Digital data, by its very nature, paints a clear, concise, and panoramic picture of a number of vital areas of Business performance, offering a window of insight that often leads to creating an enhanced business intelligence strategy and, ultimately, an ongoing commercial success.

At its core, business intelligence (BI) encompasses the strategies and technologies used by companies for the detailed online data analysis of key business-based information. BI technologies offer historical, current, and predictive insights into various aspects of business operations, thus helping a company to make informed decisions on activities centered around finances, marketing, sales, competitor research, social outreach, internal processes and more.

Business intelligence is vital in our digitally-driven world as it essentially gives you an additional sense: a commercial vision that can help you see and process far more than the information that presents itself on the surface. And there are Business Intelligence Examples and insights out there that demonstrate that every notion.

To put the power of business intelligence into perspective, here are 4 key insights you should know:

• Businesses using analytics are five times more likely to make better, quicker decisions.

• By 2019, the BI and analytics market is expected to soar to a worth of $20 billion.

• Presently, 42% of companies plan to roll out mobile-based business intelligence in the near future.

• 85% of business leaders believe that big data will change the way they do business, significantly, especially in the personalization potential of intelligence.

It’s clear that BI and the tools that facilitate better business intelligence are vital to the future of any company competing in the digital arena, regardless of industry or sector.

Here we explore 8 BI examples based on real-life case studies, scenarios, data, and discoveries. These business intelligence examples will showcase the power and potential of big data analytics in the modern age and how it can make your venture smarter, stronger, more scalable and more successful.

Without further ado, here are 8 inspirational examples of business intelligence.

1) Improving The Decision-Making Process

One of the primary benefits of BI is the ability to make better and more valuable decisions, and this business intelligence example is based on that very idea.

In the first of our business analytics examples, the CEO and founder of a budding fintech company was presented with the challenge of changing his business’s internal culture with a view to making all business data more accessible across the board.

To avoid the IT department having sole control over the data, and thereby preventing other departments from working collaboratively and making informed decisions that benefit the business, the company’s CEO deployed a dashboard reporting software for an automated data reporting process. As a direct result of this decision, not only is the company’s data now decentralized and digestible, improving the decision-making process across the board, but it has also saved 40 valuable hours per week on report preparation.

Speaking on this BI triumph, the fintech CEO said, “All departments now can access their own real-time dashboards, no matter if they are in the office or at a meeting. All decision makers have quick, easy access to ad-hoc analysis and reports, even on their tablets.”

2) Uncovering Fresh Business Insights

The second of our business analytics examples focuses on discovering new business insights that can ultimately help streamline commercial processes, thereby improving productivity and boosting the bottom line.

A forward-thinking online food ordering business wanted to gain a better insight into the life cycles of its customers while gaining the ability to optimize sales reports and marketing campaigns in a time-efficient, cost-saving, and autonomous way.

By gaining self-service access to real-time analytical information the company was able to streamline its marketing and sales activities, make better, swifter decisions based on real-time information and uncover fresh insights that have served to improve its level of customer experience, resulting in increased brand loyalty.

The use of a real time dashboard has empowered the budding online food giant to monitor all significant business operations through customized KPIs. Moreover, the new business analytics platform has made the business more able to rise to challenges as they unfold in days, rather than weeks or even months later.

3) Boosting Productivity

Today’s consumers crave ratings, opinions, and reviews from their peers to help them make decisions, particularly when it comes to travel. That said, a travel-based rating business should be able to deliver an exemplary level of customer experience and support to its users.

In the third of our business intelligence examples, a hotel rating company based in Berlin turned to business intelligence analytics software as its data was fragmented, diluting its impact across the company, impairing its productivity and service levels as a result.

By rolling out a SaaS-based analytics solution that requires minimal IT intervention and making it accessible across the organization, the travel company was able to consolidate its key data in one accessible space.

When it comes to big data examples in real life, this travel business made a wise BI-based move that resulted in improved internal efficiency, better interdepartmental cohesion, and the new level of insight has also enhanced the company’s level of customer support beyond the CEO’s wildest expectations.

4) Increasing Sales

Number 4 of our inspiring BI examples demonstrates that by using big data analytics to your advantage, you can increase your sales – which is one of the primary aims for all business worldwide.

A rising online retail player was suffering from an inconsistent and somewhat erratic sales performance for some time and was unable to evolve its strategy despite a host of efforts.

After turning to BI methodologies and incorporating a sales dashboard to solve this ongoing issue, it became apparent, almost immediately, that force rather than data drove the company’s sales strategy. By realigning its strategy and drilling down into the data available at its fingertips, the company’s sales grew by 24% while rep attrition fell by 90%. A better organized target-setting process as well as streamlined sales strategies driven by data, has ensured that the company not only continues to scale, but its sales team continues to surpass its targets.

5) Improving Financial Efficiency

Without a doubt, your financial department is one of the beating hearts of your organization because, without a steady cash flow and the capital to invest back into the business, the entire operation would grind to halt.

That said, the fifth of our business analytics examples focuses on evolving a company’s business intelligence to identify potential cash flow issues and improve financial efficiency. In this scenario, a disease diagnostics brand turned to an online reporting software and business intelligence methodologies as, despite a period of rapid growth, the company’s percentage collections were low, and accounts receivables, as well as claim denials, had reached a record high.

To tackle this potentially devastating issue, the company implemented an intuitive financial reporting system that allowed them to drill down into a wealth of relevant accounts-based metrics.

As a result of this savvy BI initiative, and the most financially-driven of our examples of business intelligence, the business diagnostics was able to, well, diagnose the issues by leveraging the power of financial reports, uncovering the source of the claim denials, and recovering millions of dollars’ worth of claims in the process.

6) Streaming Internal Processes

A rapidly growing US-based healthcare company suffering from a raft of disjointed internal processes and commercial inefficiencies sought the power of BI in the sixth of our analytics examples.

Due to a lack of cross-departmental compatibility arisen out of poor data handling, collection, and analytics processes, the business was unable to use this wealth of digital insight to its advantage. However, by working with a BI partner to develop and deploy a unified business intelligence system that integrates multiple data sources into one single platform, the healthcare company was able to analyze their data in on an efficient, valuable and accessible format, empowering it to make increasingly smart decision to benefit the business.

Armed with the tools required to perform their jobs better, departments including finance, billing, marketing, and sales began to work more productively, evolving internal processes, and boosting cross-departmental collaboration.

This scenario is perhaps one of the most valuable of our business analytics examples as it serves to showcase how big data in healthcare and business intelligence can help foster a culture of continual evolution, which is an invaluable asset in today’s fast-paced digital world.

7) Improving Customer Loyalty

In number 7 of our business analytics examples, a clothing retailer in the early stages of its rising success was struggling to scale its business further. After a year of impressive growth, the business saw its profits and customer acquisition levels plateau while seeing a rise in customer churn. The company was able to maintain its momentum so it decided external help was needed for continued success.

By opting for a retail dashboard customized to display a host of invaluable demographic data about its existing users and target audience and with KPIs focused on increasing customer value and new customer acquisition, the company began to grow its audience once again.

The business was able to identify its strengths and weaknesses, spot emerging trends, and segment its audience accurately to ensure it offered the right personalized deals or offers to the right set of consumers, resulting in a significant growth in its customer base and increased brand loyalty.

8) Optimizing Inventory

The eighth and final of our business intelligence examples, or business analytics examples, is centered on stock or inventory optimization. Around 46% of SMBs either don’t track their inventory or use a laborious manual method to do so, costing time, money, and a host of other valuable resources.

A tight-knit web-based electronics supplier that deals with a large warehouse of ever-changing stock began to feel the effects of a poor inventory management process when it began to lose track of high-value items and ensure an increasing number of in-house damages.

Before the situation spiraled out of control, the company adopted a decision support system (DSS) so it could use all of its inventory-based data to make informed choices regarding the way it stored, quantified, and managed its stock on a sustainable basis. This exhaustive and incredibly smart analysis of historical data in addition to stock taking metrics for warehouse product not only helped the business to keep track of its various items, but it also prevented damages and ensured all of its popular products remained stocked at all times.

We live in an age rich in data, and those that use it wisely today will reap endless rewards tomorrow, and beyond. We hope that these BI examples have inspired you to improve your organization’s processes and for further reading, explore these 10 essential data visualization techniques.

To summarize our subject matter, here are the most prominent business intelligence examples that can help businesses for:

1) Improving The Decision-Making Process

2) Uncovering Fresh Business Insights

3) Boosting Productivity

4) Increasing Sales

5) Improving Financial Efficiency

6) Streaming Internal Processes

7) Improving Customer Loyalty

8) Optimizing Inventory

If you want to be a part of your own business intelligence story, you can try our online data visualization software for a 14-day trial, completely free!

The post 8 Analytics & Business Intelligence Examples Illustrating The Value of BI appeared first on BI Blog | Data Visualization & Analytics Blog | datapine.