Microsoft Business Intelligence Tools

What is Business Intelligence? 

Business Intelligence (BI) is a technology-driven process that analyses business data and transforms it into actionable insights, helping executives and managers make better-informed decisions.  

BI is a broad term that encompasses data mining, process analysis, performance benchmarking, and descriptive analytics. It parses all the data a business generates and presents easy-to-digest reports, performance measures, and trends that inform management decisions.  

However, BI is different from business analytics. BI analyses current operational data to drive decision-making, while business analytics delves deeper into predictive insights for future growth. In essence, BI drives global economic growth as it helps organisations identify trends, optimise operations, and seize new opportunities.  

How Does Business Intelligence Work? 

There are four key steps that business intelligence follows to transform raw data into easy-to-digest insights for everyone in the organisation to use. Before using BI, businesses had to do much of their analysis manually, but BI tools automate many of the processes and save companies time and effort.  

Here are the four steps: 

1. Collect and transform data from multiple sources 

BI tools typically use the extract, transform, and load (ETL) method to aggregate structured and unstructured data from multiple sources. This data is then transformed and remodelled before being stored in a central location so applications can easily analyse and query it as one comprehensive data set.  

2. Uncover trends and inconsistencies 

Data mining, or data discovery, typically uses automation to quickly analyse data to find patterns and outliers, which provide insight into the current state of business. BI tools often feature several types of data modelling and analytics–including exploratory, descriptive, statistical, and predictive–that further explore data, predict trends, and make recommendations.  

3. Use data visualisation to present findings 

BI reporting uses data visualisations to make findings easier to understand and share. Reporting methods include interactive data dashboards, charts, graphs, and maps that help users see what’s going on in the business currently.  

4. Take action on insights in real-time 

Viewing current and historical data in context with business activities gives companies the ability to move quickly from insights to action. BI enables real-time adjustments and long-term strategic changes that eliminate inefficiencies, adapt to market shifts, correct supply problems, and solve customer issues.  

What are some Microsoft Business Intelligence Tools? 

BI tools and software come in a variety of forms. Here are some common BI solutions: 

• Spreadsheets: Microsoft Excel is one of the most widely used BI tools.  

• Reporting software: These tools report, organise, filter, and display data. 

• Data visualisation software: Tools like Power BI translate datasets into easy-to-read, visually appealing graphical representations to quickly gain insight. 

• Data mining tools: These tools “mine” large amounts of data for patterns using things like AI, machine learning, and statistics.  

• Online analytical processing: These tools allow users to analyse datasets from various angles based on different business perspectives.  

Benefits of using Microsoft Business Intelligence  

BI tools speed up information analysis and performance evaluation, making them valuable in helping companies reduce inefficiencies, flag potential problems, find new revenue streams, and identify areas of future improvement.  

Specific benefits that businesses experience using BI tools are: 

• Increased efficiency of operational processes 

• Insight into customer behaviour and shopping patterns  

• Accurate tracking of sales, marketing, and financial performance 

• Clear benchmarks based on historical and current data  

• Instant alerts about data anomalies and customer issues 

• Analyses that can be shared in real-time across departments 

• Cutting costs and increasing savings from reduced amount of time spent 

How Microsoft Business Intelligence Improves Key Departments 

BI tools also can improve the way work is done in six key departments of a business: 

• Customer experience: Access all your customer information in one place, so you can direct resources to key areas that will positively impact customer engagement and support. 

• Sales and marketing: Gain visibility into sales and marketing performance, consumer behaviour, and buying trends, which ensure future marketing initiatives are effective and drive revenue. 

• Operations: Improve operations by automating routine analytics tasks, refining processes, reducing inefficiencies, and increasing productivity. This can look like Power BI HR Dashboards that consolidate data from diverse sources such as HRIS, payroll, and performance management systems, providing a comprehensive view of HR metrics.  

• Finance: Use a custom dashboard to get a holistic view of the company’s financial health, study historical data, calculate risk, and predict trends. Power BI Financial Reporting can improve your financial data integration from ERP, banking, and accounting systems into a Power BI dashboard for real-time insights into revenue, expenses, cash flow, and overall financial performance.  

• Inventory control: Automate data analysis and reporting to improve inventory management, accelerate fulfilment, and help anticipate buying trends.  

• Security and compliance: Centralise data storage to improve accuracy and transparency, making it easier to uncover errors and security issues, and reduce compliance risks. When evaluating BI tools, look for a product that’s secure, compliant, globally available, and trusted. It should also have features that make BI insights accessible to your entire organisation–such as data visualisation, shared dashboards, AI, and machine learning.  

Free Data Assessment  

Keen to find out if Power BI can help your business save up to 80% of time by automating reporting?  

We offer a free data assessment that empowers companies to streamline reporting, improve forecasting, and make data-driven decisions with confidence.  

This includes: 

• Consultation: A 60-minute session with our experts to evaluate your data practices. 

• Personalised insights: A report with recommendations to improve accuracy, agility, and efficiency in your processes. 

• Strategic roadmap: Clear steps to achieve fast, cost-effective improvements with measurable results.  

Let us help you discover opportunities to improve budgeting, forecasting, and reporting through Power BI.   

Pricing  

As a Microsoft Partner, our experience and expertise allow us to guide you to make this journey as simple and valuable as possible. Different Power BI levels provide different functionality and requirements. Here’s a quick summary of Power BI pricing:  

Power BI Free 

Made for individuals and small teams, Power BI Free helps build and publish dashboards and reports to understand and visualise their data. Sharing functionality is not supported so this is limited to more of a foundation for personal use.  

Power BI Pro 

This tier is great for companies looking to share data and collaborate in real-time across teams and their members. You can publish, share, and embed reports and dashboards to allow ad-hoc analysis and input company-wide. This also supports integration with the suite of Microsoft products, such as Team and Excel. 

Power BI Premium  

This is where a larger scale and volume of report creation, collaboration, and editing is catered for. Dedicated cloud computing resources look after the bigger capacity data modelling, with elements of AI and machine learning built in to continually improve and iterate. The data refresh rate is also significantly increased to allow almost real-time collaboration amongst users. This is delivered on a price-per-user model. 

Power BI Embedded 

This tier is geared towards Independent Software Vendors and developers that want to harness the value of Power BI functionality into their tools, apps and products. It offers embedded analytics, insights, and data visualisation capability into existing custom products for their clients. The pricing structure is based in Azure resources used in a scalable way without the need for a per-user model  

BCN Microsoft Business Intelligence Tools Services 

We offer a range of Microsoft Business Intelligence Tools:  

1. Power BI Managed Service  

BCN’s Power BI Managed Service guarantees your team extracts maximum value from their Power BI investment. To ensure the optimal performance of your data applications, our expert team provides continual support, yielding vital insights into crucial metrics such as cash flow, profitability, and budgetary trends. 

2. Power BI Governance

Our Power BI Governance Service centres on three crucial areas: risk assessment, disaster recovery, and data compliance. We assist you in auditing your financial data environment, guaranteeing adherence to financial regulations and standards, such as SOX or GDPR, and protecting sensitive financial information through the implementation of robust governance protocols. 

3. Power BI Consultancy

Feeling a bit lost on where to start with Power BI? BCN’s consultancy service assists your company in establishing clear objectives and learning how to transform your financial data into actionable insights. We’ll provide guidance in building a data-driven financial environment, thereby improving decision-making across areas such as cost control, investment analysis, and financial forecasting. 

4. Power BI Development

Whether you’re a novice with Power BI or looking to enhance your current financial analytics, our Power BI experts are able to develop bespoke business intelligence solutions specifically tailored to your requirements. From expense tracking through to revenue analysis, we’ll construct tools that facilitate more informed, data-driven financial decisions. 

5. Power BI Migration  

Still relying on those antiquated financial reporting tools? As a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Business Applications, BCN can assist you with migrating from those legacy systems over to Power BI. We’ll guarantee a smooth transition, complete with improved data visualisation and advanced reporting capabilities, to meet the requirements of modern finance. 

6. Power BI Optimisation  

Our team will review your Power BI environment, optimise your dashboards, and refine your analytics. We’ll also provide training to ensure your team is thoroughly equipped to utilise Power BI effectively. From standardising financial reports to implementing best practices, we’ll enhance your insights and decision-making procedures. 

Let Us Help You Integrate Microsoft Business Intelligence Tools 

Here at BCN, we have a long-established Microsoft Partnership and stand as one of the UK’s foremost Microsoft Solutions Partners. This accreditation signifies our status as a recognised provider of Microsoft technology, offering leading solutions and services across the entire Microsoft suite. With six specialisations, 1,600 customers, over 450 members of staff, and a client retention rate of 98%, these achievements demonstrate our capability to help your organisation integrate Microsoft Business Intelligence Tools. 

By partnering with us, you’re choosing to collaborate with our team of world-class, certified professionals who have access to the latest tools, resources, and technology. Moreover, we can customise Microsoft solutions to target your business requirements.