What is business intelligence?

There are four basic steps that business intelligence takes to turn raw data into digestible information for everyone in the organization to use. The first three – data collection, analysis and visualization – set the stage for the final decision-making step. Before using BI, businesses had to do much of their analysis manually, but BI tools automate many of the processes and save companies time and effort with Business Intelligence Services.

Step 1: Collect and transform data from multiple sources

Business intelligence tools typically use the extract, transform, and load (ETL) method to aggregate structured and unstructured data from multiple sources. This data is then transformed and reformatted before being stored in a central location so that applications can easily analyze and query it as a complete dataset.

Step 2: Reveal trends and inconsistencies

Data mining, or data discovery, typically uses automation to quickly analyze data to find patterns and outliers that provide insight into the current state of the business. BI tools often feature various types of data modeling and analytics—including exploratory, descriptive, statistical, and predictive—that further explore the data, predict trends, and make recommendations.

Step 3: Use data visualization to present findings

Business intelligence reporting uses data visualizations to make the findings easier to understand and share. Reporting methods include interactive data dashboards , graphs, charts, and maps that help users see what's happening in the business right now.

Step 4: Take action on real-time insights

Viewing current and historical data in relation to business activities enables companies to move quickly from ideas to action. Business intelligence enables real-time adjustments and long-term strategic changes that eliminate inefficiencies, adapt to market changes, correct supply problems and resolve customer issues.

Why companies benefit from using business intelligence tools

Because business intelligence tools accelerate information analysis and performance evaluation, they are valuable in helping companies reduce inefficiencies, highlight potential problems, find new revenue streams, and identify areas for future growth.

• Some of the specific benefits that businesses get when using BI include:
• Increased efficiency of business processes.
• Insights into customer behavior and purchasing patterns.
• Accurate tracking of sales, marketing and financial performance.
• Delete benchmarks based on historical and current data.
• Instant notifications about data anomalies and customer issues.
• Analytics that can be shared in real-time across multiple departments.

In the past, business intelligence tools were mainly used by data analysts and IT users. Now, self-service BI platforms make business intelligence available to everyone, from executives to business teams.

See how business intelligence is improving the way you work in six key areas:

Customer experience

Access all of your customer information in one place so you can direct resources to key areas that will positively impact customer loyalty and support.

Sales and Marketing

Gain visibility into sales and marketing performance, consumer behavior and buying trends that ensures future marketing initiatives are effective and drive revenue.

Operations

Improve operations by automating routine analysis tasks, improving processes, reducing inefficiencies and increasing productivity.

Financially

Use custom dashboards to see a holistic picture of the company's financial strength, study historical data, calculate risk and predict trends.

Inventory control

Automate data analysis and reporting to improve inventory management, accelerate fulfillment and help predict market trends.