No matter the size of a company, business intelligence and reporting tools offer numerous benefits, the most important of which is turning raw data into digestible insights that your decisions can be based on. By turning numbers and charts into information you can easily understand, you’ll know which step to take to ensure business growth, save money, and develop cost-efficient strategies.
Understanding Business Intelligence (BI)
BI refers to technologies and strategies that collect, store, and analyse data from daily operations, both past and present, to help you gain insights on what works, what needs improvement, and what needs to be eliminated for good. You can use the same data to better understand your market and develop strategies to turn your company’s weak points into strong ones.
- Reporting and querying software is one of the more widely used business intelligence tools, designed to retrieve data on progress and performance, and present it in the form of graphs and charts.
- Online analytical processing collects data from various sources and summarises them into different insights, from sales forecasting to budget planning.
- Data mining tools identify trends and patterns, either descriptive and predictive, to present correlations of past and future trends.
Why Does Business Intelligence Matter?
Better Decision-Making
With data pulled from actual operations, you take the guesswork out of the equation and make decisions based on real data, ensuring accuracy and better guidance.
- Collect and analyse real-time updates on various areas in business, from sales performance to customer trends
- Turn complex numbers and charts into easy-to-understand and use dashboards
- Get a clear picture of both past and present results that can help you identify growth potential
- Reveal weak and risky points that may have otherwise gone unnoticed without accurate data collection
Increased Productivity and Efficiency
Business technology helps fuel digital transformation, which pretty much tells you how the right tools can eliminate any bottlenecks and inefficiencies in your business processes.
- One BI and reporting tool is all you need to retrieve and analyse data, which is way more economical than if you hire people to manually handle data collection and analysis
- Provide data on weak points, including where workflows bog down, and provide insights to help develop appropriate solutions
- User-friendly interface and drag-and-drop features allow almost anyone to set up the reporting tool, saving overhead costs
Enhanced Customer Understanding
Intelligence tools allow you to collect data on customer behaviour, giving you insights into exactly what they want and need. From the acquisition to consumption, the right reporting tools will tell you all you need to know to better serve your customer, which translates to higher sales and better relationships.
- Monitor customers’ buying behaviour and provide data on what they think about your product offerings and whether or not improvements are needed
- Sort clients into different categories, helping you design targeted marketing strategies to get better results without wasting resources
- Gain feedback and reviews on various areas of your operations, from the product sold to customer service and support
- Provide data on which items sell better for more precise inventory work
More importantly, data collected, analysed and reported allows a business to better manage its finances and ensure growth and scalability. So, if you’ve yet to adopt BI and reporting tools in your hospitality business, now’s the perfect time to do so. Let Futurelog help your company maximise the technology for business success.