5 Ways To Use Business Intelligence Solutions to Grow Your Company

In today's information age, many businesses are finding a real asset in their historical data. Business leaders are using business intelligence tools to scan their company's historical data for patterns, relationships between actions and efforts, and measurable business results such as revenue and workflow efficiency.

Business intelligence refers to a body of analytics-intensive techniques that collect and analyze data to find meaningful patterns. These patterns can then be used to restructure business or make predictions about the future. Here are five things you can do with business intelligence solutions to grow your company.

1. Benchmark Your Business

In order to move forward toward any goal, you first need to know where you are. BI software can collect data from a number of sources, as you indicate. After compiling data from invoices, packing slips, online sales, and anywhere else you can possibly imagine, the software will begin to report trends on the data. You will be able to see things such as your rate of sales conversion, and the current effectiveness of your advertising.

2. Measure ROI of New Products, Suppliers, Employees, and Customers

A great benefit of using these tools is that they help you predict and compare the return on investment of business decisions. For example, suppose you run a query in your BI software regarding the cost and ROI of partnering with a particular supplier. This data can help you decide if you should remain with your current supplier, or tell them to hit the road. BI tools are a great way to compare ROI on different marketing mediums and advertising messages when used in this way.

3. Assess Risk & Identify Areas for Improvement

This software gives you the ability to mitigate risk. Some of the most useful information a BI software package can supply is the relative profitability of each business segment. This way should a supplier bankrupt, or a major customer take their business elsewhere, you can mitigate the associated risk. You can plan for losses like these given demand of your products or services.

For instance a business who manufactures environmental products for the government recently implemented a BI system. In light of new legislation, the company would have to shut down a specific product line. Using business intelligence, they were able to quantify an exact numerical impact that the change would have on the business, and respond accordingly.

4. Forecast The Future

The most popular use of business intelligence is in forecasting future phenomena, such as customer behavior, demand, and inventory levels. By monitoring your business and collecting data on these types of events, you can use regression to see what might be waiting for you in the future. This information is invaluable for helping you plan your next steps, or taking effective actions to reach your goals.

5. BI Spurs Businesses To Action

Business intelligence outlines the most effective actions you and your business partners can make moving forward. Now that you've identified the risk, determined the respective ROI of several courses of action, and forecasted trends for the future, you can implement a solution that integrates each factor. Without business intelligence, you were completely unaware of the state of most of these business aspects.

With business intelligence solution in place, you are no longer able sit by, blissfully unaware, while your business marches forward by simply making "best guess" decisions. Business intelligence provides you with solid, effective actions you can take to yield measurable results.

Find out how to implement business intelligence strategies for your company at MindEcology.com.

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