In this digital day and age, changes in business intelligence software happen so quickly that your businesses would most probably be left scrambling to catch up. Following the Business intelligence trends in itself can be a full time job.
Every year, there seems to be a list of business intelligence tools for SMBs that entrepreneurs and business owners need to look at if they don’t want to be left in the dust.
You really can’t blame businesses for doing the most when it comes to business intelligence (BI), since it is an integral part of success in today’s economy. In the digital age, business intelligence empowers organizations to make accurate decisions backed by data, which end up opening more opportunities for them in their field.
The amount of data that businesses have to contend with isn’t getting any smaller either. The World Economic Forum says that in 2020, there will be 44 zettabytes of data in the entire digital universe. To put it in more visual terms, the World Economic Forum says that it means “there are 40 times more bytes than there are stars in the observable universe.” In just one day, 294 billion emails are sent, with that number set to increase to 306 billion by next year. Five billion Google searches were made last year alone. By 2025, it is expected that 463 exabytes of data will be created on a daily basis.
With this much raw data to contend with, companies would want to start 2020 with the right business intelligence tools at their disposal. To do that, they need to know what trends are gaining ground in the upcoming year. According to the Business Application Research Center’s (BARC) BI Survey, the five business intelligence trends that are on an upward trend are MD/DQ management, data governance, data preparation by business users, data storytelling, and the use of external/p[en data.
Business Intelligence Trends To Look Out For
A company serious about utilizing business intelligence for their benefit need to be aware of these five trends that have taken an upward trajectory in the 2019 BI Survey. Keeping these five trends in mind will help them to pick the one that works best for them among the many business intelligence platforms available on the market.
MD/DQ management
The management of master data (MD) and data quality (DQ) topped the list of business intelligence trends gaining importance and it is easy to understand why. Because of the huge amount of data that can be found in a business’s computer system or database, it may be hard for them to find and correct dirty data — data that is inconsistent, incomplete, or inaccurate. Good data quality management tools are able to perform modifications on this dirty data and ensure businesses are working with correct information.
Master data management, on the other hand, keeps track of the different attributes of a profile. An effective master data management tool will be able to keep profiles across different systems updated, ensuring that businesses are always on top of the situation no matter what changes happen to a profile.
Data governance
The policies and rules that companies create and enforce when it comes to its data is called data governance. How a company handles the data it has can affect almost every aspect of their business. Clear and consistent rules when it comes to data use result in consistent and accurate reporting, as well as insights you can trust when it comes to the behavior and preference of a customer, just to name a few benefits. Effective business intelligence platforms help businesses enforce their rules and policies throughout their organization.
Data preparation by business users
Also known as self-serve data preparation, this basically means BI tools should be accessible and understandable to different users within the business, no matter the level of their IT acumen.
In years past, it would have required a dedicated team of IT professionals to handle business data and prepare it for analysis. However, today’s companies don’t always have the time or the funds to set up an IT team for this purpose, thereby necessitating the need for more user-friendly technologies.
The best data analytics software understands this and makes things easier for its users. It could start from something as simple as installation. Rather than have a process made up of complicated commands, the installation could be trimmed down to 18 steps that can be accomplished within the space of 10 minutes. If everyone can effectively wield a business intelligence tool, businesses can gain insights at a faster pace, allowing them to make split-second decisions based on data that they can trust.
Data Storytelling
Those in the know can easily understand data loaded with business jargon and other technical terms, but not every department in a company may be as well versed in those terms. If a business wants all the departments working for them on the same page, they need to be able to present their data in a form that everyone can understand. This is why data storytelling continues to be an important trend even into the new year. These can be achieved in a number of ways, such as connecting a company’s tool with the Looker Studio. By making it easy for decision makers and other departments to understand data, an organization can move as one with the same understanding of the information they have on hand.
Using external/open data
Every good business collects data on their customers. You can employ this internally, through things such as leads from marketing, re-orders from inventory management, or the number of orders provided by the sales team. That data can already give an organization quite a comprehensive overview of their customers.
External data, is data that you extract from sources that aren’t within the company. This could mean taking data from sources open to the public, like government offices. The reason why external data is becoming more and more important is because it allows a business to gain an even more detailed look at their customers, allowing them to offer products and services that are more customized and tailored.
Business Intelligence Tools Can Be A Huge Advantage
The data that businesses will be working on in the future isn’t going to shrink anytime soon, and not getting the right tools to handle all of that information could end up with your business getting disastrous results. To get the right tool for the job, businesses need to be aware of the trends and issues that will shape the coming year.
Businesses who do not want to enter 2020 unprepared can turn to products like Windsor.ai to ensure that they can handle the different challenges that are coming. Onboarding when it comes to Windsor.ai is easy to do, as installing it takes literal minutes. It is also a big aid when it comes to solidifying consensus when it comes to making business decisions, as it can present data in a way that everyone can understand, thanks to the connections it can make with other tools. If businesses keep these trends in mind and arming themselves with useful tools like Windsor.ai, they are sure to enter 2020 in a much more competitive state.
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