Businesses run on these activities, and any inefficiencies or errors can significantly impact performance. Operational ReportingĮvery day, in every business, thousands of operational tasks are executed. Many of today’s most popular business intelligence tools provide features that allow even non-technical users to quickly and easily build and generate their own custom reports. However, often times, employees will need to rapidly create a new report to answer an urgent question, make an “on the fly” decision, or address a pending issue. In many cases, simply refreshing the content in an existing report will be enough to satisfy a worker’s specific information need.

Most business intelligence tools offer in-depth online analytical processing (OLAP) capabilities, allowing users to instantly manipulate data in an unlimited number of ways, so it can be reviewed from multiple perspectives. OLAP Analysisīusiness analysts and other power users – those that are responsible for uncovering the most sophisticated trends in corporate data – must be able to analyze information down to the finest detail. That’s why many business intelligence tools enable the deployment of graphical dashboards that allow senior executives to monitor key performance indicators and critical metrics in real-time, providing them with an “at a glance” view of the overall state of the business.

Executive Scorecards and DashboardsĪ company’s top-level managers don’t have time to generate ad-hoc reports. But, what sets one business intelligence implementation apart from another is the way in which the solution is applied to support decision-making. Below is an overview of some of the most popular ways in which business intelligence tools can be utilized. Many of the business intelligence tools on the market today offer similar features and functionality.

Types of bi tools