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What are the Best Software Programs for Business Intelligence?
In a world that’s getting increasingly competitive by the day, and customer satisfaction matters now more than ever, businesses must outdo themselves to stay atop the competition. And one of the best-proven ways of achieving that feat is by leveraging business intelligence, BI.
In a word, business intelligence refers to the process of enterprises using technologies and strategies to enhance historical and current data analysis to improve decision-making and remain competitive. BI also aims to increase operational efficiency, identify market trends, provide valuable business insights, and enhance customer satisfaction, among other benefits.
So how does it realize all these? Well, that’s where business intelligence software programs come into play. These are tools used to collect, process, visualize, and analyze large sets of past, present, and future data to achieve the benefits mentioned above.
In this comprehensive blog, we take a deeper dive into the top BI tools on the market, their key features, and their shortcomings, if any. So let’s get down to business.
The Top Software Programs for Business Intelligence
1. Datapine
If you’re in the market for the best software solution for collecting data from diverse sources and analyzing the most advanced analytics features, datapine has got you covered. With this tool’s impressive analytical capabilities, you can construct a resourceful business dashboard, generate accurate reports, and even get notified of trends and anomalies through intelligent alerts.
The best part about datapine is that it’s incredibly versatile, and it can be used for various platforms, functions, and industries, regardless of the size. Not to mention, the tool comes with tons of valuable features such as predictive analytics and a drag-and-drop interface – more details below!
Datapine Key Features & Capabilities
- Built-in drag-and-drop interface. You don’t need any advanced coding or IT experience to transform your datapine interface into a professional dashboard. That’s thanks to the intuitive drag-and-drop feature that enables you to drag your key performance indicators (KPI’s) and let the charts and graphs do the magic.
- Interactive dashboard. Datapine has, arguably, the most sophisticated and interactive dashboard, with tons of sub-features such as hierarchical filters, widget linking, chat zooms, drill-downs, among others.
- Predictive Analytics. Datapine’s predictive analysis is built upon a forecast engine. That means you only need to select a KPI you’d like to analyze, determine the number of data points to predict, specify the historical data points, and appoint your desired confidence interval by defining the model quality.
Datapine Drawback
- Whereas the software program enables mobile accessibility, you won’t access the dashboards unless you download the datapine app and customize it for mobile view.
2. Microsoft Power BI
Power BI is a top-rated business intelligence solution by Microsoft. From interactive visualizations and a simple interface for creating accurate reports and dashboards, you can’t help but love this software program.
Power BI comes in both the free and Pro version. The former is suitable for single users, whereas the latter is recommended for goal-oriented businesses. It comes with tons of Microsoft apps and services, such as Teams, Office 365, and Sharepoint, making collaborative data analysis trouble-free.
Power BI Notable Features & Benefits
- Self-service and enterprise analytics. How would you like to integrate both self-service and enterprise data analytics in a single platform? That’s precisely what Power BI offers – an opportunity to access resourceful semantic models, lifecycle management toolkit, open-source connectivity network, and more.
- Faster and simplified big data analysis. Power BI simplifies the study and sharing of large data volumes, thanks to Azure integration. The Azure data lake reduces the time it takes to extract valuable insights and enhances collaboration between data analysts, scientists, and engineers.
- Industry-leading AI. Power BI leverages the most advanced Microsoft AI, making it effortless for users to prep data, develop machine learning models, extract insights quickly from structured and unstructured data.
Power BI Drawback
- Complex to understand and master. Whereas Power BI is one of the simplest tools to use when you simply need to import data and generate reports, it gets a little complicated if you intend to use the tool for other functions. In that case, you must master several other tools like Report Server and Gateways.
3. SAS Business Intelligence
SAS BI is a package of applications and services that enable you to prepare and display data for predictive analysis, data mining, statistical analysis, text mining, and forecasting. The software solution provides interactive visualizations and powerful insights, allowing you to consolidate all your data in a few clicks.
If you’re still skeptical about SAS’s business intelligence capabilities, then you’ll probably change your mind after discovering its key features and benefits.
SAS Key Features and Benefits
- Machine learning-supported. Data exploration has never been easier with this tool’s handy machine learning integration that enables automatic analysis and interactive visualizations.
- Inter-app integrations. SAS BI seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft 365 applications like Excel, Word, SharePoint, PowerPoint, and more.
- Text analytics capabilities. There’s no better tool for extracting insights from text data than SAS. Users can effortlessly analyze such data sets as social media posts and locations in a geographical context.
SAS Drawback
- Most users are concerned with the software program’s complexity, limited customization options, and higher price range.
4. SAP BusinessObjects
SAP BusinessObjects is a one-of-a-kind business intelligence platform suitable for advanced data analysis, visualization, and reporting. The solution integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 apps like PowerPoint and Excel to help create hybrid analytics and live presentations that connect to on-site and cloud systems.
The BI is particularly suitable for HR & people engagement, customer experience, digital supply chain, CRM, ERP & digital core, among others. Below are some of the tool’s most breathtaking features.
SAP Key Features and Capabilities
- Enterprise reporting system. SAP has a specially designed enterprise reporting system that can guide your company’s overall strategy by initiating the reporting and analysis of ad hoc queries.
- Office integration. SAP integrates with office tools like PowerPoint and Excel, enabling you to analyze large data volumes at once.
- Cross-enterprise sharing. By creating a cross-enterprise sharing functionality, you can effortlessly communicate or share your data findings with other partners and stakeholders.
SAP Drawback
- Most users have registered complaints about SAP’s higher pricing, the need for more training time to understand, and the need to use Java for some functionalities.
Wrap Up
It’s no longer news; big data is already among us, and it keeps growing bigger every year, presenting excellent growth opportunities. Utilizing top-rated business analytics solutions like the ones discussed above ensures that your data management becomes more predictable, agile, and cohesive.
If you want help with the planning and implementation of these technology solutions, call on WPG Consulting today!
