Massive data presents challenges for organizations of all sizes. Ensuring smooth and streamlined business processes is more complicated with the amount of data produced yearly. Companies need help making data sustainable, informed, and profitable decisions. Business intelligence tools or BI tools are a way to address data challenges without massive IT expertise and involvement.
Business intelligence tools are programs and software that collect, process, analyze, evaluate, and visualize data to generate actionable insights. BI tools present or visualize data through interactive reporting, eventually making the decision-making process more manageable and accessible with the click of a button. Some of the fundamental features of the BI platforms are data visualization, visual analytics, interactive and intuitive reports and dashboards, and KPI scorecards. Users can utilize automated tools for reporting and predictive analysis. In short, they provide a single-stop self-service solution for data queries and analytics. In this article, we shall discuss the top BI tools and their characteristic features for an efficient and accessible analytical process.
SAS Business Intelligence
SAS is a business intelligence tool that offers different products, features, and technologies. It is useful for data engineers and scientists, text analysts, forecast specialists, econometricians, and optimization modelers. Some of its vital features include:
- It focuses primarily on visual data exploration, analytics, interactive and intuitive reporting, dashboards, and mobile apps.
- Machine learning performs data exploration through automated analysis. It then generates creative visualizations.
- The text analytics capabilities help to get actionable insights from social media and location data that combines geographical with social context.
- Creative reporting and dashboarding represent dynamic visuals of the data, which are accessible on mobile, tablets, and computers (iOS and Android).
- SAS can integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Office apps easily, enabling users to access or view their reports and results directly from the Microsoft Office Suite.
SAP Business Objects
SAP Business Objects is another intelligent platform for comprehensive reporting, analytics, and data visualization. It can also integrate with Excel and PowerPoint to create presentations or tables that can link with the on-premises and Cloud SAP. SAP primarily focuses on CRM, customer experience, ERP, HR, supply chain, etc. It is one of the largest software in the world. Some of its features are:
- It generates reports and analyses with the help of ad hoc queries and complex BI reporting capabilities.
- Analytics apps and visualization are self-service solutions that allow users to develop their role-based dashboards and apps for risk assessment, etc.
- SAP offers a cross-enterprise sharing facility that enables you to collaborate and communicate with other functions and stakeholders.
- It is capable of performing multi-dimensional data analysis that helps users filter, manipulate, and cross-check data with real-time analytics with the help of the SAP Business information warehouse.
Oracle
Oracle is a portfolio of technology and applications that provide end-to-end performance optimization solutions to empower organizations. It facilitates mobile-enabled, faster, and more-informed decision-making. It provides a business-efficient solution to manage data with agility and comprehensively. Some of its features include data management, AI, ML integrated querying, reporting, and mobile analytics. It also consists of an Oracle BI publisher and a real-time decision server.
- Oracle has ad hoc capabilities that help to present charts, visualizations, and reports efficiently.
- The tool offers personalized dashboards that present the information in an interactive yet intuitive way based on one’s role and identity. In pure web architecture, users can work with live reports, charts, graphics, pivot tables, sheets, and graphs.
- Oracle has a personalized alarming system for activity monitoring, and the notifications reach users with the help of dashboards, emails, and mobiles. It gives alerts for collaborative workflow.
Microsoft Power BI
It is one of the most sought-after and popular Microsoft BI tools. It is downloadable and carries analytics properties on the cloud or the reporting server. Within minutes, it can sync with Facebook, Oracle, and other platforms to generate reports and dashboards. Power BI has in-built AI capabilities, Microsoft Excel integration, and data connectors. The tool also offers data encryption along with real-time access monitoring.
Tableau
Tableau is an interactive and user-friendly data visualization too. It can create pretty charts and interactive visualizations. Some of its highlights are live visual analytics, a drag-and-drop builder with an interactive user interface, etc. It can sync with Microsoft Excel, Box, PDF files and platforms, and Google Analytics. It is a diverse and versatile platform that connects with most databases and data warehouses.
So, look no further and enjoy these BI tools to benefit your organization.
