5 Ways to Use Business Intelligence Tools to Stay Competitive In 2021

With 2021 upon us, businesses are looking for new ways to stay competitive. One of the best ways to compete is by using business intelligence tools. 

In simple words, business intelligence refers to the management of a specific subset of data that enables companies to generate meaningful insights. 

Data is king in the world of today. However, data in itself is not useful. It all comes down to how you make use of it. This post takes a close look at business intelligence and how you can use business intelligence tools to stand out in 2021.

What Is Business Intelligence?

Business intelligence is the process through which an organization collects, organizes, and contextualizes data to make sense. Although the term was first coined in the 1960s, it has only become popular in the last decade. 

When it comes to business intelligence, this involves a diverse range of data-related activities such as querying, visualization, reporting, and data mining. 

The fact is that business intelligence means something different for every company. However, at its core, it focuses on the collection, management, and analysis of data to derive business insights. To take advantage of business intelligence, you have to use business intelligence tools.

What Are Business Intelligence Tools?

Business intelligence tools are applications used for gathering, processing, analyzing, and visualizing a large volume of past, present, and future data to drive actionable business insights and simplify decision-making.

These tools consist of key features like KPI scorecards, interactive dashboards, visual analytics, and data visualization. You can also use the tools to utilize predictive analytics and automated reporting features.

To better understand the power of business intelligence tools, you have to consider their benefits.

Benefits of Using Business Intelligence Tools

1. Compile All Relevant Data

Whether you are running a digital marketing agency or any other business type, you are most likely to use different portals, databases, APIs, flat files, CRMs, and ERPs to collect data. 

To manage data from all these sources, you must have a high level of data intelligence to better understand the information collected. A higher understanding of the data is where business intelligence tools come into place. It allows you to compile all relevant information to centralize the information.

2. Help Unlock Data Access

With business intelligence tools, each person in the organization would be able to explore the data without requiring an expert’s help. This feature would help reduce the dependence on the IT department. Thus, the company would save valuable time and resources.

3. Take Decisions Based on Predictions

Even though you might think that you should follow your intuition, it is always better to make decisions based on predictions. Business intelligence tools offer predictive analytics, which you use for generating insights into the future. This benefit would make it easier for you to make decisions.

4. Eliminate Manual Tasks

When you use business intelligence tools, you get to eliminate manual tasks. For instance, you would not need to prepare the report on your own as the process will be automated, which makes the tools very useful.   

How Can You Use Business Intelligence Tools?

Now that you have a better idea about business intelligence tools, you will find it a lot easier to understand how you can use them to remain competitive in 2021. 

1. To Stay Notified of Targets and Anomalies

To compete in 2021, you need to bring your A-game, which is possible by using data management tools to stay notified of targets and anomalies.

The best thing about the business intelligence tool is that it is designed for various platforms, functions, and industries. You can enter the desired values and create powerful dashboards and charts for staying alert about the latest updates.   

To remain competitive, you need to be aware of whenever your targets are achieved and if anomalies appear. With data connectors, you get to visualize and chart the performance of your KPIs. The business intelligence tool leverages artificial intelligence to combine all your data in one place to alert you of anomalies, patterns, and metrics.

By staying notified, you will be able to capitalize on opportunities before anyone else, which would allow you to establish your presence in the market. 

2. To Learn About the Latest Trends

If you want to thrive in 2021, you need to keep up with the latest trends. To know about the emerging trends in your industry, you need to use predictive Business Intelligence tools. ClicData’s predictive analysis tool is an excellent example. It is the ultimate business intelligence tool that focuses on easy analytics and visual data exploration. 

Through data exploration supported by machine learning, you can use the business intelligence tool to learn more about the latest trends, forecast sales, identify new customer segments, etc. The software provides you with meaningful insights that you can use to stay ahead in the game. 

Business Intelligence tools make it easy for you to analyze data and identify trends. The tools allow you to dive deeper with visual data exploration. It takes a close look at trends that you might have otherwise overlooked.  

3. To Come Up with New Products or Services

Your customers and prospects are always on the lookout for the next best product or service. If you want to become a market leader in your industry, you need to give data analytical tools a try. Data analytical tools are powerful software that utilizes AI and machine learning to consolidate data to help you identify a new niche. 

As the tools consolidate data from both internal and external systems, they allow you to develop new products and services. This feature makes them an incredibly useful software application. You can use these analytical tools to keep an eye on the market and to determine if there is a missing product or service that you can provide.

Most BI tools offer a free trial that enables you to learn everything about the software before you commit to purchasing it long-term. They provide you with information to launch products before your competition. It does not get better than this. There is a lot that you can do with these business intelligence tools, including Identifying new products and services that you can develop for your target audience.

4. To Boost Investment Opportunities

To succeed in 2021, you need to keep investments flowing. If investments run out, you will end up suffering from liquidity issues. To ensure the continuity of capital, you need to continue to attract new investors to boost investment opportunities. 

Business intelligence tools can help you identify and secure investment opportunities. Financial Reporting and Data Management BI tools are perfect for this job. They synthesize your company data in one place for data visualization, analysis, and reporting. Moreover, with these intelligent dashboards, you should have no trouble creating live presentations and convincing investors to take an interest in your endeavors. 

One can even use hybrid analytics for connecting to on-premise systems. Leverage data from HR, IT, customer support, digital supply chain, and CRM to attract more investors and boost investment. Moreover, with automated reporting, you get your latest financial data, which you can pitch to investors.

To keep funds flowing, you have to cater to potential investors and encourage existing investors to invest in your business venture actively, which is possible with these BI financial and data management tools.

5. To Develop an Effective Business Strategy

Finally, you can also use business intelligence to stay competitive by using them to develop an effective business strategy. You can use Real-Time Data, Data warehousing, and predictive analytics to increase access to the latest information to make better business decisions.

You can use a business intelligence solution that consists of multiple systems, such as ETL tools, warehouses, and data lakes, to prepare predictive modeling.  Most of these BI tools connect all the data across the enterprise and utilize artificial intelligence capabilities for helping users develop new strategies.

If you are struggling with business strategy development and want to make sure that you develop the most effective strategy, you can use these BI tools to simplify the business decision-making process.

The smart and interactive dashboards that accompany most tools allow you to build the perfect dashboard to assess risks and determine what would work best for you. If you have a few business ideas, you can enter them into the business intelligence tool to visualize the possible results. This feature enables you to decide which business idea would be most likely to succeed.

Takeaway – Use Business Intelligence Tools to Beat Competition in 2021

Business intelligence is the future. It is here to stay.

If you want to come out strong in 2021, you must use business intelligence to its full potential. The right business intelligence tool synthesizes your company data in one place, and provides secure warehousing, effective financial reporting, and accurate predictive analytics to help you make the soundest business decisions.

From staying updated to developing effective business strategies, you can use business intelligence tools to experience explosive growth in 2021. 

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About the author

Myrah Abrar is a computer science graduate with a passion for web development and digital marketing. She writes blog articles for Dynamologic Solutions, A Software Company.