According to Gartner Inc, the global revenue in the business intelligence and analytics software market is forecast to reach $18.3 billion in 2017, an increase of 7.3% from 2016. The market is forecast to grow to $22.8 billion by the end of 2020.
This is no surprise as the impact of investing in business intelligence (BI) software is huge. Business Intelligence software is designed to help companies make strategic, informed decisions. With a suite of data analysis and reporting tools, this software helps you interpret raw data and draw meaningful insights from it. Tools such as Microsoft Power BI enable you to consolidate a diverse set of data sources into one pane, creating far more valuable insights than ever before.
The tools make it faster, easier and more efficient to visualise and analyse data. All data is combined in one place, so with one click, users can explore and interrogate data from anywhere and at anytime.
Business intelligence software: Democratising data
What was once kept within the confines of the tech team, the accessibility to data enables other roles within the company to utilise it for their own means. It’s growth in use has ‘democratised data’ – nowadays, the marketing team, the financial Team and the HR team are all just as likely to be analytics experts. In turn, enabling the company to benefit further from increased knowledge of key metrics and performance.
Bringing data together from across the organisation is great, but what makes BI even more powerful is that external sources such as Salesforce or Sage can be synced to enable this data to be integrated as well. With this wealth of data information, the company benefits from increased insights – from the boardroom down to the shopfloor and subsequently, the customer.
Mobile Applications: BI when you need it
Recently, Business Intelligence software providers have created mobile specific applications to make it possible for companies to benefit from their software without being constricted to the office and a desktop monitor.
Key Features of BI software
• Ability to pull data together from any source and slice and dice data as required
• Data presented visually in one pane for better understanding and the full picture
• Real time data is refreshed so key metrics are always up to date
• as Available on all devices and platforms (Android, iOS and Windows) for reports on the go
• With multiple connectors pre-built it’s easy to pull in data from external apps such as Saleforce or Sage.
• Providers such as Microsoft have made BI self-service so you don’t need to be a data analyst to use it
If you’d like to find out more about our business intelligence software options and how your company will benefit from its use, please click here.