Business Analytics – Tools, Applications and Benefits

Today organizations and business firms around the world are harnessing the power of data to transform the business scenario. The quantity of data being generated and collected is increasing exponentially with each passing minute. However, merely accumulating data cannot benefit an organization. It is only by transforming this data into a valuable asset that companies can add value to their core foundation. The key to success lies in converting the massive amount of data into actionable information that can drive profitability, scale-up revenue, and boost the overall efficiency of an organization. The simplest way to answer “what is analytics” would be that it is “the study of data through statistical and operations analysis, the formation of predictive models, application of optimization techniques, and the communication of these results to customers, business partners, and college executives.”  Business Analytics leverages Big Data through quantitative techniques to promote enhanced business modeling and decision making. Although Business Analytics (BA) and Business Intelligence (BI) are often used synonymously, they are quite different. While BI focuses on gathering data from multiple sources and processing it for analyzing, BA analyzes all the relevant information provided by BI to foster data driven decisions.

How does Business Analytics help in the present era?

The digital era has conveyed a significant surge in several services like customer service, self-service, and multi-faceted connectivity. Digitalization has paid attention to the customer through all business analytics procedures. There has been a gradual shift from the conventional practice of seller-focused business to the one which is more sympathetic and prioritizes experience. Consequently, it creates a platform for product customization. The currently available digital tools and social media tools bridge the gap between customers and business analytics. Thus, BI tools bring them together. Now that you are aware of what is analytics, lets look at some of the most used analytics tools.

Benefits of Business Analytics

The substantial growth in the IT sector has made business analytics applications much relevant than earlier. All the valuable data, computer-based models and statistical analysis combine to make Analytics. Making appropriate decisions for the growth of the company in the future and being ready to overcome the challenges you might face is the sole motto of Analytics. It is becoming a huge aspect of the tech industry. According to Forbes, 53 percent of the tech industry has already adopted this culture due to foreseeable benefits of Business Analytics. Precisely, it will be the shift to a more significant part of the enterprise and most problems will be already solved using this before the issue even arises.

Business Analytics Tools

The next stop after answering “what is analytics” is looking at some tools for the same:

Sisense: Sisense is one of the most popular analytics tools in the market. In 2016, it won the Best Business Intelligence Software Award from Finances Online. Sisense is an excellent tool for simplifying complex data analyses and making Big Data insights viable for both small and medium-sized companies. It includes robust and dynamic text analysis features. These features allow users to convert unstructured text into useful business intelligence.  Sisense business analytics platform boasts the proprietary Sisense Crowd Accelerated BI. It utilizes open-source language for computational statistics. Moreover, it enables users to carry out broad analysis and visualization of complex data. Consequently, it encourages data-driven decisions and enhanced forecasting of forthcoming trends.  Hence, Sisense is one of the futuristic BI tools.

Clear Analytics: Clear Analytics is an Excel-based intelligence tool that is loaded with many useful features such as reports scheduling, version control, administrative and sharing capabilities, and governance. For anyone who’s well-versed in Market Excel, using this tool will be very easy. It includes various BI-oriented features to help automate, analyze, and visualize all of the relevant data and information of a company.

Pentaho BI: Pentaho BI is one of the leading tools in open source business intelligence. It can gather data from across a variety of sources and transforms this data into helpful insights that can be formulated into well-articulated plans and campaigns. To be precise, Pentaho BI is the ideal tool for businesses looking to scale up profits through better, faster, and accurate decision-making.

MicroStrategy: MicroStrategy is an efficient tool that allows companies to access all business data from one place effortlessly. Everything is integrated into a consolidated platform so that business organizations can leverage the data to create meaningful and compelling campaigns. MicroStrategy uses powerful dashboards and data analytics to boost productivity, reduce costs, optimize revenue, and predict new opportunities, all of which are crucial to a company’s growth. It assimilates outstanding analytics capabilities that facilitate the stress-free processing of unstructured text data. The data specialists can further analyze this data through the platform’s text analytics solutions. It is one of the most updated BI tools that incorporate insightful statistical and analytical capabilities. These capabilities facilitate trend forecasting in real-time. It also supports options for third-party data mining. Furthermore, it combines a range of business analytics and methods which allow users to create and share business analytics reports from any device and anywhere.

Board: Board is included in this list of leading business analyst software tools since it features a cutting-edge business analytics model. This model allows users to develop intuitive and interactive business analytics dashboards and reports. So, it is one of the widely used business intelligence tools for realizing the latest business models. It is also recognized as a highly scalable business analytics platform. It incorporates top-notch analytical tools for different businesses. It can handle huge data volumes. Moreover, it also supports accurate scenario analysis and estimation by controlling the data fed to scenarios.

Dundas BI:  It is one of the feature-rich business intelligence tools that provide top-notch business intelligence and business analytics solutions. It uses the R programming language. It uses robust business analytics tools. So, it offers trend forecasting, automated analytics, and an advanced dashboard. These functionalities assist users in visualizing data and developing business analytics reports via drag and drop features.