The term Business intelligence (BI) refers to the technical infrastructure that acquires, stores, and processes the data produced by a company’s daily activities. BI is a broad term that consists of data mining, predictive analysis, text mining, statistical analysis, performance benchmarking, big data analytics, data visuals, and key performance indicators.
The need for BI was raised from the fact that managers will tend to make the wrong decisions if they have inaccurate or incomplete information rather than if they have better information. BI solves the problem by analyzing the data ideally presented on a dashboard designed to support making better decisions. In ERP systems, the role of BI is increasing day by day. As ERP has to handle vast amounts of data, it becomes necessary to have a tool that can help process this data.
The data can include sales, production, customer orders, inventory, and more. With the help of BI tools, enterprises can analyze this raw data to understand better what is happening in their company. This can help management to make better decisions about improving efficiency, allocating resources, and more.
Businesses can use BI tools for core business processes to provide a complete business view. In most cases, ERP systems when equipped with business intelligence together can help to access and view data easily. We can find ERP integrated with BI tools in our day-to-day lives. For instance, if the company makes use of data analysis to track sales and inventory levels, it will help them to make sure that they have enough stock to fulfill customer needs.
The BI tool helps the company to analyze historical data so as to identify which regions are performing up to the mark and which ones need to improve. BI in ERP systems helps to analyze the productivity of employees and their satisfaction with work which enables them to take corrective measures. All these factors help organizations in increasing efficiency and work smoothly.
ERP and BI software work together to increase one another’s capabilities. In ERP systems, the data analysis by BI is significant as it helps enterprises to eliminate the hurdles faced by crucial departments like finance, human resource, operations, sales, and others.
The benefits of using BI in ERP Software:
Some of the benefits of using Business Intelligence in ERP software systems include:
Increased decision-making
BI helps organizations make better decisions by timely providing them with relevant information. It’s not possible for organizations to spot patterns and trends through manual data analysis, but this can be easily accomplished by using a BI tool.
A better understanding of business performance
BI helps organizations measure the performance of their business, enabling them to understand the areas that need improvement.
Increased efficiency and productivity
BI can increase employees’ productivity by providing them with the correct information on time. This helps reduce human errors and delays in work completion, increasing the organization’s operational efficiency.
Improved customer service
BI helps enterprises to understand customer demands in a better way. This enables them to maintain good customer relations and meet customer satisfaction.
New upcoming trends in enterprise business intelligence
Following are the new trend in Business processes:
The increased demand for self-service BI:
A self-service BI software is one which can allow users to access and monitor the required data. It includes features like graphical data representation, reporting, dashboards, etc. Business users are always looking for a tool that can analyze their daily company data. As a result, many businesses are moving towards self-service BI software that can analyze and process their vast business data. The self-service BI tools’ features help business users to get deeper insights into their company data and make better-informed decisions.
Increased use of data visualization:
In the data visualization of BI, the information is graphically represented in the form of charts, graphs, or diagrams to easily get insights into daily essential business activities. As businesses have to handle large amounts of data, its visual presentation is becoming increasingly important. As a result, the BI tool is embedded with features that enable users to create visualizations easily. Employees can easily use this visualized data to get insights and make better decisions to efficiently carry out their work.
Expansion of BI to include big data and analytics
Big data and analytics are becoming more prominent as businesses try to get real insights into their growing data warehouse and drive it into action. As a result, BI tools are expanding to include features that allow users to work with big data, which is likely to continue in the future.
Increasing use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in BI
As organizations try to get much deeper insights into their company data, artificial intelligence and machine learning are getting more demand in business intelligence. The BI software incorporates features that enable users to make use of these technologies.
There is a bright future for business intelligence in ERP systems. The BI technology will keep on evolving to provide employees with even more valuable insights into their business data.
As industries are increasingly becoming data-driven, businesses to compete in the market will definitely need high-tech analytical software to handle the data they are acquiring daily. It can only be possible with the help of BI software which will enable businesses to optimize their operations, save costs, improve productivity, and make more profits.
In the present scenario, it can be said that Business Intelligence has become an essential part of the ERP system for businesses in achieving great success.
