8 traits to look for in a Business Intelligence tool

July 31st, 2017 Intech Systems Business Intelligence

Not only big organizations but also SMBs are adopting Business intelligence to get deeper and wider insights of their business data. Before selecting a BI tool for your business, look for these 8 traits to get the best out of it.

1 . Easy to implement and use

One of the major issues with traditional business intelligence tool is that it has complex, time-consuming implementation process. Even intuitive design in using the tool has become a necessity. Using your BI tool should be just as easy as using your smartphone. There was a time when implementation of such software was complex and using it was even a tough task. Fortunately, things have changed dramatically with advent of technology. What once took months or years to implement can now be accomplished within a few days or weeks.

2. Unified data sources

It’s difficult to get the whole picture of your data when it comes from many different data sources. Many organizations face problems because they don’t know what to analyze and what no to. Modern BI tools are intelligent and solve this problem. They provide insights from varied data sources within an integrated dashboard. You can also customize the dashboards as per your business needs. While choosing a BI software, make sure it is able to give you a full picture of your data and not just parts of it.

3. Gives real-time insights

Traditional BI tools require much of your time, money and people. But still, it can’t give you insights when you need them. This leads to delay in decision making and faulty decisions. Today, Business Intelligence tools have evolved. Modern BI tools are now able to give you real-time information from your raw data. make sure to choose such a BI software that can be there for you, whenever you need it.

4. Data Visualization

If a BI software provides you only a static view of your data, it’s not going to meet your demand of dynamic reporting and real-time insights. Getting insights from raw data in the form of charts is nothing new now. Today BI tools are such that you not only get data in charts form but also stunning visualizations and interactive dashboards. These provide a consolidated live view of your enterprise and its performance. For instance, Power BI Desktop offers a free-form canvas for drag-and-drop data navigation and a huge library of interactive visualizations, simple report creation, and fast publishing to the Power BI service.

5. Cross-functional

Business Intelligence tool should require minimum IT skills to use it. Anyone from your organization should be able to operate your BI tool and that too, relevant to their roles. With modern BI tools, not only C-level people but also anyone from Management, Operations, IT, Finance, Marketing, and Sales are able to gain insights and make the right decision in their domain. When choosing a BI tool, be sure that it supports multiple user roles and access controls.

6. Advanced Security

As the quantity and accessibility of data increases, the concern for its security decreases. Thus, today, data security and privacy is a major concern for almost every business. Modern Business Intelligence tool allows you to control exactly who sees what. Using groups and roles, you can ensure a user gets information only which they need and nothing more. While selecting a BI software, also read terms of services which shows the level of security offered by that software.

7. Mobile Access

Mobility has become a necessity these days. It is crucial for your people to feed and get the information they need whenever and wherever they want. This has led to a huge surge in the demand for Mobile BI capabilities. This is why mobile BI feature is a must for businesses. With this feature, your users are on-the-go and can access reports and dashboards on their mobile devices, versus being limited to desktop access.

8. Affordable

It is not necessary that a BI tool with the above mentioned features need to be expensive. BI tool used to be a privilege of large businesses. It’s not that small companies don’t need a BI software – it was just too expensive for them. Time has changed and so has technology. Technology is advancing and the costs have come down. Cloud computing is becoming widespread which has led to reduction in implementation prices. BI tool such as Power BI by Microsoft is affordable and yet containing all the features you require – whether yours is an SMB or a large corporate.
So before thinking of choosing a BI tool for your business of any size, make sure it fulfills these 8 factors to get the best out of it. Find out more feature of our Business Intelligence tools. If you’re looking for business intelligence software for your organization, give us a try.