Can Business Intelligence really empower your business?

An indispensable asset to any organisation, Business intelligence (BI) comprises the strategies and technologies that can be used to make on-the-spot decisions that increase revenue, improve productivity, and accelerate growth. This is done through data analysis and management of business information. Common functions of business intelligence technologies include reporting, online analytical processing, analytics, data mining, business performance management, benchmarking, text mining, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics.

This can help an organisation identify, develop, and create strategic business opportunities. Business intelligence is most effective when it combines data derived from the market in which a company operates (external data) with financial and operations data (internal data) from company sources that are internal to the business. The enriched data from business intelligence reporting can provide a complete picture so that you can make any business decision ranging from operational to strategic – such as product positioning or pricing.

Why is Business Intelligence Crucial to an Organisation?

Business Intelligence Solutions take many shapes and forms in today’s complex business environment. Budgets are stretched and the challenges facing a business and its employees can sometimes lead to issues that start small, but then lead to wider problems. These issues can affect the very fabric of your organisation and damage your credibility, reputation, and bottom-line profits.

Business Intelligence Software Trends for 2022-23

Product information portal FinancesOnline has predicted eight business intelligence software trends for 2022-23. These trends cover market growth, future developments in AI, the convergence of business intelligence and big data, and the next wave in data infrastructure and are worth taking a look at:

1. BI Integration with Other Systems may Slow Revenue Growth

The industry’s revenue growth slowdown will possibly be caused by BI’s integration with other systems like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). We’ve seen the same happen with collaboration software, which started off as its own market before evolving into a regular feature of other software categories, such as task management and communication apps. Thus, BI may “lose revenues” to ERP and CRM products down the line.

2. Defensive Artificial Intelligence on The Rise

We are seeing a slight movement in the share of offensive and defensive developments driving artificial intelligence in general. Offensive AI points to developments that lead to transformation and innovation or anything that gives an organisation a competitive advantage. On the other hand, defensive AI developments aspire to cost-savings or compliance, among others. AI drivers were aggressively offensive at 91.7% versus 8.3% defensive in 2019. Two years hence, defensive AI developments have increased to 17.3% share, cutting offensive AI outcomes down to 82.7%.

3. Simpler but More Sophisticated Mobile BI

Mobile BI acts as an endpoint extension of BI applications. But going by the ubiquity of mobile phones and key smartphone statistics—90% of smartphone usage is on apps—BI vendors will start going the way of communication apps, which have since pursued a mobile-first strategy to keep up with user preference. However, the BI infrastructure will still be intact, a mobile or web app built on a proprietary system. What we’ll see is a more interactive mobile BI app far from what we have today, apps that push static data at best.

4. Big Data Analytics and Business Intelligence are Converging

Big data presents to BI huge volumes of diverse datasets from multiple sources and types that can be used for strategy and operations. The volume of data that’ll be created, captured, copied, and consumed worldwide in 2022: 120 zettabytes (that’s 120 trillion gigabytes) (IDC/Seagate, 2020) will nearly double by 2025. Using various tools like automation, machine learning, and predictive and prescriptive analytics, forward-looking BI solutions consolidate and analyse big data from multiple sources and derive and communicate insights to users for data-driven, real-time decisions.

5. More Businesses to Use Predictive Analytics

Allied Market Research sees a demand surge in predictive analytics, having the highest CAGR as a service at 44.3% through 2026, followed by descriptive analytics and prescriptive analytics. Fewer companies will find the need to get help for diagnostic analytics, as the ability to interpret data fits into the role of any company’s leader.

6. Collaborative Business Intelligence

Robots will continue to focus on repetitive tasks but will do things smarter. The evolving technology framework built on the Internet of Things, AI and analytics allows companies to process business intelligence with greater clarity, depth, and precision. Thus, manufacturing is being pushed towards collaborative production, real-time decision-making, predictive and remote maintenance, and simulation and optimisation (Statista, 2021). In the meantime, humans will find themselves doing higher-level tasks such as strategy, management, and design.

7. Data Warehouse Modernisation

We shall see further integration of machine learning algorithms in BI processes. AI-powered features will be put to task to manage exhausting warehousing processes, mainly for descriptive analytics and predictive analytics. Tasks such as parsing historical data, data benchmarking, forecast modelling, and simulation of numerous scenarios will be handed over entirely to machine learning. Meanwhile, humans will focus on tasks that require context, creativity, and collaboration, mainly the processes in diagnostic analytics and prescriptive analytics.

8. More Large-Scale Data Centres

Tech giants are aggressive in expanding not just their data management capabilities, but an entire country’s, too. Microsoft has announced the multi-year investment plan Digital AmBEtion last November 2021 to scale Belgium’s digitisation. We will see similar programs by the tech giants around the globe as they aim to bump up infrastructure in other countries for faster cloud access, advanced data security, and cloud solutions to drive regional economies, says FinancesOnline.

How Does the CRI Group™ Look at Business Intelligence?

We take two approaches to Business Intelligence Services:

• Intelligence operations (via market research and analysis): we focus on researching the future and potential growth of your business. This is to determine the commercial viability and potential for success in the market, analyse consumer behaviour and business trends in that market, etc.
• Investigative operations (via commercial investigations): we focus on the status of your business. This helps business intelligence companies provide the location of assets, and financial information, identification of unmet needs of any market, and gauge brand awareness and identity in the market.

Why Partner with CRI Group™ for Your Business Intelligence needs?

• CRI™ has one of the largest, most experienced, and best-trained integrity due diligence teams globally.
• We have a flat structure which means that you will have direct access to senior members of staff throughout the due diligence process.
• Our multi-lingual teams have conducted assignments on thousands of subjects in over 80 countries, and we’re committed to maintaining and constantly evolving our global network.
• We offer flexibility, and we will tailor our scope to address your concerns and risk areas, saving you time and money.
• Our extensive solutions include due diligence, employee pre and post-background screening, anti-bribery anti-corruption compliance,  business intelligence, and compliance, facilitating any decision-making across your business, regardless of area or department.