How to find the right business intelligence tool
Part 3 of the series "Success factors for reliable figures"
Sooner or later, there is no way around business intelligence tools if you handle digital processes in your company. And you can hardly do without them. Data and its processing are the new gold, which means that the majority of business processes in companies are digital.
Which BI tool is the best choice?
As soon as you realise how helpful a business intelligence tool is for your intelligent reports and analyses, your research begins. Which is the best product on the market? Which software plays all the pieces? How do you find out which functions are the most important, how good the provider's support is and where the weak points are? And above all: Which offer is the best choice for your specific requirements?
The most important factors when deciding on a BI tool
In order to make the right choice, you should be clear about your requirements and objectives in advance and take this into account during your research.
What to do before successfully using a BI tool
First things first: don't expect miracles from a BI tool. Your reports are only as intelligent as the information behind them. And ensuring that this data is prepared in such a way that it forms the ideal basis is your homework, so to speak.
In our blog post Success factors for reliable figures, we explained why this point is so essential and in our post on data quality you will find the most important tips on the subject, including a checklist to download.
Business intelligence per business unit
For which or how many of your company divisions do you want to use the business intelligence tool? Depending on the department, you will need different reports, as your processes, data and data sources differ from department to department. Whether you want to optimise your production planning with helpful reports, sustainably increase your sales performance or improve your figures with high-end financial reports - a good BI tool covers all these components and allows you to expand them in the long term as required.
Affordable business intelligence tool
Even if you realise that a business intelligence tool pays off financially thanks to the added value of intelligent decisions, the price is still always a decisive factor. If only because you have to defend and argue your decision well. Think about whether you want to make a one-off investment that will only stay up-to-date through investment in updates, purchased customisations and extra support services, or whether you want to be so flexible, cost-effective and modular that a state-of-the-art BI cloud solution is your ideal choice.
The most important functions for the right choice of BI tool
User-friendly self-service
Setting up and controlling BI tools remains the preserve of data analytics and IT experts, but simple handling must now be possible for all user groups. The intuitive usability of the reports, logically structured interfaces including filter options, customisation via drag & drop, simple export options and the general user-friendly structure are one of the most important functions for us. The fact that the end users can not only use the tool, but also enjoy using it and thus utilise all the benefits is a clear must-have for us.
Interfaces and data integration instead of data silos
Data silos are the natural enemy of intelligent decisions, data analytics and business intelligence. But don't demonise data silos just yet - after all, this means that you have data sources from which you can extract the knowledge you need. Microsoft Excel in particular is the alpha dog among data silos, as it is one of the most frequently used programmes for analyses, reports and calculations. You can link your data warehouse as a standardised source of knowledge for your KPIs with all common systems using standard interfaces and interfaces to individual platforms.
Automated reports
One of the major advantages of business intelligence tools is that the reports in the dashboards are always up-to-date. The timeliness of the data can be adjusted to suit the information base and the desired use. In the event of deviations from targets, striking analyses or regular reports of the most important KPIs to management, for example, notifications can also be set up automatically via email.
24/7 access to dashboards and reports from all end devices
Being able to access software from anywhere is a technical standard. Business intelligence in particular requires ad-hoc analyses that are not only correct and up to date, but can also be accessed on the move. If you want to do everything right, you should also integrate AI-supported forecasts to recognise trends in good time.
Our conclusion
A business intelligence (BI) tool is essential for data-based decisions and efficient company processes. Choosing the right BI tool requires a precise analysis of the requirements, functions and cost structure.
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