Main Uses of Business Intelligence
Suppose you're a business owner, entrepreneur, or part of a management team. In that case, this chapter will provide you with a solid understanding of why your business or department truly needs Business Intelligence.
Uses of Business Intelligence
There are three main uses of Business Intelligence −
- Decision Making
- Business Performance Management
- Finding Business Opportunities and Identifying Problems
1. Decision Making
In this context, decision-making refers to the support that Business Intelligence offers to decision-makers, such as managers. It helps them make informed business decisions across all levels strategic, tactical, and operational by providing valuable information and insights.
Strategic
Example − On which product we should invest for the long run output?
Tactical
Example − To meet yearly targets which promotion we should repeat?
Operational
Example − How many part-time staff should we hire for the weekend?
2. Business Performance Management
The second main use of business intelligence is business performance management. Every successful company has managers at various levels who closely monitor the performance of their individual sections. Constant monitoring keeps them updated on the state of the business and guarantees that performance is in line with their objectives and the more general expectations set by management, including SLAs and Targets.
BI supports two parts of business performance management −
- To understand whats happening in the business.
- To track whether the performance is in accordance with the set objectives and goals.
3. Finding Business Opportunities and Identifying Problems
The third and the last most important part of using BI to find business opportunities identify problems. The third key use of BI is to proactively discover opportunities and identify problems that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. This involves either analyzing data with a specific question in mind or exploring the data without a particular focus, aiming to uncover hidden insights and potential issues.
Processes Supporting Uses of Business Intelligence
The three main processes that support the main use of BI are −
- BI Reporting
- Business Analytics
- Data mining
1. BI Reporting
BI reporting involves the creation, development, and delivery of BI reports to decision-makers. These reports offer a clear and concise overview of the business by summarizing data into information that includes KPIs, business metrics, charts, tables, and more. They allow for a multi-dimensional view of the data, making it easier to understand and analyze.
2. Business Analytics
Business Analysis is one of most important processes that supports the main use of BI. Analytics can be confusing because there are so many terms like BI, data analytics, and business analytics that seem similar. While these terms are often used interchangeably, analytics generally refers to business analytics or data analytics.
Within BI, analytics focuses on deriving insights through data analysis, classified into descriptive (breaking down data to see details), predictive (guessing future trends), and prescriptive (suggesting the best actions) types. The COVID-19 dashboard example illustrates both descriptive and predictive analytics. So in the end we can say that it's important to check the credibility of the information when learning about analytics.
3. Data Mining
Data mining is about finding valuable information in large amounts of data that isnt easy to spot right away. Its important because sometimes business users dont think of all the questions to ask, and some details might get missed. The idea is to look for patterns, trends, and connections that arent obvious. Instead of starting with specific questions, data mining explores the data to uncover new insights and figure out how to use them effectively.
Why is Business Intelligence Important?
After the emergence of technologies in the market in the late 90s business intelligence became a must-have and especially for the large size companies and for the small and the medium size companies it is good to have.
- Reduced costs and cloud-based solutions
- Open-source and no-cost software
- Proof of successful implementation