How Online Business Intelligence Software can Benefit your Organization – Part Two

As I showed in the last post, one of the biggest benefits of online business intelligence software is that it can help with the democratization of data and expertise. In this post, we’ll look at some more.

Data-driven decisions: The English business magnate Richard Branson once said, “I rely far more on gut instinct than researching huge amounts of statistics.” However, if you parrot the same line to your boss, odds are that you and your gut will be packing your stuff in a crate and heading home. Organizations today are realizing the importance of making decisions backed by hard data more than ever before. Think about it. If you want to start a new product line or a new branch, will you just listen to your gut that asks you to go ahead or will you commission a thorough study of the potential market? This is what business intelligence does for you. It gives you a clear picture of the ground reality the way you want it.

New opportunities: Sometimes, organizations do not see the potential in a market and miss out on opportunities that they have the capabilities to act on. Business intelligence though can help them see these opportunities clearly. Say an organization offers procurement software. To gauge the response to their current offering, they conduct a survey. If an overwhelming number of respondents respond that they would like some additions, say contract management software for example, as they think that it would complement the current offering and allow the organization to make the offering more comprehensive, a new market opportunity has opened up for the organization.

Real-time information: Some businesses move fast. They are so dynamic that even minutes make a difference. For such organizations, online business intelligence software will be of great help. This software offers them up to date real-time accurate information at their fingertips at all times.