What is Business Intelligence (BI)? What is Business Intelligence Software? BI System in Romania
- Business Intelligence - acronym BI
- What is Business Intelligence
- Business Intelligence Definition
- How does Business Intelligence work
- The evolution of Business Intelligence systems
- Stages of the BI process
- Why is Business Intelligence essential?
- Business Intelligence tools / BI software functionalities
- Business Intelligence benefits (BI system)
- Example of BI software in Romania
What is Business Intelligence, otherwise known as BI software? What does it entail, how does a BI system work and what benefits does business analysis with BI software bring to companies in Romania? – these are some of the aspects addressed in this article. At the same time, this material includes a series of information about the importance of Business Intelligence software in the current business environment.
Learn more about Senior Software’s BI platform!
Business Intelligence - acronym BI
BI is the acronym for Business Intelligence, an English term that translated into Romanian means business intelligence. Through Business Intelligence (BI), companies can improve their decision-making process and develop strategies to increase business performance.
What is Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence Software
When we talk about BI or Business Intelligence, we are talking about software applications and technologies that identify and collect, manage and analyze information from internal IT systems and external sources. Through BI platforms, also known as Business Intelligence software, companies can quickly analyze very large volumes of data, in order to generate detailed and accurate management reports in a very short time that contain information relevant to the smooth running of businesses.
The highly detailed business analysis and easy-to-understand management reports made possible by BI systems enable decision-makers in companies to act quickly and with knowledge of the facts. BI solutions provide real-time analytical results and essential information to directors, managers and employees, assisting them in making the best decisions and in designing business strategies that allow for increased revenues, improved operational efficiency and obtaining competitive advantages.
Business Intelligence Definition
Business Intelligence Definition: BI or Business Intelligence refers to data identification, extraction, analysis and reporting capabilities that allow companies to make better decisions in a shorter time, by quickly transforming data into valuable business information.
How does Business Intelligence work
Business Intelligence in Cloud
Business Intelligence systems are based on a combination of analysis, data management and reporting tools and use multiple data management and analysis methodologies. Typically, BI data is stored in a data warehouse built for the entire company or in a more restricted version with subsets of data oriented to particular areas of the business, which are often linked to a data warehouse.
BI data consists of historical information, but also of that collected in real time from source systems, as soon as it is generated, and through Business Intelligence tools it supports the decision-making process at both strategic and tactical levels. Before being used in BI software, raw data taken from different sources is subjected to integration, consolidation and cleaning processes through data integration and quality management tools. This ensures that data analysis in BI is performed on correct and coherent information. Furthermore, the Business Intelligence process includes data preparation, analytical data querying, distribution of KPIs and other important data within the company and use of information to support and improve decision-making processes and business performance.
The evolution of Business Intelligence systems
In the 1990s, BI programs were used only by those with solid knowledge of BI or IT specialists to run queries, create dashboards or reports (data was controlled by IT departments, reports had to be requested in advance and could only be created with the help of specialists, etc.). Over time, through the development of self-service BI tools and data generation tools, the use of Business Intelligence tools in organizations expanded. BI software systems became easy to use for a wider range of users (directors, managers and other employees from different departments), without requiring specialized assistance. Gradually, mobile and multi-cloud BI appeared, and Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and natural language processing became part of the new Business Intelligence standard.
BI solutions
Modern BI solutions have the capability to perform advanced analytics such as predictive analytics, statistical analytics, or big data analytics. Unlike other processes, a number of activities related to advanced analytics usually require the involvement of data scientists or other people specialized in this type of analysis.
In recent years, Business Intelligence has evolved not only to ensure ease of use, but also to include more processes and activities with the aim of contributing to a much greater extent to improving performance. These processes include:
- Data preparation – grouping data from multiple sources, identifying dimensions and measurements to prepare them for analysis.
- Data mining – using databases, statistics, and AI (Artificial Intelligence) to discover trends in large data sets.
- Reporting – transmitting data analysis to those in charge of the decision-making process to draw conclusions and make the right decisions.
- Performance measurement and benchmarking – compare current performance data with historical data to track performance against objectives, using customized dashboards.
- Descriptive analysis – using preliminary data analysis to find out what is happening.
- Data query – through specific queries, data filtering and answers extraction from data sets take place, using BI.
- Statistical analysis – taking the results from the descriptive analysis and further exploring the data using statistics (e.g. how a certain trend was reached and why).
- Data visualization – transforming data analysis into visual representations (diagrams, graphs, histograms, etc.) for easy data interpretation.
- Visual analysis – exploring data using graphical elements to communicate valuable information in real time, while maintaining a constant focus on analyzing it.
Learn more about the Business Intelligence software!
SeniorVisualBI is developed on the Tableau Software platform, a world leader in providing IT solutions for data analysis and visualization, currently used in over 50 countries.
Stages of the BI process
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1. Data integration and loading
from source systems into the data warehouse / analysis warehouse.
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2. Organizing data sets
into OLAP models/cubes and preparing them for analysis.
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3. Queries performed
by BI analysts / data analysis specialists / BI software users, etc.
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4. Integrating query results
into data visualizations, dashboards, reports, etc.
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5. Use of information
by decision-makers in the company in the decision-making and strategic planning process.
Why is Business Intelligence essential in today's business environment?
BI systems help managers, executives, and other decision-makers in companies make better decisions using historical and current data, translating it into their business context. Using Business Intelligence solutions, organizations can measure performance and compare values, including using competitive benchmarks, to increase efficiency and conduct business more efficiently. BI systems provide operational employees with relevant information about customers, equipment, supply chains, and other important aspects of commercial operations.
Business Intelligence Systems
Here are some ways in which Business Intelligence software helps companies improve their business decisions:
- Identify ways to increase profits
- Analyze customer behavior
- Compare your data with that of your competitors
- Optimize operations and track performance
- Identify problem situations and market trends early
- Identify the impact of decisions and best business scenarios through forecasts and what-if analyses
Business Intelligence tools / BI software functionalities
Modern Business Intelligence systems have a wide range of tools. Thanks to the functionalities in BI software, companies can easily explore and analyze large volumes of data, and querying and explaining data in reports is much easier with the help of AI. In addition, BI software users can add various notes or comments to reports to provide context for the analysis.
- Dashboards – with BI systems, in a single screen, geographic reports and predictive analyses can be combined, which can be supplemented with demographic information to find out what relationship exists between sales evolution, customer characteristics and their territorial distribution.
- Geographical analyses – Business Intelligence systems allow establishing the best strategies to increase performance by displaying the desired information on a map that quickly answers questions such as: where are the top customers located or where is there a higher sales rate by product quantities and types?
- Predictive & what-if analyses – companies can estimate future values for specific categories of indicators, taking into account aspects related to seasonality or business evolution, and the what-if function helps test different scenarios and visualize the impact they could have on the business.
- Interactive charts – BI software solutions can provide a wide range of interactive charts (with multiple ways of displaying data) through which data can be compared, minimum/maximum values and the relationship between the part and the whole are highlighted, while also tracking the degree of achievement of the proposed objectives.
Business Intelligence benefits (BI system)
- Quick access to data
- Increased visibility over the business
- Increased mobility
- More productive employees
- Better business decisions
- Better customer relations
- Easy adaptation to market changes
Example of BI software in Romania
SeniorVisualBI: Business analytics just a click away, for quick and informed decisions
A high-performance Business Intelligence solution is able to provide you with a clear and comprehensive view of your company’s data. More precisely, a modern BI software uses this data to eliminate inefficiency and quickly adapt the business to market changes and, last but not least, to facilitate changes aimed at increasing performance. An example of a high-performance Business Intelligence solution is SeniorVisualBI – BI software developed on the Tableau Software platform, a world leader in providing IT solutions for data analysis & visualization, used by over 60,000 companies in over 50 countries.
SeniorVisualBI is a complete Business Intelligence solution from the Senior Software portfolio, which includes all the functionalities necessary to improve business decisions and increase business performance. Used by hundreds of companies, the BI system can be accessed from the desktop, web and any mobile device. In addition, the reporting and visual data analysis tool, offered by Senior Software, is perfectly integrated with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning).