Top 10 Business Intelligence Tools To Improve Business Decision Making [2024]

Business intelligence (BI) tools are applications that collect and interpret massive volumes of unstructured information from internal and external systems such as books, journals, papers, health records, photographs, files, email, video, and other business sources. While not as adaptable as business analytics tools, BI tools collect data and search for relevant information mainly through queries. These technologies also aid in preparing data for analysis, allowing you to build reports, dashboards, and data visualisations. 

Employees and managers can use BI tools to effectively leverage data to speed and enhance decision making, increase operational efficiency, uncover new income potentials, detect market trends, provide authentic KPIs, and identify new business prospects.

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Business Intelligence Tools: What Are They?

Before exploring the top business intelligence tools, let’s learn what these tools actually are. Today, organizations leverage BI tools to gather, process, and analyze large chunks of unstructured and structured data. 

Now what are the sources for such data? It may include standard files, social media posts, journals, emails, books, documents, and photographs. 

Today, the best BI tools leverage queries to retrieve this data, which can then be shown/displayed as dashboards, charts, graphs, and reports for convenience in use. Whether it’s analytics, performance management, text mining, reporting or predictive analysis, BI tools are capable of handling all such tasks. 

But what’s the fuss about collecting and analyzing all this data? Well, employees in organizations can leverage this data to make smarter decisions based on KPIs, market trends, and forecasts. 

Why is Business Intelligence essential?

• Business intelligence solutions analyse raw data utilising seasonal, trend analysis, what-if scenarios, modelling with various data modelling approaches, and similar features.
• BI offers a wide range of features for producing reports to help you better understand your company data. Business users may generate, examine, and change reports and visualisations both online and offline and in conjunction with other office tools.
• A business intelligence system provides tools for analysing real-time, up-to-the-second operational data, allowing the company to make swift and educated choices. The system includes dashboards that allow businesses to monitor, measure, and manage company performance in a timely and controllable manner.
• Business Intelligence solutions include industry-standard scorecards that allow businesses to track essential performance metrics.
• A BI solution allows you to exchange information with diverse stakeholders both inside and outside your firm.
• It includes features that enable the same information, including reports, dashboards, and monitoring, to be accessed through a mobile device.
• Some BI tools provide extensive analytics and visualisation capabilities, allowing for real-time visualisation in various formats and ways and the inclusion of extra functionality.

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Top Business Intelligence Tools

 1. Datapine

 Datapine is a business intelligence programme that allows you to link data from many sources and analyse it using advanced capabilities (including predictive analytics and artificial intelligence). With all of your data at your disposal, you can build a sophisticated business dashboard (or multiple), generate standard or customised reports, and add intelligent alerts to be warned of anomalies and goals.

The programme caters to expert users, such as data analysts and regular business users. The SQL mode allows analysts to write their queries, while the simple drag-and-drop interface provides a visually intuitive manner of entering numbers and building impressive charts and dashboards simply by utilising effective visual analytics.

 2. Zoho Analytics

Zoho Analytics is an excellent BI solution for detailed reporting and data analysis. This business intelligence solution supports automated data synchronisation and may be scheduled regularly. Using the integration APIs, you can quickly create a connection. Create relevant reports by blending and merging data from many sources. You may build customised reports and dashboards with a simple editor, allowing you to hone in on the relevant facts. It also has a special comments box in the sharing choices, ideal for cooperation.

3. Domo

Domo is a cloud-based platform that focuses on business-user dashboard deployment and usability. It provides business information solutions targeted to specific sectors and functions (such as financial services, health care, manufacturing, and education) (including CEOs, sales, BI professionals and IT workers). CIOs may begin by investigating how it manages data from AWS, Jira, GitHub, or New Relic before exploring how over 500 more connectors might benefit the rest of the company.

4. Microsoft Power BI

Users may analyse and display data from local or cloud sources using the Power BI Desktop programme for Windows and then publish their findings to the Power BI platform. Data preparation, visual-based exploration, interactive dashboards, and augmented analytics are available.

The free Power BI Desktop version is intended for isolated users; the Pro version, available for a monthly fee, facilitates collaborative analysis by integrating Microsoft Office365, SharePoint, and Teams to limit access to raw data and published results. The Premium tier enables self-service data prep with prebuilt connections to corporate data stored in Microsoft Dynamics 365, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, or third-party sources such as Salesforce for companies willing to go all-in.

5. Oracle Business Intelligence

Oracle Business Intelligence is a technology and application portfolio that focuses on offering end-to-end solutions to assist organisations in enhancing their performance and encouraging people to make faster and much more informed mobile-enabled decisions. 

They provide a broad range of data management capabilities such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, an integrated array of querying, reporting, and mobile analytics. Oracle’s purpose has been to give organisations tools to successfully manage their data comprehensively and efficiently since its inception in 1977.

6. Qlik

Qlik’s objective is to offer everybody in the business access to all of its data, according to corporate data governance regulations, of course. All of that data should be enough to slow down most database engines, but Qlik claims its Associative Engine can associate each item of data with every other piece to make searching for connections faster.

Because of the Qlik cognitive engine, the Associative Engine now offers AI and machine learning capabilities that provide context-aware insight recommendations. Qlik Sense, the self-service platform for gaining access to that analytical power, is available in the cloud and on-premises editions.

7. Tibco Spotfire

Tibco Spotfire is an AI-powered data visualisation platform for self-service dashboards, interactive visualisation, data preparation, and workflow. To aid in the development of complicated data models, the platform includes machine learning-based data preparation capabilities. It is used in various industries, including finance, energy, manufacturing, consumer packaged products, government, transport and logistics, healthcare, and life sciences. Python support has been included in the most recent version.

8. Microstrategy

MicroStrategy is a ‘software and mobility’ platform for enterprise business analytics that focuses on hyperintelligence, federated analytics, and cloud solutions. Their mobile dossiers allow customers to create interactive analytics books that can be viewed on iOS or Android smartphones, with the option to integrate MicroStrategy material into their apps using Xcode or JavaScript. In addition, you can get a sample app, MicroStrategy Mobile, or the Library app, which will allow you to install analytics on the fly.

9. Sap Business Objects

SAP Business Objects is a business intelligence application that provides comprehensive reporting, analysis, and interactive data visualisation. The platform strongly emphasises areas like Customer Experience (CX) and CRM, digital supply chain, ERP, and others. What’s particularly appealing about this platform is the self-service, role-based dashboards it provides, which allow users to create their dashboards and apps. SAP is a strong programme designed for all roles (IT, end-users, and management) that provides many features on a single platform. 

10. Yellowfin BI

Yellowfin BI is a business intelligence tool and “end-to-end” analytics platform that integrates visualisation, machine learning, and collaboration. You may also simply sift through large amounts of data using easy filters (e.g., checkboxes and radio buttons), as well as open dashboards from almost anywhere (due to the tool’s accessibility flexibility) (mobile, webpage, etc.). The wonderful thing about this BI tool is that it allows you to simply take dashboards and visualisations to the next level by employing a no-code/low code development environment.

How To Choose The Best Business Intelligence Software?

• Know What Your Company Needs: First, ask or research the sort of information your organization needs to gather, evaluate, analyze, and deploy for decision-making. Do you need to monitor supply chain operations, financial data, consumer interaction, or sales? You can reduce the possibilities and select a business intelligence solution that supports your objectives by determining your company’s demands. 
• Make a Budget: The best business intelligence software may be costly, but the price varies from one software to another. However, everything that is costly isn’t necessarily the best fit for us, and the same theory applies to BI tools. You can keep within your means and still receive a product that meets your business objectives by creating a budget. 
• Evaluate The Accessibility & Simplicity of Use: The best business intelligence solutions are simple to use and intuitive, allowing your staff to have access to information fast. A user-friendly program will allow your staff to focus on data analysis and action instead of training, saving you time and money. 
• Look For Capabilities Allowing Unique Data Visualization: Data visualization has many advantages, including making difficult-to-understand data understandable and enhancing team communication. Tools for visual business information can facilitate greater insights into trends and patterns, which can enhance decision-making. An excellent solution will also be adaptable to your particular business requirements, offering various features and filters that match your information and preferences. 
• Compatibility Check With Current Tech Stack: To minimize additional costs, take into account the analytics solution’s compatibility with your current technology infrastructure. An excellent one will be simple to integrate with your existing database management systems and work with the technologies you already have. 

So, are you prepared to advance your management of performance and productivity? Use a strong business intelligence solution to help you simplify and streamline your processes and maximize the potential of your staff. 

Popular BI Tools On Resume: A Worthwhile Addition! 

By learning on your own or while working, you can become acquainted with more than one BI tool. Leading organizations now rely on their use. 

So, if it makes value for the position and the field in which you’re making an application, you can gain from adding the most popular BI tools in the skills area of your resume. Also, if a particular BI tool is mentioned in the job description, recruiters may look out for candidates who hold expertise in it.

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Conclusion

 Artificial intelligence is steadily taking over. With the multiple capabilities that BI tools and business analytics tools have to offer, you stand to gain significant benefits – your data management will become more unified, stable, agile, and predictable. 

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