The Vital Importance of Real-Time Business Intelligence & Analytics

person looking at business intelligence charts on a computer

For a business to stay competitive in their industry, regardless of what that industry is, there is one thing that is becoming increasingly important: real-time business intelligence and actionable forward looking insights.

We talk to hundreds of companies of all sizes every year, operating in different industries, serving vastly different markets. Many of these companies have something in common: limited access to useful, data-driven reporting and analytics. Often Analytics is confused with reporting, and to some companies analytics is an afterthought or an avoidable cost; while it nice to have, analytics is not seen as essential to business success.

We tend to think otherwise; a lack of meaningful analytics means you are missing a whole host of benefits that could accelerate your business. Companies that do not have access to analytics, or companies that have over-invested in data engineering resources to produce these analytics, are either completely missing actionable data insights or not realizing the expected benefits and questioning the ROI.

The truth is that “The use of analytics is no longer limited to big companies with deep pockets. It is now widespread, with 59% of enterprises using analytics in some capacity. And companies are capitalizing on this technology in several ways.”1

So- what is Business Intelligence & Analytics, anyways?

Gartner defines Business Analytics as “solutions used to build analysis models and simulations to create scenarios, understand realities and predict future states.2

The field of business analytics has evolved – ‘Business Intelligence’ was what we once thought of as displaying the various facts and figures extracted from data as visuals or tables. That has morphed into strategic business intelligence- intelligence that can predict outcomes, track trends, and make recommendations for the future.

Today Business Analytics brings together the fields of business management and computing to deliver actionable insights. The fact is that any transaction systems, such as ERPs, are not built or optimized for analytics. Data must be collected from the different systems, and it does not matter what those systems are – it must be cleaned and transformed to make it usable by business users – then it must be processed and analyzed to draw usable information out of it.

A High-Level Business Analytics Process May Include:

Data is great to have – but a proper analytics should tell a story and drive action. While it is beneficial to have access to dashboards showing you facts and figures about your business, what you do with this data that is most important.

Empowering all levels of employees to use data for their decision-making process means extracting relevant insights at every level of the company. Without a doubt, one of the big benefits of data analytics and professional self-service BI tools is the democratization of data.

https://www.datapine.com/blog/benefits-of-business-intelligence-and-business-analytics/

In addition to the empowering employees through the democratization of data, here are some of the additional benefits associated with good Business Analytics

According to a survey from Deloitte, 49% of respondents say that analytics helps them make better decisions, 16% say that it better enables key strategic initiatives, and 10% say it helps them improve relationships with both customers and business partners.

(https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/10/01/the-age-of-analytics-and-the-importance-of-data-quality/?sh=39f3b8515c3c)

The importance of Business Intelligence and Analytics cannot be understated.

Companies who do not take advantage of the swaths of data they collect are missing valuable insights and trends that will allow them to serve their employees and customers better.

Beacon Analytics, powered by Cedric Millar, empowers companies to fully unlock the power of data- to increase efficiencies, remove redundancies, and deliver better value to their customers. Click here to learn more about this robust business intelligence service.

If you would like to learn how a robust Business Analytics framework could transform your business, book a demo of Beacon Analytics today! Email info@beacon-analytics.com

  1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/10/01/the-age-of-analytics-and-the-importance-of-data-quality/?sh=39f3b8515c3c)
  2. https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/glossary/business-analytics

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