What is the difference between Big Data and BI?
Business Intelligence and Business Data are most times found within the same discussions. Although they may be similar, they are different. Business Intelligence refers to structured data and readily usable information that impacts competitive advantage and profitability. Big Data, on the other hand, refers to enormous sets of digital data that are unstructured. In Big Data, practitioners focus primarily on this unstructured data.
Both BI and Big Data involve utilizing information to generate valuable insight. But the two differ in volume as well as the nature of the information that they focus on. They also use different types of tools to process this data and make it useful. The specific outcomes of using Big Data and Business Intelligence may coincide, but this is not always the case. For example, it is not compulsory to have Big Data to build a sound BI system. However, having Big Data will significantly enhance your BI capabilities.
Business Intelligence experts use this solution to give you access to relevant company reports. Various tools, including computer software, will allow you to collect all kinds of complex data and condense it into useful reports for your company. Collected data can focus on a specific department or the entire business.
Who is BI for?
Many industries in the economy utilize business Intelligence as it virtually applies to all sectors. The healthcare and education sectors use BI. Other sectors include the government, manufacturing industry, retail industry, and the courier sector.
How can your business benefit from BI?
- Improved organizational efficiency
BI will allow you and other leaders to access data and have a holistic understanding of your operations. Additionally, you will be able to benchmark your business’s results against those of more prominent companies. Various organizations use Business Intelligence platforms for collaborations among departments which optimizes efficiency at the workplace. When you spend less time on data analysis and report compilations, you will have more time to innovate new products and programs for your business.
- Enhanced customer experience
BI directly impacts customer experience and satisfaction. You can deploy it across various departments of your business and create several dashboards for your employees. You can then use these dashboards to pull data on your customers from your cloud. This data will enable your business to identify ways of enhancing customer service.
- Making informed business decisions
When you have accurate data and faster reporting, it is then possible to make better decisions. For instance, you can customize the mobile dashboards for your sales team, enabling them to view sales forecasts and real-time data before meeting with potential customers. Subsequently, they will confidently speak about different prospects with these clients due to confidence in their updated data.
BI can benefit your business in other ways, including increased employee satisfaction, enhanced competitive advantage as well as access to trusted and governed data. With all these advantages it will do your business great good to adopt this technology.