Business Software for Analytics
Business Analytics software utilizes specific methodologies, theories, technologies, architectures, or processes to transform raw data into useful information, which is used for business purposes. By using analytics business software, data is transformed into actionable business information to help end-users make better data-driven decisions.
Business Analytics software can process large amounts of data to help identify and develop new opportunities. These new opportunities help in implementing effective strategies and provide a competitive market advantage.
With the pressing desire to stay ahead of their competition, most businesses have now started to focus on data and analytics to drive strategic business decisions. Business Analytics tools allow managers to anticipate market shifts, the dynamics of their business and understand risks.
Data and Analytics have changed the way business models work. From using data to customize products, match buyers and sellers, scale digital platforms, organizations are using data analytics, for faster and better decision making.
Businesses that use analytics business software enjoy improved customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and higher revenue. Business Analysts today, have an array of analytical capabilities at their disposal using which they find a way into a customer, supply chain, finance, HR workforce analytics, and risk at the organizational level.
The best way to understand data and analytics is to digitize them. Digitizing helps companies to feed into the traces of information a customer provides and improves their sales, marketing, strategy, and product development.
Let us look at opportunities that data and analytics provide to businesses today:
Managing risk
Businesses are exposed to data risk very often, from websites, social media platforms, blogs, etc. Companies which leverage risk analytics, find themselves in a better position to quantify and predict risk.
Identifying patterns
It is imperative for organizations to use customer insights to stay ahead of the game. Customer insights help them in improving their experience and developing products. Thorough and thoughtful segmentation of customers offers businesses, meaningful insights into their buying habits and preferences.
Drive Performance
While businesses spend the majority of their time in analyzing data, it is also very important to focus on improving performance and productivity. Data and analytics help businesses in streamlining business processes, which increases both productivity and performance.
According to IT research and advisory giant Gartner, by 2021, over 70% of all organizations will deploy data analytics to improve and streamline business decisions. Also, according to Gartner, more than 40% of data analyst tasks will be automated by 2020.
The popularity of business analytics tools has increased by leaps and bounds. Which has forced the need to increase the depth and functionality they deliver. Many advanced technologies have been developed to meet the needs of natural language processing (NLP) and Hadoop, which have resulted in quicker and better business analytics tools.
With a new BA tool introduces almost every other day, identifying the best tool can be quite a challenge. BA tools which target business analysts, staff members, and managers are the ones which offer distinct features as they are the ones who use these tools most frequently.
Let us look at a few features a cutting-edge business analytics tools must have:
Intuitive user interface
Although very basic, the user interface is the most important feature that a business analyst looks for in a BA tool. The user interface of the best BA tools has the capability to guide even non-technical users through its analytical process. They offer rich and appealing data options, making it easy to use.
Advanced analysis algorithms
The most cutting-edge BA tools offer advanced analytics algorithms. They offer users the luxury of seeing their data the way they want. They also offer contextualized insights, save time, and generate knowledge. Having advanced algorithm means incorporating R (statistical programming language) into your workflow.
Natural language interface
Natural language interface is one feature not many BA tools in the market have. IBM’s Watson is the most well-known tool with this feature in the market. They use Natural language processing (NLP) responses for all their queries and do not require a data scientist to run them.
Scaling data
Big data can measure everything, right from transactional to unstructured data. Over 50% of all the organizations have company data which is either semi-structured or unstructured. BA tools which offer this feature are a rarity. Companies are always in search of tools that offer the flexibility to analyze structured and unstructured data.
The Conclusion
In this volatile environment, it is imperative that business include data and analytics into their core business decision-making process.
By embedding data analytics into their core strategy, they can drive analytical transformations and thereby enable companies to gain a competitive edge and stay ahead.
The use of BA tools is increasing every day, and the tools which offer features like greater usability and self-service will thrive. Businesses want to reduce the need to have data scientists on staff, find quick solutions, and streamline decision making. BA tools allow users to control the power of data for meaningful insights.