Past, Present, Future Business Intelligence Tools

Both people and businesses are growing ever-more dependent on the ability to connect, share, and access information like never before. Even consumer goods are now providing remote information accessibility—from watches, to shoes, and even your coffee maker.

Almost everything around you is leaning in to observe how you operate. If you can embrace this remarkable shift — rather than let it frighten you— you can observe the tremendous opportunity this presents to businesses.  In fact, big data accessibility is changing the face of business for the better. As more  channels connect behavior to analytics, new applications are learning to support businesses with a smarter and more automated ways to define the needs, wants, and desires of end users. We call this business intelligence (BI).  So where did this come from,  and what will future business intelligence tools look like?

The Past – Business Intelligence Tools

Since the dawn of the computer age, users have relied on intelligent programming to observe the conditions of events. Users of business intelligence tools were primarily government agencies conducting groundbreaking analysis to decode enemy messages in WWII. From there BI became an evidence-based apparatus to automate anti-aircraft weapons against enemy planes. Next, BI evolved into computer simulations to predict behavior of nuclear chain reactions—largely tied to the Manhattan Project.

The mid to late 20^th century commercialized analytic data and used BI to improve air travel, logistics, and credit risk. Business intelligence tools were becoming mainstream. The use of analytics spread to corporations, tech startups, and even elite sports strategy organizations. As data mounted from the many entities using it, it was apparent robust business intelligence tools were on the horizon; however they would not become a universal mode of business until the 21^st century.

The Present – Business Intelligence Tools

Today, we observe business intelligence tools empowering businesses of all shapes and sizes. Take for example Amazon and EBay: as guests visit their sites, BI is recording every click, page view, and product search they perform. Within millionths of a second, data is tracked through visitor profiles, search history, and even social media sites. All to allure the prospect back to site or to promote an additional product offering. Analytics is helping to influence leads to buy products they are most inclined to buy.

From an executive perspective, analytics are recording business information in an equally beneficial manner. Information is coalesced into simplistic KPIs that allow businesses to reform business  processes, manufacturing strategies, shipping logistics, and even human capital management. It is an effective way for businesses to eliminate waste and optimize processes that simply couldn’t be measured accurately before.

With the ability to capture terabytes of data at a rapid pace, business are now being challenged to do something with this data. The modern business intelligence tools like Power BI and Tableu allow this data to think for itself; providing valuable insights and easily discoverable trends about business information that is literally transforming the way many conduct business today. One of the greatest web tools ever invented is Google Analytics. Modern BI software is taking that component transparency and applying to in a smart way to the entire way an enterprise operates. Combined with dynamic ERP software, CRM systems, and other smart objects, those in the manufacturing and distribution field are looking at the dawn of a new era.

The Future – Business Intelligence Tools

The key in unlocking profitability for any organization is to integrate business intelligence applications into resource systems.  Over the last two years, big data collectors coined the phrase “the internet of things (IoT).” As we mentioned earlier, many of today’s products send and receive information in one way or another. The idea behind IoT is accessibility and information management. business intelligence tools can use SaaS technology to transform user data into harder numbers for businesses to digest. With these bits of measure, companies can revamp their entire ecosystem to evolve with a changing marketplace.

Business intelligence tools will become more valuable than ever in the next 5 years. Organizations opting to lean out wasteful spending and business processes will begin achieving it through comprehensive analytic utility. In the face of declining profitability, BI indicates which business processes are generating the most wealth for the business. Big data analytics derived from consumer goods illuminates how users are using the product, when and how the purchase was made, and events of non-conformance. This information will allow manufacturing, financial, and many other industries to decide which processes are profitable and which ones are shaving the bottom line. This will soon become the competitive norm for all types of businesses in these industries.

Businesses everywhere are adopting BI analytic software because it is increasing the responsiveness of ERP and CRM software. For mid-sized manufacturers the benefits of a BI integration are evident at the bottom line. Manufacturing and distribution companies in particular are at risk of losing market-share if they fail to integrate stout business intelligence tools prior to their competition. As more firms position products through ecommerce portals, buyer accessibility will increase exponentially, drive new demand, and exceed forecasts.

Organizational transformations are only a side effect of analytic adoption. Companies do not have the time or resources to analyze big data on their own. They should be optimizing assets to attract new crowds and build brand awareness today. For manufacturing and distribution sectors, BI utilities are a seamless add on to differentiate your position in a buyer’s market. Like it or not the future is here now.

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Contact Datix Inc. for more details on how to make business intelligence work with your enterprise and it’s software.