The value of business intelligence development

As a business that supplies or distributes goods, you need to be able to identify which customers are the most important to your continued operations - enter the world of business intelligence development.

"That means sorting out which customers are bringing genuine benefits to your business as opposed to the ones who are really noisy," says Managing Director of JIWA Financials David Simmonds. 

Business intelligence ('BI') is a reporting and analysis software tool that can greatly help you to prioritise your customers and formulate your business strategy. 

Putting it in perspective

Business intelligence provides an overview of your business in terms of sales, inventory and debtors.

"It's the processes, tools and technologies required to turn data into information, information into knowledge and knowledge into plans that will improve business performance," says David. 

By processing all the varied and complex elements of your business and identifying trends and patterns, business intelligence allows you to carefully target your business strategy. 

Understanding possibilities 

There's no point having a BI solution installed on your computer system without an understanding of what it can do. 

"People need to have explained to them exactly how BI applies to their business," says David. "Then they need to practise with it; actually see it at work within their own business." 

Try before you buy 

Each business has it own complex needs and the business intelligence tool must be customised for each company. BI providers like JIWA will often install a trial version of a custom-designed BI tool on a single computer within the business so people can see it at work, and see its benefits. 

"Once they've seen how it collates all the data from their business operations and provides information vital to their forward planning, they usually decide to purchase it," says David.

Most BI solutions cost around $2000. Compared to hiring a crystal report consultant every time you need to analyse your business figures, this is a relatively cheap investment.

Benefits of using business intelligence

Having a BI solution installed on your computer system will help your business: 

• collate complex business data
• analyse your business operations and create an overview
• identify trends in your business
• identify your most important customers
• plan a business strategy. 

It collates, while you think 

Although an exceptional software tool, BI does not have the capacity to be creative by assessing trends or producing strategies that will benefit your business moving forward. 

What it can do is reach out to all the complex workings of your business and assemble the information in an easy-to-digest manner. It's then up to you to assess that information and plan what's best for your business. 

So talk to a business software specialist today and ask how business intelligence development can help you attract more customers.