Business intelligence (BI) is about analysing data, and that’s it. It’s a broad term for any software that helps you make sense of information. If a computer can collect it, BI can organize it in such a way to help you discover valuable insights into your business.
You may be thinking “I don’t have much data” or “I can’t afford expensive BI software.” But don’t let these stand between you and the competitive edge that comes with business intelligence! What people commonly think of as a tool for large companies is also great for small businesses and start-ups.
The Past: Business Intelligence Has Been Around A Long Time
“Business Intelligence” is a pretty fancy-sounding term, but BI has been around for a long time—it’s just gotten more sophisticated as technology has advanced.
It’s been used for many years to help companies get more organized and streamlined in their practices.
Sometimes BI is called organizational learning. Other names include: Business Performance Management, Decision Support System, and Decision Support Tools.
They’re all different ways of saying the same thing: a company needs to make decisions based on data, not feelings or hunches alone.
Think back to when you would go shopping in a brick and mortar store. You walk in and pick out what you want, but first, they ask for your email address.
When you get home, you find a survey in your inbox asking about your experience. You feel like it’s just another thing on your plate so you skip over it without responding.
However, there’s a good chance that someone else will fill out the survey and tell them how great or awful their experience was.
Later on, that business is going to look at all of the collected data (from people who filled out the survey) and use this information to make changes to better improve the customer experience.
That company is using business intelligence!
The Present: Business Intelligence Is a Tool For All
Business Intelligence (also known as BI) is a tool for everyone! Think about it, BI is not only a tool for every business and business owner in the world. It is also a tool for every employee, consumer, student and researcher. The reason why we can all apply the principles of Business Intelligence to our everyday lives is that we are all involved in an organization in one way or another.
When thinking about how to use BI to our advantage, we should ask ourselves how an organization works? In order for any organization to be successful they must have three things:
- A vision/mission statement that promotes growth and financial health
- An effective strategy which will help them achieve this goal
- Great leadership
Without these three components, an organization cannot function properly and will not be able to succeed financially or grow their brand. This means that whether you are working at a company or just trying to get through school, you need to create your own set of goals and find ways to implement them so that you can be successful as well.
The Future: Cloud Computing and the Internet of Things
We’ve seen a lot of changes in the world of business intelligence over the past few decades. In the early days, business intelligence was largely about basic analytics—tracking sales, looking at trends, and so on.
But then with the advent of cloud computing and the internet, it exploded into something that was still about analytics but also about so much more. And today, we’re on the precipice of another explosion—this time in the form of cloud computing and the internet of things (IoT).
The IoT refers to the idea that all internet-connected devices will be able to communicate with each other and exchange data.
The cloud is a set of remote servers that store data and software which can be accessed from anywhere.
Together, these two ideas could mean that business intelligence could move away from being tied to any one device or location.
The Internet of Things is the future of technology. A world in which all devices are connected, and all data can be shared in real time. The tech industry has been moving toward this for decades but with the prevalence of cloud computing and the accessibility of internet access, it will finally become a reality.
The possibilities for what can be done with cloud computing and IoT are limitless!
For example, a medical device manufacturer that offers a cloud-based diabetes monitoring systems would allow patients to share their blood glucose levels with doctors remotely and more frequently than if they were visiting a doctor’s office on a regular basis—this makes it easier for the doctors to interpret blood sugar patterns and adjust insulin doses accordingly.
IoT allows for more efficient processing of information across multiple platforms. It also makes it easier for businesses to scale their operations by eliminating the need for physical infrastructure on-site at each location where they operate.
In the future, all decisions about how an organization functions and what it does could be made through an app on your smart phone—and when you aren’t around to make a decision? Your IoT devices could do it for you!
Business intelligence is going to be huge in the future
Business Intelligence is the competitive advantage in today’s competitive business environment, and every company wants to tap into that. Data is the new oil and provides a competitive advantage for those companies who are able to leverage data effectively.
Data is how you understand your customer, anticipate their needs and get ahead of the competition by providing solutions before your customers ask for them.
It used to be that only large corporations with huge IT departments had the capabilities to have Business Intelligence teams, but now even small companies can benefit from using these tools.
This is why BI has become an industry buzzword over the past few years – because it’s no longer a luxury but a necessity.
You might be thinking that implementing Business Intelligence tools in your organization seems like a daunting task – you may not even know where to start or what questions to ask when looking at solutions.
But BI isn’t just one thing – there are many aspects of Business Intelligence like data warehousing, dashboard reporting, etc., and it’s important for you to identify which components would make sense based on your requirements and goals.
Think about this as an ongoing journey rather than just a project; you don’t want to invest time in selecting solutions that aren’t going to work for you long-term or end up costing you more money in the future (by choosing something too expensive or inflexible).
Conclusion
You’ve seen how business intelligence has evolved. From its beginnings as an analytical tool to its current role as a competitive advantage, business intelligence has gone through several stages of growth.
After the Y2K scare, companies began using data more intelligently in order to stay ahead of their competitors.
We’ve learned that business intelligence is anything but a fad; in fact, it’s only going to become more important to organizations over the next decade and beyond.
In this article, we asked you to take a look at where business intelligence came from and where it’s heading in the near future (and beyond). If you’re still a bit confused about BI definitions, don’t worry—we’ll be focusing on different aspects of BI for upcoming articles!
In the meantime – If you’re looking to turn your business into an intelligence enterprise, give us a call today on 01244 676900.
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