Business Intelligence

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Business Intelligence
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What is Business Intelligence??

• Business intelligence (BI) leverages software and
  services to transform data into actionable
  insights that inform an organizations strategic
  and tactical business decisions. BI tools access
  and analyze data sets and present analytical
  findings in reports, summaries, dashboards,
  graphs, charts and maps to provide users with
  detailed intelligence about the state of the
  business.
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Stages of Business Intelligence

• Information Gathering
• During the information gathering stage, data is
  either prepared from existing sources (existing
  contact data, ERP data, financial database) or
  collected externally through the use of in-person
  or online surveys, polls, questionnaires or
  forms. Feedback data can be gathered from
  customers, staff or advisors, and consideration
  given to anonymity and privacy in order to
  provide the most honest and reflective data
  possible.
• Analysis
• This is one of the key areas of turning raw data
  into information. BI makes it easier for the user
  to explore the data and turn it into useful
  information. There are three common types of
  analysis

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• Spreadsheet Analysis - probably the oldest form
  of analysis where data from a spreadsheet
  application is translated into tables, pivot
  tables and graphs in order to identify specific
  trends and inconsistencies.
• Software that allows users to develop their own
  specific data queries - where data has been
  collected it may be automatically analysed by
  software or on importation - for example results
  from a SurveyMonkey public survey.
• Visualisation Tools  graphs and charts that take
  raw data and create visualisations that users can
  read and understand - legacy programs like
  Crystal Reports and new technologies like Power
  BI are good examples of visualisation tools.

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• Reporting
• Once data has been analysed it needs to be
  reported on. Reporting is the act of taking the
  analysed data and presenting it in a way that
  makes a human connection, or some sort of focus
  where advantages are to be gained through
  actions. Depending on the tools involved,
  reporting can happen as an extension of the
  analysis phase, but for BI to be effective it
  must be reported on after being filtered or
  defined during the analysis stage before being
  presented as a report. Reports may be presented
  as tables of data on screen or paper, but can
  also be shown as pivot tables, graphs, or as an
  executive summary in a corporate report.

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• Monitoring Prediction 
• Monitoring allows the user to monitor data and
  information in real-time. Monitoring provides
  snapshots between reporting periods or when
  making decisions. The three main types of
  monitoring are
• Dashboard  A central location where all useful
  and actionable metrics and data are contained.
  They are usually represented graphically to make
  it easier for users to read.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)  KPIs measure
  the performance of selected key drivers from the
  organisation.
• Business Performance Management  Also known as a
  Balanced Scorecard is a system that is designed
  to ensure that performance goals for your
  organisation or projects are being met and
  results are being delivered.

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• Prediction helps management predict what will
  happen based on the data currently available and
  other trends. Prediction can be an incredibly
  complex form of BI, and uses a combination of
  insights gathered during the analysis and
  monitor/predict stages in order to make decisions
  on future outcomes, or on what data to focus on
  for the next Information Gathering stage.

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Applications

• Human Resources HR can tremendously benefit from
  the implementation of Business Intelligence
  utilizing employee productivity analysis,
  compensation and payroll tracking, and insights
  into employee satisfaction.
• Finance Business Intelligence can help finance
  departments by providing invaluable and in-depth
  insights into financial data. The application of
  BI can also help to track quarterly and annual
  budgets, identify potential problem areas before
  they cause any negative impacts, and improve the
  overall organizational business health and
  financial stability.

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• Sales Business Intelligence can assist your
  companys sales force by providing visualizations
  of the sales cycle, in-depth conversion rates
  analytics, as well as total revenue analysis. BI
  can help your sales team to identify whats
  working as well as points of failure which can
  result in dramatically improved sales
  performance.
• Marketing BI provides the marketing department
  with a convenient way to view all current and
  past campaigns, the performance and trends of
  those campaigns, a breakdown of the cost per lead
  and the return on investment, site traffic
  analytics, as well as a multitude of other
  actionable pieces of information.

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• If you are interested to know more about Business
  Intelligence, join the Business Intelligence
  Course by Henry Harvin.