What Business Problems Can BI & Analytics Solve?

Business analytics & business intelligence: the difference

Both BI and business analytics are data management solutions aimed to collect data using statistics and software tools to:

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But <medium>what is the difference between business intelligence and business analytics?<medium>

The key distinction between <medium>BI and BA is the type of analytics<medium> they use and the goals they accomplish. They differ mainly <medium>by points they are focused on and questions they are 'called' to answer.<medium>

BI prioritizes descriptive analytics. It performs historical and present data to gain information about the 'current state of affairs' and information about past events for a better understanding of changes that have occurred in the business.

It answers the questions <medium>"what", "what has happened" or "what is happening now"<medium>, as well as "how". So you can identify what processes are going efficiently and what processes are not as efficient as needed. But let's note that this type of analytics is now being used in conjunction with advanced tools, such as predictive analytics which will be discussed next.

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<medium>BA focuses on predictive analytics<medium> and its tools include:

• data modeling
• data mining
• machine learning

<medium>Predictive models<medium> contain:

• decision trees
• regression
• neural network

The main purpose is to determine the likelihood of future outcomes and make future-oriented decisions. BA answers the valuable question <medium>"why"<medium> and makes it possible to anticipate developments and make timely changes to succeed.

What are the benefits of using business intelligence?

Business intelligence software retrieves, analyzes, and transforms internal data into actionable information that helps businesses <medium>become gurus of successful decision-making and solve problems swiftly.<medium>

According to TDWI survey, 89% of businesses realize the potential of BI. 57% are already using one or more business intelligence tools and techniques.

According to Information Week and Forrester reports, the seven key benefits of business intelligence software include the following:

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Instant data analysis can make or break the company, beat the competition, and avoid bankruptcy-inducing risks. Considering the advantages of data-driven decision-making, ignoring BI tools is no longer a viable option.

3 examples of business problems BI can solve

Business intelligence functionality and tool features open up many new possibilities for your product development. <medium>Let's go over several use cases<medium> that solve common business problems. If you recognize one or two plaguing your case, you'll know how business intelligence software development will help you overcome them.

Low and sporadic sales

Your sales managers cannot meet the sales targets, and the attrition is on the rise. You can't track their progress, and the sales team is stuck with no clear strategy for improving the numbers.

<medium>Business intelligence will:<medium>

• <medium>Refine inventory management<medium> by monitoring a variety of metrics, such as inventory-to-purchase ratio, slow-moving stock, and more.
• <medium>Analyze past sales<medium> to predict the cost of conversion and help sales reps prioritize the time spent on each prospect.
• <medium>Monitor the demand<medium> to let managers adjust pricing tiers to increase the profit margins and spur sales of slow-moving stock.
• <medium>Set up sales performance metrics<medium>, including average deal size, lead conversion rate, the cost-to-sales ratio, the value of business brought in.
• <medium>Empower sales managers with client and product segmentation metrics<medium> to optimize their strategies towards high potential prospects and top performing offers.

As a result of BI adoption, your sales will rise along with the sales rep performance, while employee turnover should diminish. More sales mean bigger profits and steady growth.

Disproportionate marketing expenses

Your marketing team has accumulated loads of data on customer behavior. However, they cannot segment it to produce more sales. Marketing events, order, and billing data is spread across several spreadsheets and data sources, making it challenging to analyze. The marketing budget is inflated and does not generate expected returns.

<medium>Business intelligence will:<medium>

• <medium>Integrate all available data sources into a single BI system<medium> to streamline and automate analysis, segmentation, and predictions.
• <medium>Calculate marketing metrics<medium>, such as customer lifetime value and expected response rate, to fine-tune marketing campaigns and assess their efficiency.
• <medium>Identify promotions that do not generate a positive response<medium> to reorganize them and adjust the message or target audience.
• <medium>Prioritize high-value customers<medium> with a high expected response rate to promote retention-oriented offers and lower customer churn.
• <medium>Analyze the ROI of all marketing campaigns<medium> to define the most profitable segments, locations, or time slots for promotions and set up the optimal frequency.

As a result of BI adoption, you will see a rise in sales and customer retention rates along with a decrease in marketing costs. The bottom line will see a boost.

Slow and ineffective processes

You collect customer and internal data for further processing, but it is spread across several databases. As a result, your managers have to put together reports manually, wasting valuable time better spent on strategic tasks. You make decisions based on outdated information, which lead to dissatisfied customers and poor returns.

<medium>Business intelligence will:<medium>

• <medium>Aggregate customer and internal data<medium> into a single solution even if data sets rely on different, ever-changing formats and media types.
• <medium>Automate data analysis and business intelligence reporting<medium> to make reports more streamlined and easy to understand for customers and employees.
• <medium>Customize dashboards for customers and managers<medium> to fine-tune data output and enhance decision-making.
• <medium>Detect emerging trends in customer behavior<medium> to embrace the sales trends and reveal new revenue stream options.
• <medium>Speed up the operational processes<medium> to ensure more efficient use of the employee's time and deliver quick results to the customers.

As a result of BI adoption, you will streamline everyday operational processes and eliminate manual processing to step up the pace of decision-making. Customer satisfaction rates will soar.

How does business intelligence help in decision making?

Instant access to accurate and actionable insights is vital at all levels and across all departments of your company. Вusiness intelligence is used for different business needs and helps to achieve stellar results because of its innovative approaches.

Business intelligence software development adds value for everyone, from CEO to inventory manager and recruiter:

• <medium>Executives and business owners<medium> get a long-term view of the market and competition to make the right strategic choices for the company. Access to productivity metrics allows them to streamline operational processes and increase employee satisfaction and efficiency.

• <medium>Financial managers and accountants<medium> get instant access to profit-and-loss reports, generate ledgers and balance sheets. They immediately notice cost concerns and can find new revenue opportunities.

• <medium>Human resource managers and recruiters<medium> can streamline the head-hunting and onboarding process. Ongoing statistics will show them the employee retention rate and highlight opportunities to lower the turnover.

• <medium>Inventory managers<medium> can monitor stock at a glance and reduce it during low season to reduce the maintenance costs. They also get predictive analytics tools that foresee the best time to replenish stock at a low price and calculate the right quantities based on past sales numbers.

• <medium>Marketing department<medium> gets access to real-time promotion returns data to customize offers to specific audience segments and prioritize future campaigns. Marketing managers can select the best strategies to improve ROI and reduce overhead.

Software developers create sophisticated solutions to help with these decisions. The best business intelligence software relies on these crucial features to promote efficient decision-making:

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Business intelligence implementation problems

What is business intelligence and analytics? It is certainly not a panacea to cure all ills. Small businesses should be aware of its potential pitfalls before investing in custom development.

<medium>Developing BI:<medium>

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Unlike ready-made business analytics software, customized BI solutions will meet all the requirements of your business. If you don't have the in-house talent to tackle the job, outsourcing will ensure efficient and professional development.

Get in touch with Freshcode business analysts to set up a consult about your BI needs and find the best business intelligence developer to fulfill them.