Integrating Business Intelligence Tools in SuiteCRM

use visualization tools to interpret big data No business can win in this day and age of cutthroat competition if it does not value its data. Businesses that place data at first and foremost are successful in not only thriving but often achieve an edge over their competition. These are enterprises that value Business Intelligence. But what is Business Intelligence? and why has it gained such an impressive following? Let’s explore below.

What Is Business Intelligence (BI)?

Business Intelligence (BI) includes all the tools and infrastructure, as well as processes and best practices, used to collect, store and analyze data, driving awareness within a business. Therefore, Business Intelligence is an umbrella term for all the means and media that are responsible for enriching the information banks of corporations. It is only on the basis of Business Intelligence that businesses are able to understand the environment that they are operating within as well as make decisions. However, BI tools aren’t the only tools used by a business in its day-to-day-operations. CRM, such as SuiteCRM, also have a significant role to play.

Role of SuiteCRM

SuiteCRM, like any other CRM, is a medium for collecting and storing customer data. Furthermore, with the use of default tools and through SuiteCRM customization and integration, the data residing in SuiteCRM can be analyzed to come up with useful customer insights. These insights help marketers and sales personnel target customers with the right marketing campaigns or sales pitch. Therefore, the data stored in a company’s SuiteCRM has an important role to play in bringing business to the enterprise. Furthermore, integrating SuiteCRM with a robust Business Intelligence software is set to provide the business with useful insights.

SuiteCRM Integration

There are various forms of Business Intelligence tools that have been developed over the past, and that continue to be developed. These can be categorized as follows:

• Data Mining
• Data Warehousing
• Dashboards
• Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)
• Spreadsheets

And many more…

There are options available in the SuiteCRM store for analytics tools for SuiteCRM. However, these options are limited and might not be able to fulfill the needs of businesses. Nevertheless, there are third-party Business Intelligence software available, providing actionable insights into various aspects of your business. Examples of such software include GoodData, SAS, Dundas, and Jaspersoft. These BI tools can be integrated with your SuiteCRM. That is possible through SuiteCRM integration. Once this integration is complete, the insights from these third-party tools can be combined with the customer insights gained from SuiteCRM to leverage profitable business opportunities.

Benefits of Incorporating Business Intelligence in Your SuiteCRM

We have already been through the major benefits of incorporating Business Intelligence within your SuiteCRM, which are the ability to make data-driven decisions as well as deeper insights available to the business. However, this is just a summary of the benefits available. We now discuss the benefits of BI (Business Intelligence) in greater detail.

Track Company Performance

This is one of the most leading uses of BI Data. This data can be compared to similar data of the previous year or can also be compared to budgets or forecasts. This way, the performance of the business can be assessed. Furthermore, any action required can be taken in a timely manner based on this data.

Competitive Analysis

Benefits of Business Intelligence include an analysis of the activities of competitor firms. This helps avoid any surprises for the management in case of any new step taken by the competition which could either provide him with a competitive edge or could be against the company’s interests, in general. Therefore, BI data allows a company to better face its competition.

Shows Untapped Potential

The purpose of Business Intelligence is to provide a clear vision regarding the business, the direction in which it is moving as well as the conditions of the market and economy. Using this, a business can also view untapped potential, in terms of markets and technology or even the capacity available versus capacity utilized. With sufficient knowledge, the management could decide to make use of unutilized factors to increase business or profitability.

More Effective Decision Making

This is the case since BI Reporting Tools provide vision to business management teams of multiple business dynamics, including KPIs, market conditions, and various analyses including SWOT and STEEPLE. With all this information in hand in the form of charts or reports, the management can make decisions having considered all factors, making the decisions as data-driven.

Increased Profitability

This is the result of both, more effective decision making and the ability to tap into unused potential. Having a clear vision of the market and customer needs and preferences, the business would be able to separate the profitable customers from unprofitable ones. Furthermore, the business will invest in only those resources that are required, while cutting down on redundant costs, increasing its profitability in the process.

Future of Business Intelligence

There are new trends expected to take place in the domain of Business Intelligence. These include Collaboration, Network Advancements and a Data-Driven Culture. In Collaboration, the various functional departments of a business will better collaborate to explore the data they have and the data analysis tools and platforms they use, than they have done ever before. In Network Advancements, new network architectures will be surfacing which might even take the place of cloud computing. These network architectures would become the backbone of the Business Intelligence tools of that time. Data-Driven culture is also one of the major trends to take place in the Business Intelligence space. In this culture, whole teams will become data-driven, rather than just the management, therefore affecting business processes and decisions.

Having gone through some of the trends that might impact Business Intelligence in the future, we now visit what might actually be the biggest one, which is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning. In this trend, Machine Learning tools will be used to analyze data to come up with actionable information for the business. Therefore, there would be no longer any need for data scientists in businesses since even those people lacking sufficient technical knowledge will be able to make sense of the piles of data residing in the databases of the business. The effect that this trend will have on businesses is that big data will become crucial for businesses that will be using AI to analyze that data, hence, providing significant insights which weren’t possible before.

Over to You!

Business Intelligence is your key to gaining a competitive advantage as well as of unlocking untapped potential. Therefore, the use of Business Intelligence tools in various business functions is advised. Combine these tools with your SuiteCRM to make the most of what you have in an ambitious attempt to gain a considerable advantage over your competition. Furthermore, invest in a BI tool with Machine Learning capabilities, since AI is the future of Business Intelligence.

RT Dynamic is your key to a robust Business Intelligence solution. We as Official SuiteCRM Partners provide a range of services including SuiteCRM Migration, Customization, and SuiteCRM Support. Get in touch with us by filling out the contact form below and we will guide you to a promising software solution.