Understanding BI Tools in Today’s Market

How Do We Define Business Intelligence Today?

Business Intelligence (BI) is the lifeblood of an organization. Without business intelligence, the enterprise does not have an objective understanding of what works, what does not work, and how, when and where to make changes to adapt to the market, its customers and its competition.

You may be interested to know that TechJury reports seven out of ten businesses rate data discovery as very important, and that the top three business intelligence trends are data visualization, data quality management and self-service business intelligence.

As the Business Intelligence solution market evolves, it may be difficult for an organization to know when to invest in these tools, and which tools are best for enterprise and user needs.

Self-Serve KPIs Allow Teams to Manage and Adapt!

BI Tools with Self-Serve Multidimensional KPIs Enable Agility and Accuracy!

Gartner research reveals that, ‘data literacy will become an explicit and necessary driver of business value, demonstrated by its formal inclusion in over 80% of data and analytics strategies and change management programs.’ When  businesses adopt and embrace business intelligence and augmented analytics, the expectation is that the enterprise will benefit by improving data literacy as well as productivity.

But if your business wants to make the most out of BI tools and augmented analytics, it is important to choose the right solution; one that is easy to use and will provide clear results – results business users can leverage to make decisions and to plan accurately. To understand the results and whether policies, processes and tasks are effective, your organization must establish metrics, and those metrics must also be clear.

‘Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are crucial to this feature set, as they provide critical metrics that enable the business to discover and manage results objectively and to adapt and change quickly and effectively.’

A solution that provides easy-to-use, multidimensional key performance indicators (KPIs) will allow your team to establish metrics that are unique to your needs and to your industry and market and help the enterprise understand how the business measures up in the competitive market, how well the products and services are faring with customers and whether workflow and business processes are having the desired effect.

Multidimensional KPIs Provide Easy-to-Use, Objective Metrics

Benefits of Self-Serve, Multidimensional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

  • When the organization gives business users the tools to establish and manage KPIs, it can become more productive. There is no waiting for the IT team or a data scientist to produce important reports, so the team can be agile and flexible.
  • Interactive KPIs provide tools to gather, analyze and measure with breakdown and dynamic frequency and slice and dice so users can focus on critical metrics and gain true insight into results. Users can leverage a powerful expression engine to set polarity, frequency and threshold levels in a browser-based interface and go beyond static monitoring to change frequencies, and dimension breakdowns and gain an understanding of performance and issues.
  • Users can establish and monitor KPIs at the individual, team, department, division, and company level and KPIs are integrated with other features to further analyze trends. Multidimensional KPIs gives business users the opportunity to monitor and manage results against goals and objectives and change processes, tasks, and activities as and when change is required.

‘When your business chooses a BI tool, it is important to choose the right solution; one that is easy to use and will provide clear results – results business users can leverage to make decisions and to plan accurately.’

If your business wishes to improve data literacy and productivity by implementing or upgrading a Business Intelligence or Augmented Analytics solution, it is imperative that you review the available modules, tools and features to ensure that the solution provides easy-to-use, sophisticated functionality that is suitable for your business users. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are crucial to this feature set, as they provide critical metrics that enable the business to discover and manage results objectively and to adapt and change quickly and effectively.

Choose a  Business Intelligence Reporting Solution that include Multi-Dimensional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Provide business intelligence that your IT team can easily implement and support, and a solution that business users will want to adopt. Choose  flexible, agile business intelligence solutions that can be used at all levels to collaborate, share data, and report and communicate with clarity. Self-Serve BI Tools can provide your business with the foundation to achieve your data democratization and user adoption goals.

Original Post : Multidimensional KPIs Provide Easy-to-Use, Objective Metrics!

Self-Serve Cross-Tab BI Tools Reveal Issues and Possibilities!

Self-Serve BI Tools with Cross-Tab Reporting Improve Clarity and Results!

If you are considering a Business Intelligence solution or BI tool, or if you wish to upgrade your business intelligence and reporting tools, look for a solution that has self-serve cross tabulation, or cross-tab reporting. Cross-Tab reporting reveals the relationship between two factors or targets. This analytical tool can be used for side-by-side comparisons and to compare results for one or more data points, variables, or targets.

Did you know that, by some estimates, data-driven businesses are nearly 25% more likely to acquire customers? If you can give your team easy-to-use BI tools with self-serve cross-tab reporting, you can put the power of market and customer knowledge in their hands!

‘Business Intelligence solutions with self-serve cross-tab reporting can provide an intuitive, clear method of data analysis for your business users by revealing relationships in a way that makes the results clear and helps the organization to make the best decisions.’

In this article, we discuss the value of self-serve BI tools with Cross-Tab capabilities and the benefits of this type of focus and insight.

Cross-Tab Reporting Gives Business Users Insight Into Data

Benefits of Self-Serve Cross Tabulation Reporting

Flexible for Business Use Cases

Cross-tab reporting allows for intuitive use by business users with average technical skills, and can be beneficial for all types of business functions and industries. In an educational setting, a university or school might use cross-tab reporting to analyze teacher or course evaluations, looking at the relationship between student satisfaction and the subject, the class time, class location and other factors. Businesses can analyze team and employee satisfaction and attrition by looking at job location, benefits, the results of exit interviews, available training, and support, etc. Cross-tab reporting is frequently used in market research to analyze the various factors that relate to product or service satisfaction, including product features and options, where and how the product is sold, the sales and marketing approach, etc. A retail store owner might use cross-tab data analysis to determine customer satisfaction by looking at demographics, the gender of the person buying the product, the price of the product in a particular region, etc.

Data Clarity

There are many ways to slice and dice data and many ways in which crucial information can hide inside that data. The self-serve cross-tab reporting approach allows business users to examine relationships among data points and factors, with more clarity and accuracy. This type of analysis provides more clarity and reveals results, interdependent relationships and factors that might otherwise be missed. Users can avoid confusion when working with data and analyze large datasets to reveal frequencies and percentages. With this information, the business can understand the ‘what if’ of the various factors and see how results would change if one factor or relationship is changed.

Fact-Based Decision-Making

Self-serve cross-tab reporting simplifies analytics and allows business users to spot trends and patterns and collaborate with other team members to adapt tasks and activities to resolve issues and/or capitalize on opportunities. Using cross tabulation reporting to understand the connection and relationship between two or more factors allows the business to make a decision, with confidence. Rather than guessing the reason for declining results, increased employee attrition or other problems, the enterprise can clearly see what factors (and the relationships among factors) are the cause of a problem and how to change those factors to get better results.

‘If you can give your team easy-to-use BI tools with self-serve cross-tab reporting, you can put the power of market and customer knowledge in their hands!’

Business Intelligence solutions with self-serve cross-tab reporting can provide an intuitive, clear method of data analysis for your business users by revealing relationships in a way that makes the results clear and helps the organization to make the best decisions. By giving your team members these tools, you can leverage domain and industry knowledge and combine data analytics in a day-to-day environment without the need for assistance from data scientists or the IT staff. Self-Serve Cross-Tab reporting produces clear results that are easy to understand and can be used in staff meetings and presentations to support recommendations and help the business become more agile.

Look for seamless Business Intelligence Reporting And Flexible Tools that include self-serve Cross-Tab reporting. Provide business intelligence that your IT team can easily implement and support, and a solution that business users will want to adopt. Choose  flexible, agile business intelligence solutions that can be used at all levels to collaborate, share data, and report and communicate with clarity. Self-Serve BI Tools can provide your business with the foundation to achieve your data democratization and user adoption goals.

Original Post : Cross-Tab Reporting Gives Business Users Insight Into Data!

Business Users Love Simple (Yet Sophisticated) BI Tools!

If You Want Business Users to Embrace BI Tools, You Need to Focus on Simplicity!

If your enterprise has not already adopted business intelligence tools, it is missing a crucial benefit in competitive positioning and accurate, dependable decision-making. If your organization has implemented BI tools, but you are falling short on user adoption success, return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO), it is probably because the business intelligence solution is not meant to support business users.

PC Magazine says that, as business users are asked to leverage BI tools, the enterprise must focus on simplicity to engender user adoption.

‘When your team can access BI tools that support the way they work and provide meaningful views and features to easily integrate with work and business processes, user adoption is easier and more immediate.’

To achieve your enterprise goals, ensure user adoption and get the most out of your investment, you must focus on two things: user-friendly features and function and sophisticated analytics.

BI Tool User Adoption Depends on Simplicity!

In this article, we list some of the considerations for business intelligence solution selection or product upgrade. This list is meant to help you assess your current solution, and/or review the capabilities of any BI tool you are considering.

Simplicity in Technology:

  • 100% browser-based solution
  • Intuitive interface
  • Mobile application that is suitable for iOS and Android
  • Simple, affordable licensing
  • Rapid implementation (roll out in minutes, not months)
  • Simple, multi-layered access and user rights management
  • Simple architecture

Simplicity of Use:

  • Ability to personalize dashboards
  • KPI Reporting
  • Easy-to-use reporting tools
  • Collaborative features
  • Social BI for sharing, ranking and commenting
  • Smart Data Visualization
  • Assisted Predictive Modeling
  • Self-Serve Data Preparation
  • Clickless analytics for easy searching and results

The business intelligence tools you select can and should include out-of-the-box, ready-to-use features that are designed to support your applications, your industry, and/or your business function. When your team can access BI tools that support the way they work and provide meaningful views and features to easily integrate with work and business processes, user adoption is easier and more immediate.

‘To achieve your enterprise goals, ensure user adoption and get the most out of your investment, you must focus on two things: user-friendly features and function and sophisticated analytics.’

Look for Ready-To-Use Tools that users will want to adopt. Provide business intelligence that your IT team can easily implement and support, with features your users will readily leverage. Choose  flexible, agile business intelligence solutions that can be used at all levels to collaborate, share data, and report and communicate with clarity. Self-Serve BI Tools can provide your business with the foundation to achieve your data democratization and user adoption goals.

Original Post : BI Tool User Adoption Depends on Simplicity!

Mobile Business Intelligence is Your Secret Weapon!

Give Business Users Mobile BI to Extend the Office and Improve Responsiveness!

Change is ever-present, and no more so than in the past three or four years. As COVID has changed the way people work, and the location in which they do their work, the need for mobile BI Tools has grown exponentially. Neither the organization, nor the business users can afford to delay the use of business intelligence tools until they are in the office. Every business must do more with less.

‘Mobile BI should provide data analytics access for all business users and, above all, provide flexible, agile solutions that can be used at all levels to collaborate, share data and report and communicate with clarity.’

Mobile BI tools can provide support for team members as they travel, as they work from home, and as they collaborate with other team members from a client office, an airport, a train station, or a supplier location.

According to recent studies, the single most important benefit of Mobile Business Intelligence is enhanced data visibility. Another way to look at it is to consider the lost opportunities and the many missteps the organization will experience if it cannot make sense of its data in real time and with a comprehensive view into the data it captures across the enterprise.

Enable User Adoption with Self-Serve BI and Cross-Tab Analytics

Don’t try to dictate the type of device, the size of the screen or the resolution. Be sure you choose a mobile BI solution that will satisfy all manner of devices. Choose a user interface (UI) that is responsive and adaptive – one that provides self-serve tools without redesign or restructuring of dashboards for specific devices or screens. You can enhance total cost of ownership (TCO) and improve return on investment (ROI) with tools that are flexible and can be easily used in any environment.

Empower your users with integrated business intelligence tools that provide access to data in an interactive, personalized view and enable data sharing, identification of trends and patterns and user empowerment and accountability. Out-of-the-box mobile BI tools should support your users with tools that make it easier to understand data analytics and use data for reporting, presentation and collaboration with personalized dashboards and reporting and flexible graphs and charts.

‘Be sure you choose a mobile BI solution that will satisfy all manner of devices.’

The right mobile business intelligence solution should allow your users to get started right away without extensive training and at a reasonable cost. It should enable integration of data across disparate data sources so users have access to all the data they need to get a complete and comprehensive picture of business results, the root cause of problems and the opportunities that will provide unique competitive advantage to the organization.

Comprehensive BI Tools and Mobile BI should provide data analytics access for all business users and, above all, provide flexible, agile solutions that can be used at all levels to collaborate, share data and report and communicate with clarity. Simple, Self-Serve BI Tools can provide your business with the foundation to achieve your data democratization and user adoption goals. Let us help you achieve your vision and improve productivity and insight across the organization.

Original Post : Mobile BI Expands the Reach and the Benefits of BI Tools!

Case Study : Smarten Analytics Case Study – Implementation for Largest Global Air Cooler Company in India

Smarten Augmented Analytics Case Study- Implementation for Largest Global Air Cooler Company in India

The Client is the largest global manufacturer of Air Coolers. The Client is an India-based Multi-National Company with a presence in over sixty (60) countries. As the market leader, this enterprise enjoys a prime position in the residential, industrial and commercial market segments and its brand is considered synonymous with cooling products in the global market. The Client is a market disrupter in what is a diverse and poorly organized sector and it has set the market benchmark with 201 trademarks, 64 registered designs, 15 copyrights and 48 patents, thereby setting the gold standard for air cooling in the global market.

KPIs and BI Dashboards Must Be Interactive!

Key Performance Indicators and BI Tools to Support Your Business with Dynamic, Interactive Features!

There is no room in today’s business world for speculation or guesswork! Whether you are presenting to your Board of Directors, making a recommendation to your management team, or pitching a new product or idea, objective, provable results and information are required. In order to succeed in business, team members must have access to tools that allow them to establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) with measurable results so that the business can adapt to change, alter and adjust activities and tasks that do not provide successful outcomes, and build on success using models that have historically proven to achieve results.

‘Take the time to select a business intelligence solution that will advance your business interests and provide clear insight and help you to measure results.’

According to recent research, businesses use one of the following methods to capture and measure key performance indicators (KPIs): Spreadsheets, Dashboards and Reporting Tools, BI and Analytical Software.

In fact, the option that is likely to provide the most success is one that will eliminate human error in data entry and calculation of formulae and metrics. That would seem to suggest that a BI and Analytical software tool is the best way to establish and manage KPIs. But the sheer volume and complexity of enterprise data, distributed across the organization can be overwhelming.

BI Tools Should Have Multidimensional KPIs & Slice and Dice

Here are some important considerations for your business that will help you to choose the right BI tools and KPI features:

  • By gathering and integrating data from disparate systems and selecting a business intelligence solution that incorporates augmented analytics suitable for business users, the business can create a foundation upon which to build its success.
  • When selecting a BI tool, be sure to look at the capabilities provided for managing key performance indicators. With the right approach, the enterprise can achieve measurable and clear insight into key business objectives, so you can set goals, develop strategies to achieve these goals and objectively evaluate your performance and progress.
  • Look for business intelligence software that allows business users with average technology skills to define KPIs using an easy-to-use, powerful expression engine and to set polarity, frequency and threshold levels using a browser-based interface.
  • Avoid static reporting that will frustrate business users and instead give them interactive tools that are dynamic and will allow them to explore, slice and dice and get to the heart of the matter. KPIs should not be limited to static monitoring.
  • Choose KPI Analytics that provide interactive options to change frequencies, dimension break downs and drill down to further analyze trends, and reasons for performance and non-performance.
  • Remember that KPI tools are designed to be used. If you want your users to adopt these tools and use them on a daily basis, you will need an easy way to measure results and to make adjustments to workflow, processes and activities and adjust KPIs as appropriate. This method of continuous monitoring and management ensures that users can resolve issues and capitalize on opportunities as they arise.

‘A BI and Analytical software tool is the best way to establish and manage KPIs.’

Your business management team understands the need for clear, objective metrics. Be sure you take the time to select a business intelligence solution that will advance your business interests and provide clear insight and help you to measure results, adapt to the changing market and create an environment of continuous improvement.

BI tools with Multidimensional Key Performance Indicator (KPIs) features should provide data analytics access for all business users. Simple, self-serve BI tools can provide your business with the foundation to achieve your goals. Let us help you achieve your vision and improve productivity and insight across the organization.

Original Post : BI Tools Should Have Multidimensional KPIs & Slice and Dice!

Use a BI Tool with Cross-Tab Deep Dive Features!

Why It’s Important to Include Cross-Tab Deep Dive in Self-Serve BI Tools!

When a business decides to implement a self-serve business intelligence (BI solution, it must ensure that the tools really are ‘self-serve’ and that they provide the flexibility and agility to give power users the ability to create and analyze, and business users with average technology skills the ability to quickly and easily understand the augmented analytics tools they now have access to, and to use those tools to the benefits of the team and the organization.

Is Mobile BI Crucial for Business Success?

The Mobile BI Market is Growing! Make Sure You Select the Right Solution

In today’s mobile society, no enterprise can afford to overlook the importance of mobile access for business applications. Your team may be working remotely, or out of the office meeting with clients or a sales team. Whatever the case, mobile access to apps is crucial to productivity and collaboration. Business Intelligence solutions are no exception!

‘If the mobile BI solution is not flexible and seamless so that it operates on all devices; if it does not provide all features and functionality in a mobile environment, business users will be frustrated.’

According to recent research, the global mobile analytics market is projected to reach $28 million USD within the next decade. The reasons for that growth include an expanded interest in data democratization and the use of analytics among team members throughout the business organization, as well as a need for mobile access to optimize resources and ensure productivity.

The choice of solution is key to success and any mobile BI solution the business considers must support both Android and iOS, and operate in a ‘design once, use anywhere’ approach that accommodates desktops, tablets, and smart phones with an intelligent, adaptive user interface (UI) that supports any screen resolution and any size screen with seamless navigation and performance.

Mobile BI Ensures Access to Critical Data for Business Users

Anytime, Anywhere – Team members are more tech savvy today and they will not accept or adopt solutions that are restrictive or cumbersome. A mobile business intelligence solution must provide support for a fast-paced work environment and support users in the office and on the road.

Designed to Support Growth and Change – The mobile BI solution must support growth and be flexible to expand user volume, multiple locations and changes in business processes, reporting needs, etc.

Integrated Data Access – The mobile BI solution must be easy to use and operate out-of-the-box without customization to enable access to data for analytics, working across disparate data sources to serve seamless, clear information on mobile devices.

Comprehensive Features – Features should include the ability to personalize dashboards, report features including graphs and charts and key performance indicators (KPIs). Solutions that restrict access to all features on mobile devices will not serve your business users well.

‘The choice of a mobile BI solution is key to success. It must support both Android and iOS, and operate in a ‘design once, use anywhere’ approach that accommodates desktops, tablets, and smart phones with an intelligent, adaptive user interface (UI).’

It is important to understand that simply having mobile access is not enough. If the mobile BI solution is not flexible and seamless so that it operates on all devices; if it does not provide all features and functionality in a mobile environment, business users will be frustrated and are not likely to adopt and use the solution on a daily basis which will negatively impact return on investment (ROI).

Mobile BI and Business Intelligence solutions should include tools and techniques that make it easier to achieve data literacy and provide data analytics access to all business users. Simple, self-serve BI tools can provide your business with the foundation to achieve your goals with features and tools like Social BI, Embedded BI, etc.  Let us help you achieve your vision and improve productivity and insight across the organization.

Original Post : Mobile BI Ensures Access to Critical Data for Business Users!