Make Informed Decisions With Business Intelligence Software

What is business intelligence, and how can BI software help your company? In this post, we look at business intelligence software’s definition and a few examples.

Peter Drucker was right. “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” Making decisions based on information rather than gut instinct is crucial to healthy business practice. It’s no secret — businesses that collect and analyze their data and take action based on the resulting insights are more successful than competitors that don’t. This process of extracting useful information and applying it to make decisions is what business intelligence is all about – and software development projects that automate this process can help companies gain a sustainable competitive advantage.

>>Business intelligence empowers you to make the best business decisions based on what is happening right now. Read More.

What Is Business Intelligence?

Business intelligence, or BI, draws upon data and information to inform good business decision-making. Business intelligence hinges on three major questions:

• What
• How
• Why

They may sound simple, but answering these questions through BI can have a huge impact on your business’ success. Let’s look at an analogy to illustrate the concept, and compare business intelligence to weather forecasting. Both are responsible for measuring something (answering the “what”), giving context to these measurements (the “how”), and applying appropriate analysis (determining the “why)”. Understanding the “why” is what enables strategic decision making.

In weather forecasting, the current temperature could be the “what.” Context would then be applied to this information to determine the “how.” For example, we could determine it’s cold because the temperature is dropping. From there we can analyze the “why,” understanding the temperature is dropping because a major cold front is on its way. This information tells us we should dress warmly before going outside — an informed decision.

So how does this apply to a business? The “what” of your business starts with the data that is collected and measured, then organized in accurate and efficient way. This data can then be used to generate reports that present your business information in a clear and digestible way, much the same way a thermometer would tell you the current temperature. Data collection and reporting are the fundamental building blocks for understanding what is happening with your business (this is also known as descriptive analytics).

But there’s much more to business intelligence than reports alone can deliver!

You need to know how and why the things you see in your reports are happening, just as you need to know which way the temperature is fluctuating and how high or low it will get so you can decide what to wear. This deeper and more meaningful analysis of your data, referred to as predictive and prescriptive analytics, is accomplished with an array of BI tools.

Making The Most Of Your Data: Business Intelligence Software Development

What Is Business Intelligence Software?

Product design and strategy make it possible to create BI and analytics tools that provide context and meaning for your data. Software solutions can be wide-ranging, depending on the information your business is trying to capture and the type of analytics you want to conduct.

Business Intelligence Software Tool Examples

Some software collects data, some software analyzes it, and the most effective solutions complete both processes in one. Here are some general functions completed by business intelligence software:

• Monitoring
• Alerts
• Trend Lines
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Data Collection
• Reporting
• Descriptive Analytics
• Statistical Analysis

Business Intelligence Software Definitions: Custom Versus Pre-Built

As with many forms of software, BI tools they can be either pre-built (out of the box) or customized. Pre-built solutions are often quicker and easier to implement, plus more cost effective. Customized business intelligence solutions require custom software development and thus are more of an investment, but having an application that’s tailored specifically to your business and brand is hugely valuable.

Software solutions accomplish many functions, starting with the collection of data through a variety of tools. These tools are often organized into a dashboard display that provides a visual, current “at-a-glance” insight into the most relevant bits of information. Alerts can also be set for times when something requires immediate attention. These tools make it easier to take appropriate action when it is most needed.

A Business Intelligence Application Example: City of Houston Dashboard

At Praxent, we impart a strong strategy from the start and we’ve used those skills to build BI solutions that are approachable and accessible. One of our recent projects involved building a Financial Dashboard for the City of Houston. In response to a specific goal, we built a website that lists all the city’s purchasing contracts, in addition to spending associated with each. The powerful tool increased government accountability – and citizen participation – a great deal. Because contracts are now searchable and visible, residents can understand where their money is going and vendors are able to make more competitive bids. The result was millions of dollars of savings for the city.

>> Learn more about this project

Key Takeaways for Implementing BI Software

Business intelligence software development provides your business with a valuable tool. It allows you to gain the insight needed to make smart business decisions, and provides key pieces of information that contributes to the health and success of your business.

• Insights into customer behavior and buyer personas
• Visibility into market trends over time
• Optimization of business processes or operations
• Transparency into spending
• Data collection and storage
• Prediction of future success or failure
• Alerts when issues or problems occur
• Competitive insights and/or advantage
• Revenue generation

Business intelligence software makes it possible to get the right information to the right people at the right time. With this information in hand, you can take appropriate action for your business in ways that would otherwise be impossible.

Learn more

If you’re interested in exploring the idea of a customized BI software solution, we invite you to schedule a free consultation with our development team.