Business Intelligence for Trade - Part 1
Introduction to business Intelligence for Trade
There has been a-lot of business needs from top level management to have an overview of what happens in their day to day business. However, not enough information has been given on what can solve this problem; which is actually Business Intelligence.
What exactly is Business Intelligence ?
Business intelligence (BI) comprises of the strategies and technologies used by enterprises for the data analysis of business information. [1] BI technologies provide historical, current and predictive views of business operations.
Business Intelligence (BI) is a term used to describe a wide range of tools and technologies used for integrating, analysing and presenting information which enables improved enterprise decision-making.
Business intelligence simply means the use of data and technology to provide insights that enables us use our intelligence to make better business decisions (Olatunji Fagbore 2018).
Business Intelligence simply means using a companies past and present data to analyse certain areas in a company and make decisions based on them to improve business operations. A practical example would be a small and medium enterprise Managing Director using the business data to have a proper understanding of the business revenue and expense position in a graphical manner, abstracting unnecessary information but highlighting what is relevant. In addition, i’m going to be redefining how you can add value with business Intelligence using a retail and e-commerce industry (Trade) as case study.
Every business owner or management personnel can use business intelligence to take a business from one level to another. I’m going to share retail companies and how they apply business intelligence to be more productive. Amazon uses business intelligence to predict customer buying behavior, make better inventory buying decisions, etc which saves cost. General Electric uses the data from sensors on its machinery to determine ways to improve machinery function and reliability. Any company can use enterprise resource planning softwares and make use of Business Intelligence to analyse the ERP data. The data from the human resource department can be analysed to know salary by departments, analyse leave days pattern by employee. They can also analyse daily operational expenses and use past data to create a daily operational expense budget.
Let’s take a look at the retail and e-commerce sector and how they benefit from business intelligence.
How Industries benefit from Business Intelligence
Retail and E-commerce Sector
Analyse customer buying patterns.
Better inventory decision making.
Predict highest buying days and countries or states and products they buy frequently.
Business Intelligence can be used to predict past to present financial revenues against expense to know if the company is doing better or not. These analysis can also be used to properly make a budget for the upcoming year.
These examples above can show how existing companies in this sector can take advantage of and apply business intelligence. There a several sectors but a good understanding of business requirements would make a business intelligence professional offer a solution to solve the WHEN and WHY the management needs to see.
Before moving on, I have two questions to ask. One at the beginning, and one at the end.
Would you buy Business Intelligence to add value to your business?
Yes
No
Undecided
At this stage, I’m pretty sure if you know about business intelligence you would say yes else you might say no or undecided.
Now let’s dive into detailed business intelligence, the tools we will use and an example to demonstrate how business intelligence can improve a restaurants business.
DataFlow for Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence Diagram [Diagram 1]
Business Intelligence Architecture [Diagram 2]
Layman Map - By Fagbore Olatunji [Diagram 3]
How Can Business Intelligence add value to my retail and e-commerce Business?
A Lot of companies have not fully been exposed to business intelligence, some are still skeptical. However for companies that have embraced this, they have seen drastic business improvements. Business Intelligence can add value to your business with the following:-
It Reduces Costs
Business intelligence reduces cost for business by providing you with the insights that points you to the right direction early.
For example business intelligence can analyse the best buying time and top inventory products in your trade business that will lead to better inventory decisions and prevent you buying products customers don’t really order for.. This in turn will create better profit margins for the company.
It Improves Business Operations Efficiency And Productivity
The retail and e-commerce industry is now leveraging business intelligence to drive efficiency and productivity. Business intelligence can be used to analyze financial sales data against customer demand to make the company plan their supply and demand efficiently.
It Supports Decision Making
Business intelligence supports data-driven decision making with the right information at the right time. Retargeting ads makes use of business intelligence. It tracks your browsing to get the right data after which it know what you have clicked and you have interest in. This information determines the kind of adverts you get to see. If you notice you see products that you have interest in on google or products you viewed last.
It Improves Sales
From monitoring trends to improving sales and even minimizing theft. By understanding customers and determining buying patterns, the company is able to improve sales, distribution and inventory management.
It Reveals Opportunities
Every company wants to take on new opportunities, careful analysis gives you insight that you can use to explore new opportunities.
Example:
A Lagos based loan company created a business intelligence report and discovered that most Nigerians get more loans in the east. They came to a conclusion to open a new branch in the east to improve sales and revenue.
It gives you a platform to predict the future with existing data.
Business Intelligence gives you a platform you can build on. You can move into predictive analytics with existing data. (Artificial Intelligence can be used for predictive analysis)
What is the future of Business Intelligence?
There is no doubt on the bright future of Business Intelligence. The future lies in making a relevant BI strategy for everyone. Business intelligence can be used for different types of analytics from customer analytics, operational analytics, financial analytics to even emotional analytics as long as data is available.
It can lead you towards cultural shifts, new ways of thinking, and continuous technical innovation. The power of Business Intelligence has the capability of enabling the businesses to compete in the industry more effectively and efficiently and ultimately in changing people’s way of working. Many brands have seen a massive increase in their growth rate after effective utilization of business intelligence.
The prime key to run a successful business is to adopt Business intelligence effectively. The future of Business Intelligence is so bright because it will save plenty of time that professional burns in extracting data, organizing them and use those data effectively in different projects. It will also develop a foundation that can be built upon.
In the future, predictive analysis will be very common and without an understanding of Business Intelligence, predictive analysis cannot work. The programming language python, R and SAS excel in this area.