI now allows companies to make the best use of new technology, therefore raising the bar for tracking end results provided to clients.
As Elizabeth Horwitt explains in her article Self Service BI catches on, “One key factor driving the self-service BI market is the rapidly growing volume and complexity of data needed to make decisions” (ComputerWorld). Old systems simply cannot keep up with the demand for information in today’s business climate. In an age where information must be robust and accessible immediately, BI tools have graduated beyond the IT department. So the natural progression for organizations is to empower all employees with BI knowledge and ultimately provide better service offerings to the client. BI allows data to become actionable. From a customer service perspective, business intelligence can show a client what systems are working, what systems are not, and areas for improvement. An empowered customer is a happy customer.
The importance of BI lies not just in whether or not organizations are using it, but how they’re using it. "Today, the big potential for BI is using it at the operational level to improve business processes," says Colin White, founder and president of consultancy BI Research. If we take BI one step further given the technology-driven era we are living in, how BI is delivered is just as important as its usage. In other words, mobile apps are no longer limited to consumer behavior; they are linked with BI tools. In fact, mobile apps for business use are increasing in popularity. Couple this with the use of speech recognition and it’s quite evident how advanced organizations have become with business intelligence tools. Parallel to BI, speech recognition is part of the future in terms of communication advancements.
There is no denying that BI tools have become more sophisticated within organizations. The key to maximizing the value of BI is to invest in programs that truly benefit the organization, consider new methods of data capture in the form of mobile apps, analyze the information thoroughly and make recommendations for change based on the data collected. Your customers will thank you, and hopefully your bottom line will respond positively as well.
