However, as the state of business intelligence (BI) continues to evolve, driven by disruptive technology and new demands, there are still companies that don\u2019t fully understand it. Many organisations overlook BI solutions as something that\u2019s \u201cnice to have\u201d when the truth is that they\u2019re becoming absolutely essential to the modern landscape.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s your guide to the reality of business intelligence, and why it matters in 2020 and beyond.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\t Find out what a complete UCaaS solution with enterprise VoIP capabilities can do for your business.<\/p>\r\n\t\t\tLearn more<\/a>\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\t\n The term business intelligence is wide and comprehensive, used to refer to the tools, infrastructure, and processes that companies access to identify and analyse critical information. Companies are accessing business intelligence software to help them extract valuable insights from an ever-growing quantity of data in their systems and operations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Business intelligence technologies can be used with both external and internal data sources. In an external environment, they\u2019re used for the collection of information on things like market trends and competitive intelligence. In the internal environment, BI offers an overview of customer and industry pain points, key stakeholder requirements and lost opportunities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Over the course of recent years, the business intelligence services in the landscape have evolved. BI doesn\u2019t just belong to IT anymore. Instead, it has emerged as a crucial part of business decision making. Companies can access data insights that translate into useful information for individuals all across the company.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As the BI landscape continues to evolve, more distinct definitions have begun to appear. It\u2019s quickly becoming evident that there isn\u2019t just one way to describe business intelligence systems anymore. For instance, Wikipedia refers to business intelligence as an umbrella term for a set of theories, processes, methodologies and technologies that can translate raw data into meaningful insights.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On the other hand, <\/span>Hans Peter Luhn<\/span><\/a>, the man regularly called the \u201cfather of business intelligence\u201d, believes that BI is all about apprehending the interrelationships that are presented in facts in a way that drives progress towards a specific goal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 1989, <\/span>Howard Dresner<\/span><\/a>, the Gartner Group analyst, built on this idea by saying that business intelligence systems were concepts and methods created to improve business decisions using fact-based systems of support. Forrester then went on to say that business intelligence allows for the creation of more strategic, tactical, and effective operational insights and decision making.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps to get a full answer to the question \u201cWhat does business intelligence mean?\u201d we need to look back into the history and evolution of the term.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The first mention of the term \u201cbusiness intelligence\u201d came from an 1865 book named \u201cCyclopaedia of Commercial and Business <\/span>Anecdotes<\/span><\/a>\u201d by Richard Miller Devens. The term is used to describe the use of knowledge and insights to achieve specific goals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Technology didn\u2019t become a component of the business intelligence system meaning until much later, in the 20<\/span>th<\/span> century. In 1958, Hans Peter Luhn published a landmark article on the subject of business intelligence. His article outlined <\/span>business intelligence solutions<\/span><\/a> as \u201cautomatic\u201d systems that have been designed to analyse and disseminate information. Luhn believed that business intelligence solutions could be used to guide people towards specific goals using information and facts as evidence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Luhn\u2019s research established the original methods that were used to create some of the very first IBM analytical systems in the BI market. Since then, business intelligence software and technologies have continued to grow at an incredible pace. Tool specification, the expansion of self-service options, and improved visualisation have all changed the way that companies approach BI as a crucial analytical offering.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Crucially, the explosion of the big data revolution and the rise of the internet helped to promote business intelligence technologies like nothing else. Today, organisations have more information than they\u2019ve ever had before. Each individual is creating an <\/span>increasingly large amount of information<\/span><\/a>, with more than 204 emails sent every minute.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Today, we\u2019re creating too much data to reasonably assess and organise on our own. We need business intelligence systems to ensure that we can transform the information that we collect into something consumable, usable, and valuable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Business intelligence systems come in many different shapes and sizes. As companies have embraced different definitions of business intelligence technologies, we\u2019ve seen the rise of different styles of software for the current landscape. However, there are some common features that tend to remain the same throughout the BI environment.<\/span><\/p>\n Typical business intelligence software comes with access to various modes of advanced data analytics, including predictive analytics, data mining, statistical analysis, text mining, and more. In many circumstances, advanced analytics projects are managed and conducted by teams of data scientists and statisticians, while the BI teams oversee things like the analysis and querying of business data.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Business intelligence tools collect data that can be sent to a data warehouse or housed in specific systems for analytics. Before data sets can be used in a BI application, raw information from a host of individual source systems needs to be cleansed and consolidated using <\/span>data quality tools<\/span><\/a>. As such, business intelligence tools can be combined with other systems in the company landscape for data collection, data preparation and data management. Some of the most common applications and requirements in business intelligence tools include:<\/span><\/p>\n Data visualisation tools are an increasingly important component of modern business intelligence. Many leading vendors defined technology during the early days of the market. However, virtually every BI solution today comes with some form of visualisation system today to help businesses understand exactly what\u2019s happening behind the data curtain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As mentioned above, business intelligence technologies can come in many different forms today. The primary purpose of these solutions is to give business leaders and decision-makers access to essential information. Business intelligence technologies are used as a foundation for critical decision support systems. By looking at data and trends gathered in the business environment, companies can eliminate much of the \u201cgut instinct\u201d and guesswork required to make strategic choices.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The data sources used to build business intelligence systems often include a variety of things, from customer relationship management (CRM) tools like Salesforce, to sales performance dashboards. Companies can also use marketing analytics, supply chain information, contact centre call data, and metadata. Business intelligence technologies, therefore, help companies to bring all of their disparate data sources together into a unified view for real-time reporting and analysis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What does business intelligence mean to the average day-to-day operations of companies? Technology can be useful in a host of cases. For instance:<\/span><\/p>\n Customer interaction analytics are crucial to business intelligence initiatives in many contact centres. As customer experience<\/a> becomes the most important differentiator for all brands, interaction analytics can be used to monitor calls and digital conversations. Business intelligence systems in the contact centre can show which performers are the most effective at handling calls. It\u2019s also possible to see which speech patterns and strategies are required to allow for better customer experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n Companies can also use their business intelligence strategies to perform win\/loss analysis for sales. Many CRM solutions<\/a> come with analytics built-in that allow for the creation of detailed reports into past deals. These reports highlight crucial commonalities between lost and won deals. If you\u2019re selling to another business, you can also see which stakeholders you have the highest success rates with.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Business intelligence tools are even evident in the digital world, where Google Analytics often offers useful insights into website visitors and solutions. Today\u2019s website owners can set up critical reports and email alerts that showcase things like how much time was spent on a specific page. Business intelligence tools offer an insight into anonymous visitor data when not everyone who visits your page fills out a contact form.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Business intelligence solutions and software give companies the freedom to improve all parts of a company by giving greater access to that firm\u2019s data. When companies can unlock all of the information that they collect from day-to-day interactions with their end-users, they can see first-hand what it takes to improve the profitability of a company.<\/span><\/p>\n Brands that employ BI practices can translate their data into insights into business processes. Those unique insights can then help to steer strategic business decisions for improved productivity, revenue, and growth. Other major benefits of business intelligence solutions include:<\/span><\/p>\n In a world where data is everywhere, business intelligence comes in a multitude of different forms.<\/span><\/p>\n BI data can include access to historical information stored in a data warehouse, as well as new data collected from crucial systems like contact centre tools and communication strategies. Initially, BI tools were used primarily by IT professionals and data analysts who ran assessments and produced complex reports on behalf of the business.<\/span><\/p>\n\tA single communications platform<\/h3>\r\n\t\t\t
What Is Business Intelligence?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Choosing a Definition of Business Intelligence<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"definition-of-business-intelligence\"](\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Definition-of-Business-intelligence.png\")
<\/p>\nThe History of Business Intelligence<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What Are the Features of Business Intelligence Services?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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What is a Business Intelligence System and How Does it Work?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"how-does-business-intelligence-systems-work\"](\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/How-does-Business-Intelligence-Systems-Work.png\")
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What Are the Benefits of Business Intelligence and Analytics?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"benefits-of-business-intelligence-and-analytics\"](\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Benefits-of-Business-Intelligence-and-Analytics.png\")
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What Are the Different Types of Business Intelligence?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"different-types-of-business-intelligence\"](\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Different-Types-of-Business-Intelligence.png\")
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