Every business depends on data for strategy development and making decisions. However, just collecting the information is not enough. Proper analysis is the most important stage here.
You need to find the best data analytics tools to gather and interpret all the essential information. Keep reading and learn about the top 6 business intelligence platforms you can use for that purpose!
Why Your Business Needs Data Analytics
Data is the foundation of any business operations. Working blindly or using outdated methods is not an option. Yet, you can’t just gather raw data. It’s essential to analyze it properly.
How does data analytics impact your business?
Smart Decisions Based on Evidence
Many companies make decisions based on experience and intuition. These methods might work occasionally, but they’re not reliable in the long term.
Systematic analysis of data allows you to
- Identify profitable products and services;
- Define promising customer segments;
- Test different marketing messages.
These details reduce uncertainty and help you distribute resources smartly.
Higher Operational Efficiency
Operational inefficiencies can exhaust your resources. Analytics helps you identify these inefficiencies and handle them before they cause damage.
You can monitor operations through dashboards and automated reports. For Shopify merchants, a lightweight Shopify sales tracker can surface real-time order and revenue trends without the steep learning curve of a full BI suite. This constant control lets you make immediate adjustments to improve productivity and lower costs.
Customer Behavior Prediction
Your customers’ actions create valuable behavioral data. Analyzing this information allows you to understand their motivations and pain points. Through this evaluation, you can
- Detect purchasing trends;
- Discover seasonal demand cycles;
- Predict future purchases.
With these details, you can improve your messaging, pricing, and product development activities.
Marketing Personalization
Generic marketing is no longer effective. Customers want your content and offerings to match their specific interests and needs.
Data analytics helps you segment the audience based on
- Behavior
- Demographics
- Lifecycle stage
You can easily automate personalized campaigns and adjust marketing strategies with this information.
Accurate KPIs Tracking
KPIs define your business’s health and success. It’s really hard to track these metrics precisely without proper analysis.
Analytics tools allow you to
- Visualize KPIs through dynamic dashboards;
- Set and monitor benchmarks;
- Generate automated reports.
So, you can identify useful tactics and areas for improvement.
Financial Planning and Risk Management
Strong financial planning and risk management guarantee your stability. Analytics allows you to build more accurate revenue and expense forecasts. Also, you can detect early warning signs of financial risk or fraud with its help — especially when integrated with external data providers or platforms like Decentro that offer real-time financial and identity verification APIs.
What Are Business Intelligence Tools?
Business intelligence tools are the base of your data analytics activities. These software applications help you turn huge amounts of raw data into useful information.
Without the right instruments, the information you gather will be disjointed and underutilized. BI platforms help you
- Track critical metrics;
- Identify patterns;
- Predict future results;
- Make choices based on clear evidence.
As a result, your processes are more agile and risks are much lower.
Here are the main functions of BI tools.
Collection and Integration
BI tools gather information from different sources, including
- CRM systems
- ERP platforms
- Spreadsheets
- SQL databases
- Cloud services
- APIs
- Social media
This integration guarantees that users have a full view of the organization’s activities. Key features may include ETL pipelines, data connectors, and warehousing.
Cleansing and Preparation
Raw data is often messy and incomplete. BI instruments offer built-in preparation features to clean and standardize information before analysis.
They remove duplicate entries and fill in missing values. Next, they convert information into consistent formats. Finally, these instruments normalize values across different sources.
Analysis
After preparing information, these tools allow you to explore it through analytical capabilities.
You can distribute this data to isolate variables or dimensions. Next, you can compare performance across time periods or products.
Advanced tools offer statistical analysis, correlation detection, and anomaly identification. These functionalities allow you to plan further actions.
Visualization
Whether you’re using a dedicated BI tool or a comprehensive store builder with analytics features, visualizing your data is key to unlocking insights. It can be hard to interpret just numbers. These tools simplify the interpretation by converting complex datasets into visual formats, like
- Bar and line charts,
- Pie graphs,
- Geographic heatmaps,
- Treemaps and waterfall charts,
- Interactive dashboards.
These visuals will help you quickly determine performance trends and identify outliers.
Reporting and Predictive Analysis
BI platforms facilitate the reporting process by automating the creation and distribution of individualized reports. You can schedule these reports and customize templates.
Modern alternatives also offer predictive and prescriptive analytics. It allows you to forecast future outcomes and plan your activities.
Top 6 Business Intelligence Tools
As you already know, data analytics is an essential activity for any business. This process allows you to track your operations accurately and plan your work smartly. Business intelligence tools are the foundation of analysis.
Here are some of the best BI tools you can try.
Microsoft Power BI
Power BI is a powerful solution that helps you deal with different types of data. It has a suite of integrated tools and services, each serving a unique function.
Power BI Desktop handles data modeling and visualization work. Service is a cloud-based platform where you can publish and collaborate on reports, seamlessly integrate cloud telephony solutions for enhanced communication, and access dashboards and reports from anywhere using mobile apps.
This platform also includes
- Power BI Report Builder
- Power BI Report Server
Microsoft BI is suitable for both self-service users and enterprise analytics. It works with various Microsoft 365 apps. Everyone can explore data and generate their own reports without needing technical expertise.
It offers a free version and two paid packages. You can choose the plan depending on your needs and resources.
Tableau
Tableau is another leading analytics platform you can try working with. It supports deployment in the cloud or on-premises.
This platform offers different products, including
- Desktop for dashboard visualization;
- Prep for cleaning and combining your data;
- Server for deployment.
It includes strong compliance features and security certifications.
Tableau is popular for its self-service analytics and visual storytelling. Plus, it offers built-in AI and automation for smarter decisions.
You get access to a massive support community and full integration with Salesforce.
Qlik Sense
Qlik Sense is a next-generation platform built for users of all skill levels. It combines powerful analytics capabilities with a unique associative engine.
Qlik allows you to make selections freely in any direction. It recalculates every interaction instantly and updates the context across the entire dataset.
Plus, it offers different AI capabilities, including
- Automated insight generation;
- Natural language interaction;
- AI-assisted data prep and dashboard creation;
- AutoML and predictive analytics.
You can also benefit from its intelligent alerts and integrated collaboration tools. Qlick offers four pricing plans for different business sizes.
Looker Studio
Our next suggestion is Looker Studio. It is Google’s self-service BI platform.
It simplifies the analytics process through
- Customizable dashboards,
- Visualizations,
- Smart reporting features.
Looker Studio supports over 800 connectors and an ecosystem of partner tools. So, you can easily connect and manage sources.
Also, you can work together with your team live. It allows you to co-edit reports, leave feedback, and publish updates instantly.
Another impactful functionality is the Looker Studio API. You can easily automate asset migration and configure permissions with its help.
Domo
Domo is an end-to-end data and AI platform that connects your entire business. It has over 1,000 pre-built connectors, letting you unify information from all your systems.
This platform has an AI agent that offers you intelligent and context-aware answers to your requests. This agent can also
- Automate routine tasks,
- Recommend actions,
- Support live changes.
Plus, you can easily use Domo without any coding experience.
Domo provides interactive dashboards and real-time visualizations. You can use them to identify trends and monitor performance. Also, you can embed its analytics functionalities into your apps or portals.
Not to mention its strong security and user management features. You can control the entire ecosystem from one interface.
Sisense
The last platform we want to highlight is Sisense. This alternative combines AI with integration and predictive capabilities.
Its user-friendly tools reduce technical barriers and speed up development. Sisense has natural-language assistants that allow you to explore data conversationally and receive instant summaries.
The Compose SDK instrument and modular components let you integrate analytics directly into products and workflows.
Also, you can anticipate future outcomes through Sisense’s
- Forecasting,
- Trend analysis,
- Anomaly detection.
Through its advanced APIs, you can compose analytics components within your app while keeping your brand’s style. The platform’s architecture supports agile deployment and collaboration.
Conclusion
Data analytics is the basis of any successful business strategy. It helps you improve operations and make smarter decisions. Plus, you can use it to predict future outcomes.
You can work with BI tools to collect the information you need and interpret it for further actions. Modern platforms offer advanced integration capabilities, AI assistants, and a high level of precision.
Hope that our guide was useful and you’ll find an ideal platform for your needs!