Article credit: Sage 

In today’s data-driven world, technology has made it incredibly easy to gather data from any and every corner. As a business owner, collating data might no longer be an issue for you, it is what to do with the data that might be the cause of massive headaches.

Businesses get flooded with all sorts of data and figures from various departments, creating data silos that invariably lead to data chaos, making it difficult for managers to make confident business decisions. A survey conducted by McKinsey revealed that “getting better insight out of the data they already have” is the top technology challenge for most companies.

Quality information is the key to making quick, rational business decisions

To gain value from business data and transform it into meaningful and actionable information, you need the power to analyze what’s working for your business and what’s not. You need a solution that turns business data into business insights at a faster pace. You need business intelligence (BI).

What is business intelligence? Business intelligence (BI) gives companies the ability to use their own data to predict sales trends, analyze ROI, track profits and make better and informed decisions about their products and services. Here are 5 ways in which BI can make you a data rockstar and help grow your business:

Make confident and fast business decisions

Employees in different departments have different ways of collecting data by using different technologies. Some might use spreadsheets while others might prefer to dump all information on a central server. Data collected in such a manner is mostly a huge mass of irrelevant, inadequate and inconsistent data. As a business owner or a manager, you can’t take the risk of making decisions based on questionable information.

Having business intelligence would mean that you would be able to reveal a significant amount of information locked away within spreadsheets and databases across multiple departments, in real-time, and use that information to make confident and fast decisions.

Focus on growing business, not on numbers

The most important benefit of having good BI is that it can improve efficiency within your business and increase productivity. Simple, easy-to-use tools that can be used by anyone across the business will help you share information across different departments, enabling you to save time on reporting and analytics.

This is particularly essential if you have regular reports you need to run such as monthly executive reports, where you need the same information each month. Sharing information reduces the risk of data duplication, ensures all your figures match up, and allows you to get on with more important things like driving your business.

Minimize uncertainty about the future

Every business has to face the uncertainty that comes with the changing economy, shrinking resources, and rising competition. Whilst you cannot completely avoid these uncertainties, you surely can minimize the risk associated with them by using business intelligence. With BI, you will have the ability to analyze market conditions, your business performance and competition to project future conditions, which will enable you to leverage this knowledge to make strategic business decisions that benefit your organization.

Have more satisfied customers

A satisfied customer means more business and BI gives you a competitive advantage in this department. Having an insight into what your customers are buying, what services they prefer and what challenges they are facing, will help you give your customers more personalized service. Going by their buying habits, you can even introduce more customer-enhancing steps, thereby ensuring a high level of operational efficiency, resulting in increased customer satisfaction.

Don’t wait for the perfect data, create the perfect data

If you keep waiting for the perfect numbers to jump from your reports and then make decisions, you will be waiting for a long time. Managers who often spend valuable time, either waiting or debating the accuracy of information instead of making decisions, risk losing productivity and credibility.

Because BI focuses on the here and now of business, you can see everything in real-time and make confident business decisions. The assurance – that you have the perfect data – will not only enable you to work more efficiently but also give you more time for innovation based on the insights gathered from the data.

With rising competition, shrinking resources and new businesses coming up quicker than you can say Kardashians, the only way towards growth and development is to look at the past, present, and future, all at the same time. Use Business Intelligence and analytics to spot abnormalities in your data and learn from them.

A well-implemented business management solution (BMS) like Sage Intelligence Reporting will offer business analytics, business intelligence and insightful reporting capabilities that will help you compile complex data, pinpoint inefficiencies and speed up your decision-making process in a matter of minutes.

Success Stories – Mrs Garlic

Article credit: Sage 

Chris Pappas, Managing Director of Mrs Garlic, talks about their business journey with Sage.
Click below to view the video.