What is business intelligence?
When youre planning the future of your company, its always beneficial to have as much data as possible to support the decision-making process. Thats why business intelligence, a catch-all term encompassing a range of different processes and methodologies, has become such a touchstone for organisations across the world. Explore the importance of business intelligence with our comprehensive article, starting with our business intelligence definition. Business intelligence definition  Business intelligence (BI) is a broad term that combines analytics, data, and computing to help businesses make data-driven decisions. As business intelligence is something of an umbrella term, it doesnt refer to one specific process, but all the processes and methods related to the collection, storage, and analysis of data with the aim of optimising your companys operational performance. Some examples of business intelligence processes include statistical analysis, data visualisation, data mining, performance metrics, and descriptive analytics. Understanding the importance of business intelligence  In a nutshell, business intelligence and analytics helps organisations to make better decisions by grounding them in historical and present data, presented within a business context. It can help improve almost any aspect of business, whether you need to identify ways to increase cash flow, spot market trends, analyse customer behaviour, or set performance benchmarks. Following the rise of digital transformation, theres been a proliferation of data that  in many cases  is still untapped. Put simply, business intelligence solutions give you the tools you need to harness that data. The business intelligence process varies depending on the specific tools youre using. Having said that, theres a simple framework for business intelligence and analytics that can help you understand how BI works in practice. Basically, youll need to start with a question or goal, gather the necessary data, analyse it, and work out what actions to take to bring your business to the next level. Lets look at an example  say Company A wants to identify areas where they can cut operational costs without reducing revenue. Using a business intelligence solution, you can see which areas of your business carry waste (for example, if youre collecting recurring payments manually, that means extra work for your accounting team), and take the necessary steps to boost your bottom line. Business intelligence vs. business analytics  Business analytics is a subcategory of business intelligence, and as such, it should be part of your companys larger BI strategy. Whereas business intelligence is centered around descriptive analytics (i.e. using present/historical data to show whats happening with your business), business analytics is focused on predictive analytics (i.e. using data to determine the likelihood of future events and outcomes). So, when it comes to business intelligence vs. business analytics, there are several key points of difference that its important to keep in mind. There are a broad range of business intelligence solutions that you can pursue. As we mentioned earlier in the article, business intelligence is an umbrella term, and as such, it covers a broad range of tools, including:  Dashboards  Visualisations  Data mining  Reporting  OLAP (online analytical processing)  ETL (extract, transform, load)  As theyre accessible and easy-to-understand, dashboards and visualisations are the most popular type of business intelligence solution. Giving you the ability to tell a story about your operational performance using data, visualisations are an ideal way to communicate the importance of business intelligence to your wider workforce, many of whom may not have the necessary technical know-how to decipher raw internal data. We can help  GoCardless helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of admin your team needs to deal with when chasing invoices. Find out how GoCardless can help you with ad hoc payments or recurring payments.