Business Intelligence Tools

We analyse large amounts of structured and unstructured data using business intelligence tools. Data can be picked up from various sources, such as emails, websites, documents, books, journals, etc. Businesses have come to rely heavily on business intelligence tools for business analysis over the years, particularly for reporting, monitoring, predicting, and forecasting. This has aided businesses in terms of business growth, improved customer retention, employee satisfaction, and risk mitigation. Business intelligence tools are now a must-have for small, medium, and large enterprises all over the world. This has resulted in the development of a variety of business intelligence software by various software companies.

For most of us, our first introduction to a business intelligence tool is Microsoft Excel. My first experience with Microsoft Excel was to create tables and do simple calculations. Over time, I gradually scaled up to doing more complex calculations and editing, and even with that, I still do not know half of what Excel has to offer; I keep learning new things every day. The data analytics course has also exposed me to some other forms and features in Microsoft Excel that I would ordinarily not bother myself with. I’m sure this is true for most people who don’t perform in-depth quantitative analysis on their daily activities.

Depending on the type of reporting your company requires, there are several business intelligence tools and software programmes to choose from. Based on the fact that most businesses use Microsoft Office 365 as their communication and business tool, I would assume that the go-to business intelligence tool for businesses, especially SMEs, will be Microsoft Power BI. It is accessible to all, and I am making the assumption that it’s the reason we are being taught as well. Power BI sounds intimidating, as it seems like a tool for specialists in the data analysis field. However, going through some of the process today has made me realise that it is not a difficult tool to use for non-specialised users. Even though I’ve heard of Power BI for years, this is my first introduction to the tool, and I’m putting it on the same difficulty level as using Microsoft Excel for the time being.

With a significant investment in data analysis, there is one important component that most available tools do not analyse effectively: qualitative data. Businesses are set up to make profit, which is why quantitative data remains king. However, qualitative data gives us the quantitative data we need for our analysis most of the time. In cases where qualitative data are referenced, such as surveys, the results are still interpreted in terms of quantitative data. Human psychology is not perfectly captured in the business world of data analytics. Employees, vendors, and customers behaviour and emotions will all have an impact on the quantitative data, either positively or negatively. I believe these cannot be quantified in ones and zeros, which is what most business tools do. Once businesses start moving in the direction of recognising and utilising qualitative information, more software development companies will expand their businesses in that direction. I’m sure there are software tools for this, but they don’t make as much noise as their quantitative counterparts.