WHAT IS A BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE (BI) TOOL?
A BI tool is a data visualization software that collates and analyzes data from various internal and external sources and presents insights that are relevant to business metrics and performance. The BI Tools are one of the most important anchors of the decision-making process in an organization because they provide valuable actionable data to enable fact-driven business decisions. Reports and dashboards that are used in the day-to-day analysis are the simplest usages of BI tools. BI catalyzes timely decisions, simplifies a large amount of data into a usable form, and offers industry-specific information and case studies. Therefore, for any business, choosing the right BI tool is the key to strategizing business operations, right from manufacturing performance to logistical efficiency to consumer behavior to employee performance, leading to increased profitability and competitive advantage.
As much as BI tools are important, it is equally important to choose the right tool that can cater to your data analysis requirements. Choosing the right BI Tool becomes easy with the following six-step strategy:
DEFINING THE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE STRATEGY
Creating a business intelligence strategy for your organization is the first step in selecting the BI Tool. Remember, your BI strategy must serve the ambitions of the organization, support technological changes, and take advantage of data possibilities. Having a very long-term strategy does not help, because the world and the information it gives is fast changing.
DEFINING YOUR DATA NEEDS
Once the strategy is defined, you need to clearly identify and define your data needs. For what do you want a BI tool? For example, you may want to exchange critical information with your customers or keep track of operational expenses, analyze production performance, or generate analytical sales reports. Your need(s) defines the tool(s) that you must use for your business optimization.
EVALUATE YOUR CURRENT DATA STACK
The BI tool must be a good fit within your overall data architecture or data stack and should not be considered a standalone tool. For example, if you are building a data stack on a cloud platform like AWS or Azure, then, you should ensure that the selected BI tools (Power BI, Looker) fit into the architecture. While doing so, start by asking the following questions:
- Will data need to be scheduled weekly, daily, or in real-time?
- Will transformation logic occur within the tool, or will an intermediate layer be needed for the same?
Such questions help in understanding the back-end and front-end requirements and how the tool fits into the same. Choosing the right platform/architecture and syncing the tool with it is important for ensuring the BI data needs are met.
TAKE LIVE DEMOS FROM VENDORS
With Business Intelligence becoming a key ingredient in the decision-making process of every organization, a large number of vendors are available to provide you with BI tools as per your requirements. Having them give a live demonstration of their solutions will help you do a real-time mapping of your requirements and the solution thereof. PBI Analytics is one of the innovative Data Consulting and Analytics companies that understands your BI requirements thoroughly and provides the right tools to cater to the same. Book a demo now.
RUN A PROOF OF CONCEPT (POC) / TOOL EVALUATION
A BI tool is an important investment, and you need to be sure that the investment is right. Performing a Proof of Concept (POC) means testing the tool in your IT environment, and getting an idea of the functionality, connectivity, implementation, usability, and performance of each Business Intelligence tool selected. This will also help you map your identified future needs with the tools and the associated costs that will need to be incurred in the future. Moreover, it helps you understand the training needs of the user groups in your organization.
RECKON THE INTANGIBLE ASPECTS
Once the vendor is identified and the POC of the solution is performed, there are a few considerations you must take into account for the final evaluation:
Licensing
Good deals are always welcome, but not at the cost of licensing constraints as they may affect your future scalability. Starter licensing may be good if you want to conduct a pilot test but getting premium features or scaled-up implementation will incur a respective cost. Understand your current and future needs and then decide on the licensing options. Be prepared for the costs that you may need to incur for future scaling up.
User Adaptability
The implementation of any BI tool is done by the users who ultimately use them. Your BI team and users need to be trained on how to use the tools. If the tool is a niche, it would need a niche talent to develop and use the same. Such talent comes with a premium cost which may not be the ideal situation for your Human Resources budget. Simplicity in performance is of significant importance, while the tool should be able to cater to all reporting needs.
While the above six steps help you choose the right BI tool for your organization, you can look at the following competencies that a tool should adhere to, for optimum utilization.
COMPETENCIES OF A BI TOOL
- Smooth integration with existing applications
- Personalized dashboards
- Secured publishing of reports
- Support Advanced data services
- Easy implementation and data access
- Multiple platform and device friendly
All these parameters are a must consider while making a final decision on your Business Intelligence tools. Microsoft offers the Power BI Tool which not only fits into the above parameters but also extracts BI data rapidly and needs no specialized technical support for implementation. It is developer and user-friendly and the reports generated by Power BI can be viewed across multiple platforms and devices. PBI Analytics are Mumbai-based Microsoft partners providing Power BI tool solutions to help you with your Business Intelligence needs in the most efficient and optimum way.
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