5 ways business intelligence can drive revenue

Turn everyday information into valuable data – Your business probably tracks a huge amount of information. Even facts as simple as what’s on the shelves, and how long it takes it to get there, can feel overwhelming. While handling all of it can seem like a headache, the right business intelligence tool can turn that information into data that drives decisions.

Get fast access to your data – Microsoft Excel is useful, but it’s hardly easy on the eye. If you’ve got an idea, and need information to back it up, fast, nothing slows you down like having to parse a spreadsheet. That’s where dashboards and data visualizations come in.
The right dashboard can take the information trapped in Excel cells and turn it into actionable data you can get at a glance. For instance, rather than having to search for areas, or individual employees, and then compare them against each other, you can put both factors on a dashboard.

Take advantage of the cloud – There’s more than one reason why 78% of organizations “are planning to increase the use of cloud for BI and data management in the next twelve months”. The cloud offers numerous benefits, like greater security, lower costs from not having to buy and maintain your own servers, and access from anywhere there’s an internet connection. The same information that used to be kept in hard copies, in an office, can be accessed from anywhere on earth if you store your data in the cloud. If you happen to be in another city for a presentation, there’s no need to worry about taking sensitive information out of office with you. When your data’s stored in the cloud, all you’ll need is a computer. That’s the sort of agility that allows you more freedom than ever before. The greater security of the cloud may seem counter-intuitive, but it’s a definite benefit. As Jason Perlow suggested at ZDNet, companies like Amazon and Microsoft can build “a far more secure” data center than most companies. The extent of security—like the number of servers used, in case some break down—is beyond what most companies could do on their own, and certainly cheaper.

Gain customer insights – As market dynamics continue to change, so are the customer needs. They’re looking for solutions to their problems. This has led to increased demand for built-in business intelligence tools such a CRM. With a CRM system, you can understand how your customers are interacting with your brand in real-time. CRM software with accurate data can help you find the best ways to reach your customers. It allows you to retrieve customer intelligence essential to transform your business for the new-age customer journey.
The data insights collected make it easy for you to segment customers depending on their journey. They can also help you target customized customer experience techniques for various customer batches. This allows you to optimally utilize your resources on interested potential customers to continue meeting your growth goals as you maintain the current customer base.

Mobile business intelligence – Acquiring information on the go has become critical for most businesses today. Without real-time data access, your business can’t gain a competitive advantage. With a fully integrated mobile business intelligence solution, you can access critical business information essential for strategic decision-making on the go, straight from your smart mobile device, a laptop, or tablet. Real-time business data access makes it easy for you to close new deals, serve existing clients better and salvage poor-performing jobs.