The old ways of spreadsheet wrangling, complex data prep with formulas and models have given way to the ease of asking questions and getting relevant, insightful answers in a matter of minutes. Per an MIT Sloan Management Review and IBM Institute for Business Value study, almost 40% of respondents had a limited understanding of how to use analytic tools for better data driven decisions, while 80% of the time is spent on data...

Increasingly, more businesses are utilising data to improve their sales, market share, and profits. Data used in this way is called business intelligence, and it can give your small business a competitive edge. There are a number of aspects of business intelligence you should be aware of that you can use to build your business. Our list below covers five recent trends in business intelligence that may be relevant to your business....

Cloud Based Business Analytics According to the research firm Gartner, the business analytics market is about $14 billion, dominated by big technology corporations like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and the SAS Institute. This is largely due to the high demand for products that have the ability to analyze huge amounts of data. This is illustrated in a recent Boston University report on business leaders, stating that data analysis is...

In an unstable economy, manufacturers need to respond to economic challenges and market tendencies by ensuring that their organization runs at optimal efficiency. Also, with increased consumer demand for eco-friendly and sustainable products, companies and operators are continually refining internal operations. In order to do this, the company needs a thorough understanding of how it operates relative to the company’s own historical...

Investment in Business Intelligence (BI) ventures continues to be a main focus for companies, and developing fields like predictive analytics are growing rapidly. Businesses are looking to utilize their ever-expanding data resources, in order to deduce market trends more competently, enhance product superiority, and gain ground on the competition. Traditional BI solutions use ad hoc query, reporting tools and dashboards to look at...