Sangeeth Kumar was right. Kumar, a Senior Analyst in Knowledge Services, wrote an insightful article – “Analytics: Why Gut Feel is Just Not Enough” – that resonated with us here at Yellowfin.
As Kumar suggests, gone are the days where business leaders can rely on instincts and gut feelings. Intuition, feelings and hunches may (or may not) have provided desired results back when the earth was flat, but in this new Obama-Bieber epoch, more solid evidence is required.
Data analytics has the power to make sophisticated observations and connections that human observation alone cannot ever hope to replicate.
Exceptional Return On Investment
Advanced data analysis performed by leading, Agile Business Intelligence (BI) solutions, helps you gain superior Return On Investment.
Our favorite of Kumar’s examples of how powerful analytical tools can help businesses achieve unparalleled results was American electrical goods chain Best Buy. Best Buy doubled its sales from $US20 - $US40 billion in five years between 2003-2008 by understanding and segmenting its customer-base. Outstanding.
So here’s a short summary list we compiled outlining the key benefits of modern BI reporting and analytics.
Seven benefits of using Business Intelligence in your business
BI refers to a broad range of software applications, which include such functions as dashboards, query and reporting, statistical analysis and data mining.
BI solutions can be used to measure a range of key business metrics, from sales revenue, product sales and departmental costs and supply chain metrics, to the geographical spread of customer-base. Data stored in transactional systems or data warehouses can be analyzed to create reports on past and current business performance as well as predict future business trends and patterns.
As it can be clearly seen, there are many possible reasons why access to quality BI can boost business performance.
Here are seven. BI help business leaders:
- Improve operational efficiency and effectiveness leading to reduced costs and increased revenues
- Detect marketplace opportunities
- Segment your customer base more accurately to assist with sales and marketing strategy
- Access timely and reliable business data that allows management to make quick business decision to improve productivity and competitive advantage
- Keep key team members up-to-date regarding progress towards business objectives and goals with benchmarking and data projection capabilities
- Improve knowledge sharing throughout your company to support collaboration and cohesion
- Develop a greater understanding of customer needs and the customer decision making process
BI can help your business gain sustainable competitive advantage!