5 Clear Benefits to Using Business Analytics Software

Business Analytics Software May 04, 2022

Mary Kate Morrow

Writer

5 Benefits of Business Analytics Software

Companies are increasingly recognizing the power of business analytics software. Business analytics, commonly referred to as BA, is a widely known subset of business intelligence, commonly referred to as BI. Both business intelligence and business analytics have very real implications for companies. Business analytics is defined as the process that uses statistical methods and technology for historical data analysis. Through historical data analysis, new insights are produced and strategic decision making optimized.

Business intelligence is defined as data usage for day to day operational management purposes. Business intelligence combines business analytics with other analytics tools and best practices. One main objective of business intelligence is to help companies make more data driven decisions. Business analytics and business intelligence software help companies maximize bottom line profitability and maintain a competitive edge. It is important to note that business intelligence software is also commonly referred to as an analytics platform. Prominent benefits of using business intelligence and business analytics software that all professionals should know include-

1. Insights

The insights that business analytics and business intelligence offers are incredibly valuable for companies. Many organizations are already aware of the potential that big data and data sources hold for revealing insights. However, if the correct analytics platform or analytics tools are not available, big data insights remain inaccessible.

A self service real time analytics platform extracts meaningful insights from big data. Data sources are be categorized and organized for optimized real time and historical data analysis. Examples of data sources that may be investigated with analytics software range from project management to employee productivity. Data sources can even be analyzed for department specific performances.

Analytics tools included within analytics software uncover the deficiencies and strengths of a business. A business analytics platform indicates what is working and not working within an organization. Additionally, real time notifications alert business professionals in regards to important key performance indicators.

2. Quality

Too often data sources are not properly vetted to ensure their cleanliness and reliability. Making decisions or drawing insights based on inaccurate data sources can have disastrous consequences. For example, a case where predictive analytics is performed with incorrect data. Predictive analytics uses machine learning and statistical algorithms with historical data sources in order to make future predictions. If predictive analytics used incorrect data sources then future predictions would likely be grossly inaccurate

A common source of inaccurate big data occurs when a database is unorganized. High power BI software supplies the ability for different data sources to be seamlessly aggregated. As such it is much easier to identify discrepancies in both real time and historical data. When companies dedicate proper resources towards keeping data sources clean, everything from project management to machine learning capabilities is benefitted. In fact, businesses that properly manage data sources and data cleanliness are typically much more successful.

3. Reports

With the higher quality data sources that a business analytics platform supplies, generated reports are much more accurate. Employees can easily access the self service analytics platform to generate customized real time reports. Real time reports generated on an analytics platform utilize various data sources such as project management or sales data. Using the most relevant data sources available, real time reports allow businesses to act swiftly and accurately.

Analytics platform generated reports offers additional notable benefits for data analytics purposes. One such example is the data visualizations that generated reports often include. With graphs, charts, and tables, big data is much easier for employees to interpret and act upon.

4. Profitability

Profit margins are a common business concern that BI tools address. Utilizing BI tools and analytics software properly helps identify any inefficiencies within an organization. As a result, inefficiencies can be addressed in real time and unnecessary additional profit loss avoided.

Business analytics and business intelligence tools assist with expanding profit margins through the valuable insights they supply. For example, aggregated sales data could assist with sales teams producing more optimal budgeting strategies. Additionally, aggregated sales data helps businesses to better understand their customer base.

5. Project Management

Project management is a hot topic in the business world and for a good reason. Studies show that the average project cost overrun is a shocking 27%! Additionally, schedules can run 70% longer than initially predicted. These statistics are project management pain points that result from multiple issues. Examples of common project management issues range from improper software to unrealistic set deadlines. With business intelligence and business analytics, project management effectiveness can increase exponentially.

There are many different ways that BI tools assist project management capabilities. BI tools can automate processes within project management which not only decreases employee time spent but also limits human error. Additionally, machine learning and artificial intelligence alert project management professionals in real time regarding any anomalies or discrepancies. An analytics platform utilizes predictive analytics forecasting for more accurate future predictions. Considering the benefits that analytics tools and analytics software supply project management it is unsurprising popularity is increasing.

Key Takeaways of Business Analytics Software

Both business analytics and business intelligence are considered crucial for optimizing performance and bottom line profitability.
Benefits that business analytics and business intelligence software supplies range from cleaner data sets to project management capabilities.