Table of Contents
Introduction
The most important buzzword in the business world is probably business intelligence. Business intelligence has its origin in the early 19th century but the form and context of the term that was used at that time are completely different from the present time. During its inception, business intelligence was designed to describe the competition among businesses that were catering to a specific set of customers, demography, or category. In the present times, business intelligence has more to do with technologies in practices that leverage the power of business data to drive business decisions.
It needs to be noted at this point in time that business intelligence is not a generic trade at all. It involves a specific set of skills including a certification in business analytics. The main role of business analysts is to analyze and organize data into discrete categories and then use it to derive meaningful patterns. These visualization patterns can then be used to understand creative and opportunistic business trends which the stakeholders were otherwise unfamiliar with.
Let us now understand how business intelligence is actually used at various levels of a business.
Performance optimization
With the help of tools, techniques, and methodologies of business intelligence, it is possible to set specific goals for different teams and continuously keep a track of them. We can also set data-driven goals for the teams and provide unique collaborative platforms for the project in time. The advantages also include the monitoring of different sales goals and optimization of performance by providing critical inputs at different stages of a project.
The tools and techniques of business intelligence not only allow goal achievement in the stipulated time but also improve the productivity of an organization as compared to its counterparts. The above-mentioned measures optimize performance by cutting down costs and resources and supplementing the workforce with different management metrics.
Visualization matrix
With the help of business intelligence solutions, it is possible to optimize different business operations because the data is now presented in the form of a visualization matrix. This not only makes it easy to understand for different stakeholders and teams working on the project but also for those who are exposed to the dynamics of the project for the first time. This may include managers, subject matter experts, sales and marketing teams, and other business stakeholders.
Business intelligence platforms are reinforced with the help of a visualization matrix so that all the teams working on a particular project optimize their performance by knowing what their counterparts are doing. A visualization matrix allows teams working on a particular project to explore different pathways toward solving a particular problem, accomplishing a particular project, or achieving a particular business objective.
The most important advantage of using a visualization matrix to communicate business findings is that it has a cognitive impact on different teams as well as the people at the helm of a business. Infographics and dashboards sketch a clear-cut picture of the performance of the business as well as the ways and means to optimize it.
Marketing intelligence
In the domain of business analytics, sales intelligence and market intelligence are becoming the two key factors for driving the growth of a business. Marketing intelligence focuses on the factors that are necessary for customer engagement in the long run. This not only includes customer targeting but also customer retention. Customer negotiation is another important part of marketing intelligence. One more important factor that needs to be taken care of when it comes to market intelligence include the analysis of the customer journey for understanding the needs and interest of customers in particular products and services.
Marketing intelligence is one of the key processes of business intelligence that relies on inputs like customer demographics and conversion rates. By making scientific sense of this data, information can be transformed into visualization outputs that can be understood by all the teams working in the marketing segment.
Once the necessary information is communicated to the marketing team, they are able to analyze customer behavior and their interest in a particular product. This allows the marketing team to reorient their sales strategy because they are now able to know the needs of the customer in a better way.
In one word, business intelligence and marketing intelligence provides the necessary feedback mechanism that gives proper orientation to marketing strategy in general and the overall business strategy of an organization in particular.
Conclusion
Various businesses that are operating in the present technological age rely on different processes of business analytics and intelligence to not survive in the competition but thrive in the dynamics of the digital market.
