Business Intelligence Archives - Page 4 of 5

Yashica Chopra
February 18, 2022
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Is BI a Revolution in the Banking Industry?

Business intelligence is no longer a strange phenomenon in the banking industry. It is a revolution that’s changing how banks perceive data and analytics. We’ll discuss the role of BI in banks in the modern-day scenario. Technological innovations are the key to being relevant in this fast-changing world. The banking industry is not an exception to this rule. From following traditional bookkeeping methods to computerizing the transactions, we’ve noticed many changes in the banking sector. Another such development is the use of analytical tools to streamline internal operations and enhance customer experience. Even the banking industry has competition as more banks are going multinational and opening new branches around the world. Collecting data, creating a centralized database, and processing huge volumes of data requires much more than legacy systems and spreadsheets like MS Excel. Business intelligence has successfully entered the banking, insurance, and financial sector. Banking analytical solutions can help employees, management, and the leadership have more control over day-to-day operations and provide better services to their customers. BI is undoubtedly a revolution in the banking industry, and here’s how. What Is Business Intelligence? Before we talk about how BI is changing banks and financial establishments, let’s first understand what business intelligence is and why it is important. Business intelligence is a set of technologies, processes, architectures that help collect, clean, and convert raw data into meaningful and actionable insights. BI is a suite of software applications and services used for transforming data into intelligence. Business intelligence impacts the operational, strategic, and tactical decisions of an establishment. BI tools are used to collect, clean, format, process, analyze, and present data in real-time. BI uses historical and real-time data to derive insights and generate reports. Employees can run queries by setting parameters to get accurate responses from the tools. Business intelligence is important to measure KPIs, set benchmarks, identify market trends, overcome challenges, and make data-driven decisions. Applications such as Power BI, Tableau, Qlik, etc., are some well-known business intelligence tools used by businesses from different industries. Power BI is the most preferred tool in the banking industry. What Is Business Analytics in Banking? Business analytics help in understanding the bank’s data based on statistical models and quantitative methods. Analytics can be used in various ways in the banking industry. The core reason to use business analytics is to answer questions like: Business analytics is a part of BI. How Is Business Intelligence Used in Banking? Consumer Trend Forecasting Knowing what the customers want is important to achieve the bank’s goals and generate profits. Banks offer a range of financial services for individuals and business entities. From operating a savings account to funds management, loans, credit cards, and insurance services, the banking industry deals with everything related to money management and control. Business intelligence helps in analyzing the huge volumes of data generated every day to identify the trends in customers’ demands/ requirements. Is there a decrease in home loan applications? Are more customers investing in a certain mutual funds scheme? Finding answers to these questions will help the management make the necessary changes to their financial products and services. Better Marketing Effectiveness Understanding your customers is a good way to increase your customer base and ensure brand loyalty. The banking industry has become a competitive field. You need to reach out to the target audience with offers that’ll surely make them consider you as a first choice. But how do you know what the market wants? BI in banking helps use customer data and data analytical tools to derive insights about each target base. It is not essential to spend money on ads that may or may not be effective. You can create ads for each target group with the confidence of knowing what they want. The bank can generate more returns with less investment, identify the weak points in the existing marketing strategies and correct them in time. Data and Cybersecurity According to a report shared by Security Magazine, the banking industry saw a 1318% increase in ransomware attacks in 2021. Banking data of individuals, corporate entities, and non-profit organizations are highly confidential information. While this data can be obtained through several malpractices like hacking and phishing, a cyber attack on a bank’s database gives criminals access to valuable information in bulk. Business intelligence tools play a role in monitoring the network traffic and can alert you in case of irregularities. The data collected and analyzed by BI tools gives security experts the necessary information to identify hot spots and improve the security layers at each level. Retain Customers Customer retention is necessary to maintain a healthy customer base. A bank needs to have customers who’ve been with them for years and will continue to be. Providing personalized services and ensuring quality customer experience promotes customer retention. BI tools can be used to identify customers who are more likely to impact their business with the bank or move to a competitor. You can also understand the reasons behind this trend and find ways to prevent it from happening. CEOs, CFOs, and other chief executives can run analytics on historical and real-time data to understand the patterns and come up with a solution. Calculating Credit Risk Should you approve the loan application of a customer? What is the risk associated with it? Banks already have a system to process credit requests and approve/ reject applications based on it. However, changing times require advanced systems. You may need to consider more risk factors, especially when the customer is a business entity and the amount is millions. Banking business analytics is used to process customer data from multiple sources. It helps analyze spending habits, income stability, and the probability of fraud before a loan application is approved. This lowers the credit risk for a bank and reduces defaulters. Compliance Assurance The banking industry has to adhere to the various regulations set up by the national and global bureaus that help in establishing anti-money laundering norms, etc. Banks have to regularly send reports and updates

Deeksha Anand
February 10, 2022
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Power BI for Retail Industry: Dominate the Sector

With an increase in competition in the retail sector, it has become extremely important for every retail company to understand advanced technology stack, people and data. Power BI is one such technological advancement that allows retail businesses to leverage its functionality for data visualizations to improve their profitability and efficiency while acting on real-time insights. In fact, the usage of any business intelligence tool is considered a crucial key to managing a company’s data in this digital age. It is used to generate reports, surface insights and connect to a wide range of information for better understanding. The reports offer visualization of the data that boosts the sales for the business by facilitating better planning and strategizing. Today, we will discuss the applications of Power BI for retail and what makes it one of the most efficient retail reporting tools. Benefits of Power BI in the Retail Industry Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the retail industry is slammed with the challenge of uncertainties. Moreover, the growth of digitalization has enhanced customer expectations. As per a survey, the e-retail industry in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region was predicted to grow at the rate of 12.2 percent of the offline retail in the year 2025 (before the COVID-19 pandemic). The forecasted penetration rate grew to approximately 16.3 percent after the pandemic. Therefore, customer demands follow a different pattern in today’s digital era. Along with the products or services, the customers are also given equal importance in today’s economy. Every business and retail industry is looking forward to providing their customers with quick satisfaction and a smooth experience. The retail industry is suggested to analyze and collect the data for coping with the changing customer expectations and rising demands. With the applications of Power BI, the industry can expect the transformation of raw data into actionable retailing insights. It can offer every business a 360-degree view of their entire industry at a glance. Moreover, the efficiency of the Power BI retail dashboard helps understand the selling and buying habits of the customer. Thus proving to be the top retail business intelligence tool in the e-retail market. Let us look into the major advantages of using Power BI in retail: Since it is clear how Power BI for retail can prove to be beneficial, let us now understand its technicalities. How Does the Power BI Sales Dashboard Work? As we discussed earlier, the business intelligence tool by Microsoft helps to analyze data present in different sources and build dashboards and reports based on the data. Top-level management effectively uses Power BI’s dashboard for retail operations as it is capable of generating an alert once it notices low stock. It helps to create accurate reports on the profitability of the products. Apart from endless uses of the Power BI retail dashboard, the report generated by the BI tool helps to analyze the cash tied to the existing stocks. The industry can avail the advantage of getting the data source with the help of Power BI. Companies can keep track of the inventory status, changes in customers’ shopping trends and the value that any supplier holds using the BI tool. For example, a Customer Analysis Dashboard will help evaluate profit and sales while generating valuable insights based on product turnover-related, dynamic customer behaviors. As an illustration, retail companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) could analyze a decrease in in-store shopping following the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, noticing an increase in shopping via the PC. A survey conducted in 2020 supported the data analysis by predicting the growth curve of the e-commerce industry in the Middle East region to accelerate to five years in about five months. How Would the Retail Industry Use Business Intelligence? The powerful dynamic of business intelligence can be used in many ways by the retail industry. Some of the most useful ways are as mentioned below: Following up with Changing Trends Keeping up with the latest customer trends has become seamless with the help of Power BI. Now every industry can use Power BI to analyze big data that projects the pattern of change in the customer’s purchasing behavior. Using the retail visuals can help the industry monitor, plan and assess the effectiveness of various promotional activities. It can also draw a report on how a particular group of customers reacts to specific marketing campaigns. Moreover, the Power BI can collect social media data while analyzing it to measure the high engagement level, track the demographics, and assess the influencing behavior while understanding the buying patterns. With the help of the retail analytics dashboards, you can boost the efficiency of the supply chain while meeting your customers’ demands. It can also help meet the seasonal demand while enhancing the forecasting ability. Get the Omnichannel Experience The multi-channel retail would get replaced with the help of a more engaging omnichannel experience. Power BI helps to unify the customer in every action and touchpoint. It helps to treat the single-channel interaction for a more delightful customer experience. Power BI helps to aggregate the data from various offline and online sources with the help of a visualization tool that helps predict user behavior. It also helps get a unified picture of the expectations and demands of the customer. Assessment through the budget is only possible with the help of Power BI. It helps to understand the different areas of intelligent plans, cost-cutting, predictive analysis and floor optimization to balance the demand and supply of the perishable results. Assists All Team Members The data analysts can dig deeper with the help of the advanced features of Power BI, including map visualization. It also helps them unfold the platform’s predictive analysis potential by using R scripts. The team helps the executive keep an eye on the critical parameters while helping them with an all-encompassing and comprehensive report generated via Power BI sales dashboards. It can help them to access a high-level picture of the situation within less time. The top-level management is

Yashica Chopra
February 08, 2022
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Why BI is important for C-Level Executives in BFSI

Business intelligence is used to derive insights from data and helps in decision making. Make the most of big data to understand customers and improve their experience with the financial company. Let’s discuss how C-level executives can use BI tools to achieve their goals. The Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance industry has changed over the years and is now leaning towards the customer-centric model. The increase in competition, the unexpected losses, and the changing trends in the market are some reasons for this development. The C-suite executives have a huge role to play in streamlining the banking operations, increasing revenue, and enhancing customer experience as they are the decision-makers in the establishment. Providing customers with a worthy experience has become essential for a financial company to establish itself and become a popular name. However, achieving customer satisfaction is not possible without knowing what customers want. This knowledge comes from the data collected by the institutions. That said, raw data is of no use unless it is cleaned, processed, and analyzed using data analytics tools. In short, financial institutions need advanced tools to adopt the data-driven model. The tools and the processes come under business intelligence. Financial establishments mostly hire the services of offshore BI consultants to build the data-driven model and implement the necessary tools like Power BI for data analytics and reporting. A financial establishment with noteworthy customer experience is proof that it has everything under control and is at the top of the game. What is Business Intelligence? Business Intelligence is a technology-based process used by business organizations to collect, clean, store, streamline, and analyze large volumes of data in real-time. Business intelligence delivers high-quality and accurate insights used to make business decisions. Data mining (collecting data from multiple sources), predictive analytics, and data visualizations (reporting) are an integral part of the business intelligence process. There are several BI tools in the market. For example, Microsoft Power BI and Tableau are well-known tools for business intelligence processes in various industries. The BFSI industry relies on Power BI for financial, operational, and marketing purposes. This certainly doesn’t mean that BI is only limited to the banking and finance sector. Let’s look at some of the benefits of using business intelligence in banking and financial companies. Benefits of BI Tools Why BI is Important for C-Level Executives in BFSI Business intelligence has a prominent role in customer experience. CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CTOs, etc., can use BI tools like Power BI for the following: Real-Time Reporting The executive leaders don’t need to wait days and weeks to access data reports. The reports are automatically generated in real-time and shared using the dashboard of the BI tool. They can export the reports to other applications and send them to team members, management, etc., whenever required. Why spend hours of your time creating reports when you can set up the process and let the software do the rest? Omnichannel Customer Insights Structured and unstructured data from multiple sources (social media, call recordings, emails, messages, surveys, feedback, etc.) is collected in a centralized database. This data is cleaned and analyzed to derive insights to get a complete picture of a customer (to build customer profiles). This helps create better financial products, plan marketing campaigns, and convert more leads into customers. The chief executives don’t have to rely on outdated reports or past experiences to determine the best way forward. They can use real-time reports to target the markets and capture a larger customer base than the competitors. Collaborations The C-suite executives have to work in tandem with teams from sales, marketing, and financial departments in the establishment. From setting up the budget for customer acquisition to allowing the sales and marketing teams to brainstorm and share information seamlessly, BI tools help create a healthy environment in the organization and promote collaborations between employees and stakeholders. Automate Customer Engagement The metrics and data thresholds of BI tools act as natural triggers for automation. You can establish workflows and campaign timelines and schedule customer meetings based on the analytics. When you contact a prospective customer at the right time in the right way, the results will be favorable for your organization. Business intelligence gives you the necessary information to identify the best course of action and helps automate the processes. Predict Customer Demands It’s no surprise that customer demands change based on geographical location, market trends, and demographics. By predicting the changing conditions and demands, banks and insurance companies can offer financial products useful for customers and thus increase their market share. You can conduct surveys and use beta groups to study potential customers in new/ unknown markets. Root Cause Analytics Root cause analytics is where you identify the actual cause for a problem at hand. This is done by analyzing relevant information (historical and real-time) for the adverse condition you need to overcome. Business intelligence tools like Power BI can quickly process big data and generate data visualization (graphical) reports about the reasons for the problem/ adverse condition. Convince the Team One of the toughest tasks the chief executives face is to convince the topmost leadership and other chief executives about a campaign, an investment, or a decision. The reports generated by BI tools help present data clearly for the leaders to understand the potential of a project/ campaign and the expected ROI. Since the reports are generated using data analytics, it becomes easier to make decisions that impact the organization. Risk Mitigation Chief executives need to stay one step ahead and filter the leads to minimize the risk of attracting fraudulent customers. Identifying who/ which group is likely to commit financial fraud or misuse services will help banks cut down losses. Be it unpaid loans or vanishing customers, the financial establishments have to handle various types of frauds and find ways to overcome the losses. Integrating BI tools with data sources and existing apps will help in running automated analytics and sending alerts to the respective employees when there’s a possibility of a fraudulent transaction Better Customer

Yashica Chopra
December 31, 2021
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Business Intelligence in Financial Services: 10X Growth in BFSI

Business intelligence in the financial industry helps unlock the full potential of the establishment and its products and services. The real-time analytics provided by tools like Power BI help financial companies make accurate decisions. Let’s discuss the role of BI in bettering financial services. Business intelligence is a combination of processes and strategies used to collect, clean, format, and analyze data. Historical and real-time data is analyzed to derive actionable insights that aid in decision-making. BI helps understand business operations and customers to increase revenue. The financial industry comprises banking, insurance companies, credit card companies, credit unions, wealth management companies, and other relevant service providers. Business intelligence is used to help these establishments overcome the challenges in daily operations and provide enhanced customer service. BI has been a part of the financial industry for a while. However, it’s only recently that the institutions began to realize the advantages of business intelligence in financial services. Be it collecting data from multiple sources or providing data visualization reports using Power BI, business intelligence has a prominent role in the financial industry. Power BI consultants assist the financial establishments to integrate the platform with their existing systems and use it for day-to-day operations. How is Business Intelligence Used in Finance? Using BI in finance not only eases the way of doing business but also provides the institutions with a competitive advantage over others. Banks, credit card companies, insurance agencies, etc., need to constantly add new customers to their base and increase their market share. Business intelligence provides them with the necessary information to achieve their goals. Easy Data Handling Access to data is no more an issue in today’s world. However, the problem arises in handling the huge amounts of data and making sense of it. That’s where business intelligence helps finance companies. From collecting customer information such as complaints, suggestions, requests to gathering data about the resources allotted for solving problems/ providing services, BI tools continuously get data from multiple sources in real-time. Understanding the daily volume of work and comparing it with the results will show the performance of the establishment and help identify areas of improvement. Better Customer Retention Banks don’t want to lose a customer to another bank. Insurance companies don’t want competitors to take away their clients. Retaining and attracting new customers becomes easier when you know what the customers want. BI tools help segment prospective leads and analyze the quality of financial products/ services to shorten the sales funnel. By tracking the customers’ income and spending patterns, financial establishments can cater/offer services that align with their requirements. This helps increase customer loyalty towards the establishment. Managing Risk The finance industry works with large amounts of money. Considering the volatile nature of the market, it is crucial to have a proper plan to navigate through the ups and downs. Business intelligence for finance helps banks with risk management by analyzing historical and real-time data. The data visualization reports aid in risk assessment, data management, audits, etc., to perfectly document all transactions and train employees to handle customers’ demands and mitigate risks. Streamlining Work The finance industry has a lot of repetitive work across all departments. Gaining a deeper insight into daily operations will give you better control over the tasks and optimize the use of resources. It helps increase productivity by removing unnecessary processes and shortening the service cycles. Generating Real-Time Reports How is the branch’s performance this quarter? Does it take too much time to plan the budget? Where does the establishment stand in terms of assets and liabilities? What is the status of the customer credit pipeline? BI tools provide answers to these questions and more. The reports are generated in real-time to include the latest information. This helps optimize the IMS (Information Management System) and increase collaboration between different departments. There is more to how business intelligence is used in the banking and insurance industry. Analytics are slowly becoming an inherent part of the banking industry as more and more establishments invest in BI tools. How is Analytics Used in Banking? Data analytics gives banks the necessary insights into customer behavior and market trends. The insights show banks how they measure against the KPIs and where they need to improve their services. Real-time analytics provides employees and management with vital reports to make changes to their operations, processes, and approach. Here’s one question many banking professionals ask- Why do banks need analytics? The simple answer is to understand data and use it to increase revenue. For example, using Power BI for understanding finance services makes banks flexible in managing daily activities. It helps determine whether a customer will be an asset or a liability. Reports are available at the touch of a hand and bring more transparency into the system. All this helps attract more customers to the bank, thus increasing its market share, revenue, and profits. What are the Applications of BI in Banking? Banking business analytics can help with the following aspects: Fraud Detection and Analysis There have been 4,047 reported cases of online banking fraud in 2021 in India. NCRB reported that 60.2% of the total financial frauds were done for the sake of fraud (intentionally). India saw banking frauds worth 1,384 trillion rupees in 2021. Using business intelligence tools like Power BI can help banks detect fraud in the early stages and prevent them from happening. Fraud detection has become a priority for many banks and financial institutions. The insights derived from BI tools are used to build robust fraud detection systems that warn banking professionals about the possibility of fraud and help them avoid the situation. It helps with: Performance Management What happens when employees have access to up-to-date information? It gives them more control over daily operations and aids with making the right decisions. Since employees can get real-time reports with just a couple of clicks, they can understand the bigger picture before offering a financial product/ service to a customer. BI tools empower banking professionals to be more productive and deliver better performance day after day. Cross-Selling Financial Services How do you know

Yashica Chopra
December 10, 2021
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Power BI for Banking: Dashboard to Analyze Financial Operations

Power BI is a product by Microsoft developed to help with business analytics. Power BI is an effective tool for banks to track KPIs and streamline their services. This blog elaborates on the role of Power BI in the banking industry. Let’s see how consultants help banks use Power BI. With the various technology solutions available and implemented in the banking industry, a lot of staple tasks are already eased with them. Banks are always bustling with activity. Customers come to deposit money, withdraw money, apply for loans, and so on. The multitudes of transactions per day are a part of the process. The yearly balance sheet with profit and loss is one way to measure a bank’s success. However, it’s not enough. Banks need to know what and how their customers feel. How is the bank’s performance when measured against the KPIs? Are the procedures easy for customers to follow? How can a bank identify where the problem lies? Business analytics is the answer to these questions. Power BI is an effective data analysis tool developed by Microsoft. Banks can collect data from multiple sources and measure their performance using a single platform. Power BI consulting partners assist banks in using this effective tool to track KPIs and analyze the success of their financial operations. What is Power BI? Power BI is a collection of software, apps, and connectors that gather data from multiple sources, convert it to a readable format and derive insights through data analysis. The insights help make the right decisions to boost the business and increase customer satisfaction. It is a well-known product of Microsoft and has three major components: Why should banks consider Power BI? Power BI is not limited to data analytics. It is also a data visualization tool that generates customized reports for the given information. Data is collected, processed, and monitored in real-time. Power BI can help banks track the profitability ratio of customers, products, and services, as well as the branch’s performance against all KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). Business enterprises and banks use Power BI to access the latest insights and get a complete perspective of their operations. The Power BI banking dashboard gives banking professionals a deeper and better understanding of their services and customers’ response to the services. Power BI is mainly used for the following: How to use Power BI for Banking? A banking dashboard is a business intelligence tool where data collected from multiple systems across the bank is presented on a single platform. The employees and management can access all information through the dashboard. From customers’ accounts to loans, deposits, and defaulters, the analytics dashboard shares the overall picture of the bank in real-time. Power BI is indeed a powerful tool for developing the banking dashboard to track the firm’s performance based on factors such as customer trends, new process results, financial operations, and so on. The dashboard has various elements, ranging from KPIs assigned, KPIs comparison, customer acquisition ratio, etc. Banks can add or delete elements in the dashboard to customize as per their requirements. Power BI is used in the banking industry to create the dashboard to manage data and derive insights. The BI tool gathers data from the given sources and analyzes them to share the comparisons and insights on the dashboard. Banking professionals can measure how well the bank is delivering the expected results and identify the areas for improvement. Banking KPIs/Visuals that can be Tracked on Power BI Dashboard Financial transactions play a vital role in the banking sector. Customers are directly involved in the process and can impact the bank’s success. Even though there is no definite list of KPIs a bank has to monitor, the following are commonly used by banks and financial institutions. Power BI service providers assist banks in designing and customizing the dashboard to include the necessary KPIs and track performance. Financial KPIs Expenses Expenses are the costs incurred by banks for daily operations. These are divided into interest and noninterest categories. Revenue The inflow of cash to a bank is called revenue and can be classified as deposit fee, transaction fee, service fee, loan interest, and so on. Operating Profit This amount is obtained by subtracting expenses from revenue. For a bank to do well, the revenue should be more than the expenses. Return on Assets The net income of the bank is divided by the total number of assets to determine the return on assets. Assets Under Management Usually termed AUM, it shows the total value of assets managed by the bank. This KPI is measured quarterly by most banks. Return on Equity The total bank income divided by the equity owned by shareholders gives the return on equity and is measured in percentages. Operational KPIs Total Deposits and Loans A bank with high deposits is considered reliable and trustworthy. By measuring the loan growth against the overall progress, banks will know if they are on the right track. Customer Satisfaction Score The customer satisfaction score is calculated based on trends, demographics, industry sentiments, response rate, feedback, surveys, etc. Net Charge-off Rate The net charge-off rate is the ratio of recovered debt to gross charge-offs. It shows the unrecovered debt of the banks and helps in maintaining a lower rate by making better decisions. Efficiency Ratio It shows how well the bank is managing the assets and liabilities in the long term. The efficiency ratio is derived by dividing operational expenses by revenue. Actionable Advice for Data-Driven Leaders Struggling to reap the right kind of insights from your business data? Get expert tips, latest trends, insights, case studies, recommendations and more in your inbox. Benefits of Power BI for Banks Why use Power BI for banking? What benefits does the data analytics tool offer banks and financial institutions? How does Power BI help banking professionals? Tips for a Successful Power BI Implementation Power BI in the banking industry is no longer a theory. Many banks have successfully integrated Power BI into the existing systems. Role of DataToBiz in Serving a Renowned

Yashica Chopra
December 06, 2021
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Power BI: How to Implement Advanced Analytics with Data Integration?

SMEs are on the way to becoming data-driven enterprises by investing in data analytics and business intelligence. This move is to empower themselves to make better decisions based on reports generated by advanced data analytics tools. Revamping the business systems and processes by integrating the latest AI, ML software allows enterprises to collect, store, process, and understand the vast amounts of data generated every day. Historical and real-time data from numerous sources is gathered in one place and processed using BI tools such as Power BI to gather valuable and accurate insights. In this blog, we will learn about the need for data integration and how Power BI can be used to implement advanced analytics with data integration. What is Power BI? Power BI is a product of Microsoft used for data analytics and visualization. The layout resembles an advanced version of Excel, belonging to the same company. The main job of power BI is to bring coherence to your data and present it in a visually appealing and compelling manner. It guarantees data accuracy, consistency, and reliability. Though the software belongs to Microsoft, many data analytics and BI consulting firms are Power BI partners and help enterprises integrate the software into the business systems. You can take the assistance of these firms to enhance your business processes and become a data-driven enterprise. What is Data Integration? Data integration is an inherent part of advanced analytics. What will the tools process if there is no data available? But what exactly is data integration? It is the process of bringing together data from various systems and sources within and outside the enterprise. Any data that is considered valuable for the business is collected from across the internet. It is common for one department in the organization to ask permission to access data collected and stored by another department. Data integration makes it easier for employees in all departments to access any data they need to complete their work. The process is automated and streamlined to reduce human error and delays. Advanced analytics is the process of examining data autonomously or semi-autonomously using tools and techniques that are beyond the traditional business intelligence tools. Advanced analytics is used to obtain deeper insights, make accurate predictions, and provide recommendations to the top management. What are the Types of Data Integration? Data integration is not as easy as it sounds. But it is not impossible either. There are different ways in which data integration services can be provided. Let’s take a look at the types of data integration in brief. Data Consolidation It is the process of physically bringing together data from different sources and consolidating it in one place. This reduces the need for excess data storage at multiple locations. Data Visualization It is the process of presenting data in an easy-to-understand and visually appealing manner so that it becomes easier to interpret data based on numerous factors. Data Propagation It is used for real-time data processing where information from one place is copied to another (data sharing). This is usually two-way communication between two systems or departments and is used for large amounts of data. Data Warehousing It is the process of cleaning, formatting, and storing data in data repositories such as in-house servers, colocation centers, or remote cloud storage servers. This is data integration. Data Federation It is a form of data visualization that uses data abstraction to facilitate a unified view of data from multiple sources. This data is analyzed and presented using tools like Power BI. Data federation is used when data consolidation is too expensive for SMEs to invest in. What are the Benefits of Data Integration? If data integration wasn’t beneficial, we would hardly see organizations willing to invest in it, right? So what are the benefits of availing the Power BI consulting services? How does it help enterprises in becoming better than their competitors in the market? SMEs have to work with limited resources that make it rather difficult to compete with multinational enterprises. But data integration helps businesses become efficient in optimizing the resources to get more efficient outputs. When data is seamlessly available across the enterprise, it improves communication and collaboration between different departments. It also leads to better customer services as the support staff has all the details required to deal with customers. Any enterprise armed with data analytics tools is better equipped to deal with competitors in the market. It gives you an edge over others and lets you expand the business to newer markets. When you can rely on reports and insights created by advanced software, you will naturally become a better decision-maker. You have a solid backing to support your decision. There is no need to work with outdated reports or copy a competitor without knowing how a decision will impact the business in the long term. It is not easy to convince employees to adopt new procedures and systems at work. Power BI services from offshore consulting firms help train employees and make them understand the importance of working on advanced analytics. This increases the willingness of employees to adopt new technology and digitally transform the business. Challenges of Data Integration Do you know that about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated every day? The US economy suffers losses of around $3.1 trillion per year due to the poor quality of data. Now is the right time to invest in data integration and advanced analytics. But it doesn’t come without challenges of its own. So how do you find a way to work around these challenges? Power BI development services help you in overcoming the challenges by- Glossary of Data Integration While the actual list is extensive and includes hundreds of terms, we have listed a few terms regularly used by data and BI analysts. Analytics The process of analyzing data to derive meaningful insights and patterns from it. Big Data Vast amounts of data are collected from numerous sources and processed at high speed to get real-time insights. Data Connector A tool that works continuously to replicate data

Yashica Chopra
September 14, 2021
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How to Use Power BI to Extract the True Value of Your Data?

Processing data sets to identify patterns and trends to draw meaningful conclusions is called data analytics. It helps enterprises use real-time and historical data to derive insights that help in decision-making. Data analytics requires the use of modern technology and tools. Business intelligence, reporting, and data visualization are components of data analytics. These together help organizations adopt the data-driven model and streamline the business processes. One of the notable business intelligence tools in the market is Power BI by Microsoft. Several SMEs and large enterprises worldwide use Power BI to connect, model, visualize and share data across the business. You can either hire Power BI professionals or rely on offshore Power BI services provided by consulting companies. Microsoft calls Power BI a powerful to bridge the gap between data and decision-making. It has several features that help you extract the true value of data and understand it to make the apt decisions for your business. Types of Power BI Power BI is a package of several products and services. These can be used individually and together to attain the expected results for the organization. You can understand how Power BI works by reading the beginner guides. Power BI Desktop This is a free self-servicing tool that can connect to 70+ in-house and cloud data sources. It helps analyze data and generate reports. Power BI Service This service is a cloud-based service hosted on Microsoft’s cloud platform to allow employees to access dashboards and reports through different devices (browser, mobile, etc.). Power BI Pro This is a paid cloud-based service with additional features that facilitate collaboration between teams. It allows easy sharing of data reports and can embed the data visuals into Power BI apps. Power BI Premium This is not an application. In fact, it is a service that allows you to share the reports in the cloud with people from outside the enterprise. It brings flexibility and scalability to the app, making it possible for an organization of any volume to adopt Power BI with ease. Power BI Mobile This can be used on smartphones with Android, iOS, and Windows 10 operating systems. Power BI Report Server This is used to access the reports created using the desktop or the Pro version. It is an on-premises report server that allows your employees to access reports from any device and location. It is beneficial if you have limited storage capacity on the cloud or external data centers. Power BI Embedded This is for developers to embed Power BI to other software and application used within the enterprise. Advantages of Using Power BI Power BI is undoubtedly one of the best tools to make the most of your business intelligence capabilities and gain an edge over competitors in the industry. The following are some of the advantages of using Power BI- Features Power BI has rich and user-friendly features that help the process, analyze, and present data in attractive and easy-to-understand formats. Data visuals can be generated independently or in collaborative environments. System Integrations Power BI can be integrated into different apps to produce and share reports throughout the enterprise. The features can be customized to suit the varying needs of each business. Easy Accessibility Since Microsoft Power BI can be used on multiple operating systems and devices, it increases accessibility to data and data analytics. The apps are user-friendly and can be used by employees with little or no training in Power BI. That said, this aspect is limited only to the end-user features. Regular Updates From Microsoft Microsoft doesn’t just release products into the market and leave them. The company constantly improves the features, adds new ones, and makes Power BI even more powerful. Multiple Data Sources Collecting real-time data is now easy with Power BI. Whether it is IoT sensors, social media, media, or any other source, collecting raw data in real-time and using it for analytics is a quick and easy task. The changes in data will be automatically reflected in the reports and on the dashboard. Seamless Integration Power BI consultants can integrate the tool into your business environment with apparent ease. Whether you want to use it through cloud services or on-premises servers, experts will ensure that the process is streamlined and simplified. This allows end-users (employees from different departments) to use Power BI for data and report sharing with any team member. Personalized Dashboards The dashboard is one of the greatest features of Power BI. Apart from allowing employees to get real-time reports and edit them using several features like drag-and-drop, the dashboard can be personalized by each employee. The sales team will need reports of one kind while the accounts team needs another. The elements in the dashboard can be customized (added and removed) to suit the team’s requirements. Secure Data Processing and Reporting Microsoft knows the importance of data security and has provided enough options to set up security levels for data analytics and sharing reports. Employees who generate the reports can set up Row-Level Access filters that allow only certain teams to edit or modify a section of the report. This brings a balance between data sharing and data security. Employees can view the reports, but only those with permission can edit them. Ease of Setup and Use Setting up Power BI is as easy as it can get. There is no need to put the team under extensive training to use the tool. Experts from Power BI consulting companies will handle the initial process, and employees can use the dashboards to use the reports in their day-to-day work. Customization of Power BI App The app can also be customized to make navigation simple, fast, and effective. If your employee has to spend precious time searching for the required data, it doesn’t make sense to use such a powerful tool, right? By customizing the navigation, employees can find data and reports in less time and complete their work. Breakdown of Information The main aim of using Power BI is to understand data. If the data visuals are complex and confusing, how

Isha
July 26, 2021
6 Comments

A Definitive Guide to Power BI for Beginners

You want to gain competitive advantage from your data analytics but don’t know where to start. Or have you started using Power BI but don’t really know how to optimize its usage in your organization? If yes, then this post is exactly what you’ve been searching for. In this article, I’ll reveal everything you need to know about Power BI. You’ll also get some tips to boost your productivity using Microsoft’s cloud solution. Power BI is one of the newest tools offered by Microsoft, offering several interesting features such as dashboards, reports, analysis etc… With this tool, it’s now possible to manage large amounts of data easily thanks to the ability to visualize them in attractive ways. You can create your very own dashboard or even build a custom report. But before you jump into building those awesome visualizations, there are a few things you should know first. Let’s go through each one of these aspects carefully. What is BI or Business Intelligence? Before digging into what is Power BI and the benefits of using it as a tool, it is important to understand the basics of BI. Business Intelligence or BI is a process that analyses and converts raw data into coherent and actionable information for use in analysis of business operations. Firms that have incorporated BI for making decisions have experienced better performance and productivity. Teams are observed to be delivering up to a ten-fold increase in ROI. If stats are to be believed, the absence of BI in a firm has shown a high percentage of raw data, as much as 99 percent, left unutilized. To sum it up, business intelligence uses tools to take raw data, and then converts it into smart plans, aiding in right decision-making. BI helps organizations and businesses adapt an object-oriented approach by defining KPIs and setting benchmarks to have an aligned direction for achieving goals. Moreover, BI makes it possible to organize and manage the otherwise unmanageable data into controllable streams, while putting it into respective uses. What is Power BI? Analytics is a major concern today considering we live in a data-driven age. It deals with discovering, interpreting, and processing data to reach a conclusion. Albeit data and business analysts have multiple tools to choose from, they always go for something that is convenient to use and provides easy access. Power BI tool from Microsoft is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to utilize all sources of raw data into coherent, easy-to-process, visually compelling, and interactive insights. Curated by the tech-giant Microsoft, Power BI allows the user the access to resources they need to aggregate, visualize, analyse, and share data. Connecting to a wide range of data resources from a basic Excel sheet to databases, and both cloud-based and on-premise apps, This business intelligence tool gives the user the convenience of sharing intelligible insights of what’s happening in their business. Often used as an umbrella term, Power BI can also refer to either a Windows Desktop application called Power BI Desktop, or mobile Power BI apps on a Windows OS device, as well as for iOS and Android devices. Who can use Power BI? Often it is observed that business intelligence products tend to fall in the user-friendly zone for profiles like business analysts and data scientists. But thanks to its user-friendly and easy-to-process nature, Power BI can be used by a wide range of people in an organization. In fact, one of the major reasons for Power BI to be so widely popular is the point that users irrespective of their technical expertise level or background find it convenient for use. Because of its versatility and useful features, professionals consider Power BI in healthcare industry as a must-have tool. Organizations who do not have an in-house Power BI service, usually outsource it to another firm that has rich experience in data science and related tools. Such is its effect on users and growth of organizations, that there has been a spike in demand for Power BI developers and services in almost all the industries. Businesses wherein creation of data models and reports for analysis is mandatory, may or may not have the skills to operate all the BI tools. In such cases data science consulting firms such as Datatobiz turn out to be extremely supportive, as Power BI is an essential tool for data scientists and analysts to work on. Cumulatively, Power BI works with data in whatever way it is asked to do, so you can use it in any way. A couple of industries that use Power BI regularly are airline, hospitality, healthcare, and retail. Departments irrespective of the industry the firm belongs to, that use this BI tool include finance, marketing, human resources, and IT. Why are organizations or individuals using Power BI? Power BI facilitates intelligent decision-making, eventually reducing the likelihood of failure and mitigating inherent risks. The data that BI processes are available for viewing and interacting 24*7 from anywhere, as long as you have mobile access. The mobility that it provides is considered a star feature against other BI tools where access to viewing is restricted to a particular location only. This convenient feature allows the users to pull, process, and share real-time data anywhere anytime, making Power BI services rise in demand. Data security is a major concern for any organization irrespective of the industry. Power BI lets the user track and control data usage, granting access only to those who are supposed to have it, without having to bother tech support or IT security elements. Power BI also offers the flexibility to save data on cloud storage, thus preventing exposure of sensitive data by blocking risky user activities in real-time. That apart, Power BI is scalable, so it can fit under any organization and is capable of handling changes in size, be it a rapid business expansion or an unexpected downsizing. The beauty of Power BI is its ease of use, even by people who

Yashica Chopra
July 09, 2021
1 Comment

10 Ways the Advanced BI Tools Help in Decision Making

Business intelligence is a data-driven process that transforms raw and unstructured data from across the enterprise into structured data to gather meaningful insights. It is the process of analyzing and presenting data to understand how the business is performing and what needs to be done to improve the business. Before we know how the Advanced BI tools help in Decision Making, here’s the brief of what they actually do: Various tools and software are used to collect, process, analyze, and present data to derive insights. These tools play a crucial role in the decision making process of SMEs. Instead of relying on instinct and outdated data, organizations use real-time insights to understand the current and future market conditions. This allows the management to have more control over their decisions. In this blog, we will learn how advanced BI tools can empower enterprises to make the right decisions for their business. Functionalities of Business Intelligence Business intelligence helps enterprises to collect and store data in a central database that can be accessed by all departments. This ensures that everyone gets the latest information and can collaborate with other departments to increase productivity and sales. The following are the functionalities of BI. Role of Business Intelligence in Enterprises Business intelligence is used in various organizations to- Big names in the global market like Netflix, Adobe, Amazon, Siemens, Cisco, Philips, etc., grabbed prominent places on the list of Transformation 20 for making the best business decisions of 2019. Though the companies have been working on bringing new changes over the years, the major results were seen in 2019. For example, Netflix became the leading online live-streaming platform and the top provider of original content on OTT. Amazon’s Web Services helped reduce the cost of building and maintaining the IT infrastructure for many startups. AWS became a profitable venture in no time. These developments have been possible because the brands changed their business processes to data-driven models and invested heavily in business intelligence. Advantages of Using Business Intelligence Tools Without using the right software and technology, enterprises cannot expect to get the desired results. Adopting and investing in BI tools can change the way businesses look at data. There are many benefits of using Decision Making Platforms in business- Types of BI Tools Business intelligence tools are of different types and serve various purposes in the enterprise. Digital Dashboards It is a real-time interactive dashboard that presents data in an easy-to-understand graphical format. Power BI, Tableau Desktop, Qilk Sense Desktop Personal Edition, etc., are some examples. Advanced Spreadsheets There are open-source and web-based spreadsheets with much more features than MS Excel offers. Reporting and Querying Tools These tools are used to report, sort, filter, and process data based on queries. Some of the Best Business Intelligence Tools for Effective Reporting are Power BI, Sisense FineReport, Oracle Business Intelligence, IBM Cognos Analytics, etc. OLAP Tools Online Analytical Processing tools make it easy to analyze data from multiple sources and present it in multiple ways to include various business perspectives. Data Visualization Software Helps create graphical reports for complex insights and makes it easy to understand and share the key details with other departments in the enterprise. A few popular data visualization tools are Tableau Public, DataWrangler, D3.js, Plotly, and many more. Mobile BI Software Using BI tools on mobile devices so that employees are always armed with the latest reports no matter where they are working. Example: Power BI Pro, Zoho Reports, Amazon QuickSight, etc. Data Warehousing Tools These tools help collect data from various sources to structure and store it in a single location known as the data warehouse. Data Mining Tools Identifying patterns and hidden trends in the large data sets using AI and ML algorithms. Decision Intelligence Using a framework of data analytics, reasoning, and machine learning techniques to make informed decisions. Unified Modeling Language Using a modeling language/ techniques to specify and develop software for the business. Cloud-based/ SaaS BI tools that can be accessed via the cloud and used on the cloud platforms without downloading the software to the on-premises services. Power BI Pro, Zoho Reports, Tableau Online, etc., are a few cloud-based BI tools. Business Process Management Using a set of processes to manage the performance of the business by carefully planning and aligning the goals. Example: MagicDraw, Adobe LifeCycle, Enterprise Architect, ProcessMaker, and many more. How Advanced BI Tools Help in Decision Making There are many ways in which BI tools play a role in helping enterprises make the right business decisions. Whether it is in the sales department, managing resources, hiring eligible candidates, or training the existing ones, BI tools help enterprises have a better and deeper understanding of the intricacies in the business. 1. Generate Reports with Valuable Insights Reports are an inherent part of every business. From inventory to accounts to sales, each department generates reports to present the current business situation in different formats. Business Intelligence Consulting helps enterprises produce detailed reports that share valuable information about the company’s revenue, sales, inventory, past performance, and more. 2. Data Visualization to Understand the Reports Data visualization tools can be used by employees with minimum or no training. The aim of these tools is to present data in a simple and easy manner that can be understood by most people. Employees can add and delete features on the dashboard using the drag-drop option. This lets them see how different factors impact the overall performance of the business, that too without much effort. 3. Increase Benchmarking Standards Setting up benchmarks is not an easy task. It requires large-scale research to study the processes and systems used by the industry leaders and then create an action plan to implement the same in the organization. But BI tools have simplified the process of benchmarking. 4. Unlocking the Power of Unstructured Data This helps in getting in-depth insights from data, which is not possible when enterprises work with only one type of data. Traditional tools are capable of working

Damian Alderson
June 17, 2021
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4 Ways Data Governance Can Improve Business Intelligence

Successfully running a modern business has become inconceivable without an effective Business Intelligence strategy. Developing and implementing proper BI, on the other hand, is hardly done without optimized Data Governance. Data is the very fulcrum of a streamlined workflow, regardless of the industry your company belongs to. Many business leaders have known that Data Governance can improve Business Intelligence. It means that applying an efficient data management solution is a prerequisite to achieving advanced BI levels. According to a Forbes study conducted across numerous global organizations, businesses that deploy robust DG strategies and use them to enhance their BI efforts report breakthrough ROIs when investing in business intelligence. However, developing a powerful Data Governance plan based on consistency, reliability, and flexibility is not exactly a walk in the park. It requires a multi-faceted approach to data storage, tracking, and management, and needs to be tackled with proper attention to detail. It is true for both small businesses and enterprise-level environments. Otherwise, your DG is likely to have certain pitfalls that would render all other aspects ineffective. Before we jump to the ways Data Governance can improve Business Intelligence, let’s take a look at what it actually is. What is Data Governance? Data Governance involves various processes, policies, roles, standards, metrics, and infrastructures that help businesses achieve optimized and effective use of data. Proper information management enables companies to reach their goals and objectives on time while being cost-effective. DG encompasses operational processes and employee responsibilities that allow businesses to achieve high quality and security levels across an entire ecosystem of data and data flow an organization is handling. Effective and tactical Data Governance strategy should ensure that all data management roles are clearly defined across all departments and should provide a clear overview of who takes what action and when, and for what purposes. If your business has dynamic data flows daily, and your communication channels convey pertinent information regarding business analytics and security, creating a functional, consistent, and well-crafted DG strategy should be among your top priorities. Data comes in various forms. For example, it can convey personal information that belongs to your clients. At the same time, it can also include raw performance metrics that your business can use to analyze and glean valuable insight into: – how it can improve its operational processes, – shorten time to market, – recognize business drivers and boost ROI. For instance, if you run a SaaS-based business. Your user base is enormous and diverse; one of your main drivers for having a powerful data governance strategy should be ensuring that client-based information is stored and processed securely. It flows through your company and communication channels. Tracking user behavior and analyzing user data on a granular level will also help you improve your product and drive more revenue. Data retention and proper regulatory compliance handling should also be among your priorities since a single data breach can cause fatal damage to your project. Now let’s go over some of the essential best practice tips suggested by top business intelligence consultancy firms on how to use Data Governance to enhance your Business Intelligence methods. 1. Streamlined Data Governance Enables Timely Business Analytics Every business owner knows that timing is everything. One can have a killer product and service, but if the strategy isn’t impeccably data-driven and timely, likely, their business won’t reach its full potential. Having an effective DG tactic in place can help you improve all aspects of your business workflow and all other operational processes, allowing you to improve data gathering, storing, and processing. This way, you can perform deep data analysis, and optimized ROI will undoubtedly ensue, followed by the enhanced discovery of new business opportunities. This type of advanced business flow can hardly be achieved if each of your teams and departments isn’t getting the right data. The right raw data leads to smart insight, and intelligent insight then leads to improved Business Intelligence. However, suppose your raw data isn’t governed and managed the right way. In that case, the process of timely data analytics is severely hindered, which results in a ripple effect across all your processes and workflows. 2. Proper DG Improves Operational Processes Data is the lifeblood of all operational processes. Data is an asset that needs to be managed so that it is highly accessible, easily usable and reusable, and highly secure. Developing effective data governance can help business owners streamline all operational processes and improve decision-making, so any potential efficiency gaps are easily mitigated. When properly implemented, it can reduce data inconsistencies to a minimum and remove the risk of human error from the equation. 3. Secure Email-based Information to Prevent the Loss of Sensitive Data According to Statista, the US alone saw over 1000 data breach cases with over 150 million records exposed to cybercriminals. Granted, this is lower than back in 2018 when 471 million records got exposed, and these attacks seem to be decreasing lately, but the overarching trend since 2005 is alarming. Minimizing the risk of cyberattacks should start with handling the data management and protection of your emails, as email platforms are the most widely used communication channels that permeate all modern companies. If utilized and implemented correctly, this type of mindset should trigger businesses to deploy top-tier email archiving methods and retention policies so any malware infiltration or data loss is obviated and network breaches are prevented. Additionally, having a tight email retention policy in place allows you to determine DG for email-based data in terms of security, cost-effective retention, and retrieval of data, as well as ensure regulatory compliance. 4. High Data Quality Fuels Business Intelligence In order to make proactive and revenue-driving decisions, businesses need to make sure that their data is of high quality. Subpar data quality results in false insights and can cause huge damages to your cost-effective resource usage. In order to always have quality data at your disposal, your DG plan needs to tackle a continual process of tracking, collecting,

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