Business Intelligence (BI) comprises a set of tools and strategies for collecting, storing, handling, processing, and analyzing data from a great variety of sources. It is an excellent means to help out in decision-making at a company through a broad vision of its business.
Analyzing data acquired through various methods is a way to ensure that information will be more reliable and geared to reality. Having the ability to interpret this information is a way to foresee problems, find efficient solutions and define the best means for company activity in the market.
BI provides competitive advantages such as business intelligence and self-awareness of a company. Knowing exactly the development of each process, number of sales, new clients conquered, rejection rate, and several other factors is the best way to define the paths a company should follow to reach targets. It is almost impossible, without data analysis, to identify the causes for growth stagnation.
Data about consumers is the most important to be collected. Both the marketing, as well as the sales team and SAC will have a greater scope of techniques to attract and conquer new clients when bearing knowledge on the public being worked on. Business Intelligencence provides precious information which may be applied to CRM (Customer Relationship Management).
Chances of failure are dramatically reduced when decisions are grounded on reliable information. Testing various techniques for client approach, new products, or even marketing strategies is essential so that the best solutions for consumers’ problems can be found. Without continuous product, method, process and service testing, a company will not have enough material to know whether its course of action taken is the best to be followed, or whether an immediate change to its commercial or management strategy is needed.
Innovating comprises the main route to follow to keep competitive in the market, but this does not mean that the company should launch all its ideas prior to carrying out a market survey. Many losses could have been avoided if prior checks and frequent analyses of historical data had been carried out, either those acquired by accumulated experience throughout years of action, or through knowledge on the target public. Even knowing the competitors’ and the industry’s history comprises a way of making more coherent and correct decisions.
Tools to improve results through Business Intelligence
Several means are available for data acquisition and storage. The company should extensively know all techniques and metrics generated through BI. Some tools, which have already been tested, provide efficient and reliable results so that analysis be made assertively.
Data Warehouse
This comprises a major database storing all data, so that reports of any kind can be generated with greater efficiency, based on company historical records. This storage model enables a company to analyze in greater detail processes involved in its business.
Data Mining
Data Mining also consists of a process for storaging and processing data, but with the purpose of ascertaining patterns among information crossed by the systems, which can be very valuable for the company.
Integration
One of the most useful possibilities for a BI solution consists of the capacity of integrating data even when the company bears different systems in its structure, or uses Excel spreadsheets to manage any activity, or even wishes to analyze data from social networks related to its brand. The fact that this data is available on completely discrete platforms renders analysis a true challenge. However, by adopting a BI solution, it is possible to group all this data in a single place, where it will be possible to carry out various combinations to exploit all available data widely and efficiently.
Warnings and Monitoring
Another very much used functionality is the capacity of creating monitoring routines which automatically check whether a certain condition is being followed, so that, as from this information, issue warnings through the sending of e-mails or problem display on a dashboard, which is very useful in controlling deadlines, for example. It is possible, together with the integration tool, to monitor data combination from different systems or from public sources.
Process and data validation audit
It is not uncommon to find data incoherence or inconsistence when consulting a system. Human error during inclusion of a record, for example, upon registration input, may generate an inconsistence which will only be detected at some future event. To correct problems such as these quickly and efficiently, it is possible to create audit routines which validate, on a daily basis, whether data is according to the company’s business rules, in addition to validating data which bear any intrinsic rule. For example, it is possible to check whether a CPF (Tax Registration Number) or RG (Identity Card) is valid or whether a city registered is actually situated in a State, among other possibilities.
VinDelphos comprises a Business Intelligence solution which may help in data acquisition, storaging and processing, generating graphs and reliable reports on an intuitive interface with full information security. Access our site, www.delphos.com.br/vindelphos/, and clear your doubts about this new manner of enhancing your business and increasing earnings.
