5 Business Intelligence Tools You Should Know
To succeed in a career as a business intelligence specialist, one must be well-versed in certain software programs. These programs include screwdrivers, nails and hammers. Business intelligence involves the collection, processing and analysis of data by businesses. It also involves the creation of tools and strategies companies use to accomplish these tasks.
Business intelligence tools can help businesses identify new opportunities for increased ROI and competitive advantage based on findings from insights. These tools are commonly used by every department in every business and industry, so consider exploring one to advance your career.
This chart shows the many benefits of using BI tools and five of the most commonly used ones.
A business intelligence tool is any software that helps gather information about a company.
Business intelligence tools gather, process and analyze large amounts of data from both internal and external sources. These tools can gather information from books, images, videos, journals, emails, files and more. Data ranges from organized unstructured data to social media posts, books and graphs. Tools use queries to pull data into easy-to-use formats like reports, charts and graphs.
Tools enable employees to perform functions such as data mining, data visualization, performance management, analytics, reporting, text mining, predictive analytics and more. As a result, employees can utilize this information to make better decisions based on predictions, market trends and key performance indicators— also known as KPIs.
Some of the benefits of using BI tools are that they provide more power and data analysis options.
Using tools like BI can help your business move forward with goals that are larger and more ambitious.
Companies have many different databases, systems and portals throughout their company. These systems collect data from everything from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Gathering all of this information is incredibly difficult; it requires tools like business intelligence to combine all these databases into one place and provide specific views of issues, trends and analytics based on your queries.
In 2020, every employee can access and analyze data needed for their specific departments. DataAnalysis self-sufficiency allows non-technical employees to produce reports on all electronics sales, or visualize patient records to see how many COVID-19 cases were present in 2022.
Predictive analytics and forecasting enable businesses to gather insights from their performance history. This allows them to analyze past data and make predictions about the future. This means that when anomalies arise, businesses can figure out what’s happening automatically. This way, they can react to any changes and anticipate new issues as they arise.
Many business intelligence tools provide reports automatically. This can be done through a system that pulls data from multiple sources, or through a method that doesn't require inputting information manually. If you need a report for a specific product in a specific time frame, then the tool will create that report for you. Additionally, if you want to use any charts or graphs in your presentation, you can download them and combine them into an interactive visual.
Business Intelligence tools can dramatically decrease business costs by monitoring processes, forecasting sales and analyzing consumer behavior. Much more accurate reporting, planning and monitoring processes have never been possible before these tools were introduced to the business world. Over half of users reported that these tools helped them increase revenue and decrease expenses
A list of the best business intelligence tools that should be maintained and used.
Out of ten websites that ranked the best BI tools, each cited dozens of different BI tools. To determine the top five most commonly used tools, these were the ones ranked first. These five tools aren’t ordered in any particular order.
1. Microsoft Power BI is a data analysis tool provided by Microsoft.
Microsoft is a leading software company and offers the popular Power BI as a downloadable tool. This BI tool can be used to run analytics on a reporting server or in the cloud. This program connects to a variety of sources, including Facebook, Oracle and more, allowing users to sync reports and dashboards in seconds. It comes with built-in AI capabilities, data connectors, Excel integration and end-to-end data encryption. Additionally, it has real-time access monitoring and data encryption that goes all the way through.
2. Tableau is a French word for a graphical representation of data.
Tableau’s chart-making software is well-known among its users; however, it can do so much more. This data analysis software comes with a drag-and-drop interface for making trends easy to see, live visual analytics and more. Tools like this one connect to a wide variety of databases thanks to its ability to connect to Microsoft Excel, Google Analytics, Box and other data sources. It also supports connecting with various other tools like PDF files and even the popular Google Spreadsheets.
3. QlikSense is a spreadsheet application created by QlikTech.
QlikSense is a business intelligence tool that uses self-service methods. This means the software supports many different use cases for analytics: from guided dashboards and apps to embedded and custom analytics. It also has a touch-friendly interface and high-performing cloud platforms thanks to its advanced artificial intelligence. QLikSense's associative exploration capability, Search & Conversational Analytics, makes it easy for users to ask questions and find actionable insights. This increases data literacy among newBI users.
4. The Dundas Business Intelligence
Dundas BI is a browser-based business intelligence tool that has been around for 25 years. It's similar to Tableau in that it features a drag and drop feature users can use to analyze their own data. Because of this, Dundas BI doesn't require any help from the IT department. The simplicity and versatility of the platform have made it a well-known analytics tool. It started out as a data visualization tool in 1992, then evolved into an end-to-end analytics platform by 1996. Some of its recent additions include visual analytics and dashboards, which make it hard to compete with newer BI tools.
5. Sisense provides access to more than just medical data.
Sisense is a powerful BI tool that streamlines and simplifies every aspect of its data processing. By exporting information from Google Analytics, Salesforce and other sources, this tool is highly user-friendly and in-chip. Its technology allows it to process data faster than other tools. A key feature of Sisense is the ability to add white label analytics. This means a company can create a unique service for themselves that doesn’t use any third-party programs. Sisense also has a drag-and-drop feature like other programs. It also lets you share reports and dashboards with coworkers and external organizations.
Some more popular BI tools are: Yellowfin BI, Looker, Board, Google Data Studio, HubSpot, Clear Analytics, Google Data Studio, BIRT, Tibco Spotfire, Oracle BI, Datapine, Zoho Analytics, SAS Visual Analytics, SAP Business Objects and IBM Cognos Analytics.
