Are you using any Business Intelligence tools in your company? If you are not doing that, it’s time to start.
Many companies have the habit of ignoring developing trends in Business Intelligence (BI) in favor of more conventional methods that have already been validated via experience and research.
However, if you want to stay ahead of the competition in today’s market, it is more necessary than ever to make use of effective and cutting-edge business intelligence technologies.
Traditional methods undoubtedly have their benefits, but it is not enough to keep your business profitable over time.
Maintaining an up-to-date knowledge base is critical to your success in the technologically advanced and rapidly changing world of today.
With this in mind, let’s take a look at why business tools are important to give your business a competitive edge.
We will go through some of the best tools out there to help you do this!
Table of Contents
What Is A Business Intelligence Tool?
A business intelligence (BI) tool is software designed to retrieve, analyze, transform, and report your data for business intelligence.
They will usually read data previously stored in a data warehouse before presenting it to you in the form of reports, graphs, or other formats.
Once you have this data presented to you, you can use it to make better decisions regarding market trends, predictions, and key performance indicators (KPIs).
You can use the data too to help you make decisions that will give your business a competitive edge.
Some examples of how you might be using this information are:
- create a marketing strategy that will offer your prices cheaper than a direct competitor.
- allowing you to see any parts of your business that aren’t making as much money as you thought and address them quickly to save on costs.
Why Are Business Intelligence Tools Important?
Now that we know what a BI tool is, let’s look at why they are needed for a competitive edge.
There are a few ways business intelligence tools will benefit your business. All of these will help give your business a competitive edge.
So let’s take a look at these now before seeing what tools you should be using!
They Offer Fast Reporting
First up, BI tools will give you access to accurate report templates that can save a ton of time!
These reports can be condensed easily into a single data dashboard. This dashboard can be scanned to see the success of the business and areas that need improvement.
Fast reporting is super important as you aren’t spending valuable time gathering data.
Instead, you are out there acting on the data while the BI tool does the hard work for you.
They Can Improve Efficiency
BI software allows your business to become more efficient too.
By using a tool to generate and analyze your data, employees don’t need to spend as much time looking for information.
They will have more time to analyze data, produce reports, and get working on new strategies.
This will allow your business to operate more efficiently than competitors not using BI tools.
This means you can work on creating new marketing campaigns or improving customer satisfaction while your competitors are still analyzing data!
You Can Spot Market Trends
A BI tool is also excellent at spotting market trends.
That’s very important as you can use this to tailor your marketing campaigns. This will help your business have a competitive edge over other competitors.
You can also use your BI tool to gather market data quickly and provide an analysis of it that will help you in reports and strategy meetings.
They Help Track Customer Satisfaction
Would you like to know how to support your customer better?
Using a BI tool, you can do that by tracking customer complaints and queries.
We suggest focusing on this so you can deliver excellent customer satisfaction. After all, the happier your customers are, the more likely they are to return!
You Can Analyze Your Competitors
A BI tool will allow you to track your competitors’ performance as well as your own.
You can use this to understand your competitors better, and use this information to have an edge over them!
For example, you can see when your competitors run promotional offers across the year.
Most tools will allow you to do this, even the ones listed below!
Business Intelligence Tools For A Competitive Edge
We have established what business intelligence tools are and why they are important.
Now, let’s take a look at some of the best out there…
It will help you decide which one is right for you and your business!
ClicData
First up, we have ClicData, an end-to-end, native cloud data analytics platform that allows you to view your data preparation, warehouse, and reporting in one easy location!
With no code required, you can set this up in no time, even if you have limited IT skills.
ClicData also allows you to measure your marketing campaign ROI, visualize MoM and YoY sales against targets, and create new dashboards, and reports.
How impressive is that?
You can even send reports to customers and clients from the same platform!
This will help you improve your customer satisfaction and become a more competitive business.
It is widely considered the best BI tool out there and it’s easy to see why, it offers all the reporting you need to study your business and grow with ease.
Yellowfin
Next, we have Yellowfin, which provides white-labeled, embedded analytics for software applications with just one single integrated platform!
The platform features action-based dashboards, automated analysis, data storytelling, and beautiful visualization of your data!
It’s ideal for anyone looking to see their business at a glance and make improvements, which is at the heart of business intelligence.
What’s more, it features automated alerts and AI-generated insight explanations that make it even easier for your customers to realize the self-service of this business intelligence tool!
The only downside is it does require some coding, but compared to other software it is relatively low-code, so it shouldn’t cause your IT team too much trouble!
Tableau
If you want a user-friendly BI tool, then look no further than Tableau!
Tableau goes beyond pretty pictures and graphs to show you data.
You can enjoy live visual analytics where you can drag and drop buttons to spot trends quickly and act on them!
Talk about intelligence! Tableau integrates with virtually any database too, so you never need to worry about compatibility.
You can also share and collaborate by connecting to Tableau server or cloud, allowing you to share your analytics and insights with other teams or customers.
Tableau also provides integration with Slack, meaning the whole team can be involved and check the data.
Our favorite feature is the AI predictions that allow you to see the direction of your business and use the information you have to grow how you want.
Sisense
If you are new to BI tools, why not start with Sisense?
Sisense is incredibly streamlined and simplified, so you can get the analytics you need without needing to learn any complicated software!
Sisnese allows you to export data from Salesforce, Google Analytics, and other sources with ease.
You do not need to worry about complex data migrations to new tools, you can carry on using the ones you know and simply export your data when you want to make use of its intelligent features!
The in-chip technology means your data is processed faster than with other tools, providing you with the data you need now!
You can also embed white-label analytics, use the drag-and-drop feature, and share your reports with team members and external partners.
Whether you want to show clients how their order is processed, or you are collaborating with a freelance employee, your data can be shared securely.
Final Thoughts
And there you have it, why business tools are needed for a competitive edge!
Whether you are looking to boost sales, reduce costs, or implement a new marketing strategy, BI tools can provide you with the analytics you need to do so.
Once you implement these new strategies, you can help your business grow and remain competitive with others out there, hopefully driving more sales to you than your competitors!
Be sure to take a look at the tools we reviewed today to see which one would fit best with your business.
I’m a blogger and entrepreneur. I want to help you in your journey to build your business online.
