Content type
Pill

What is Business Intelligence and what are its uses?

17 Aug 2022. 14:08
Tiempo lectura
5 min.
Published by
Imagen colaborador
Logo Acelera pyme
Acelera pyme

Términos de uso

You can use the resource for personal or informative use with attribution to the entity red.es following our terms of use.

Tags

  • SME maturity
    High
    Topic
    1. Inteligencia de Negocio (Big Data y D&A)
    Scope to digitize
    1. Business processes

Compartir píldora

Entradilla

SMEs are generating more and more data and managing it in order to add value can be very complicated if we do not make use of tools such as Business Intelligence. In this post we tell you what it is and how it can help your business.

Imagen o video destacado
Image
Business Intelligence
Descripción

At a time when data is becoming more and more valuable and relevant, companies must have techniques and tools that allow them to manage it in the best possible way. Business Intelligence (BI) aims to make the most of this valuable resource to optimise business decisions. But what exactly is BI and what is it for? Read on to find out!

What is Business Intelligence?

BI is an umbrella term for a range of technologies, processes and tools, as well as best practices, that enable large amounts of data to be collected, processed and analysed to generate useful information. All this in order for end users to access better information that they can use for further decision making.

How is it different from big data?

As both are fuelled by massive amounts of data, there may be some confusion between the two tools. On the one hand, big data deals with the capture, storage and positioning of mass data, while BI focuses on harnessing this same data to optimise decision making and business reporting.

Now that we have a clearer concept of BI, let's get to know the advantages of implementing this tool in your SME.

What benefits can Business Intelligence bring?

One of the main advantages of this tool is that it gives us a better understanding of all the factors that shape markets and businesses, helping us to stay ahead of the competition. These are some of the other benefits it can bring to your SME:

  • Greater agility in work and data processing, thanks to the centralisation and structuring of data.
  • Presentation of information in an intuitive and centralised work interface, which greatly facilitates the internal operations of our SME.
  • Better optimisation of teamwork through the use of internal encrypted networks that streamline communication and the exchange of data and reports.
  • Increased protection of business data through the incorporation of encrypted networks and systems.
  • Automation of processes such as report creation and reporting.
  • Significant reduction of time spent on certain processes so that it can be spent on others that require it.

What kind of tools can we find in BI?

There is a wide range of BI platforms on the market that can be focused on different aspects:

  • Management tools: are those whose main purpose is to store, centralise, structure and distribute data within the same business. They are vital for the analysis of variables and factors.
  • Reporting tools: allow us to collect structured data, organise and analyse them, and then generate a report on the results obtained, in a clear and organised way and with a visual support.
  • Research tools: mainly help us to obtain new information, manage it, analyse it and develop future projections. In this way, we can integrate the information into dashboards to better evaluate compliance with the company's KPIs.

Currently there are a wide variety of software that offer this tool, among the most popular are Microsoft Power BI, IBM Cognos Analytics, Oracle Business Intelligence, DOMO, among others. These are just some of the many applications that can be found on the market, it is simply a matter of choosing the one that best suits the needs of your SME.

Business Intelligence is becoming one of the key tools for SMEs that want to manage a large volume of data to get the most out of it. This is because data alone is of less value for decision making. For this reason, we recommend you group and process them so that you can interpret them to facilitate decision making in your company. Do not hesitate to study this tool and see if it adapts to the needs of your company!

Related content