The Best Business Analytics Tools for Analysis & Success

Every business, no matter how small, requires various tools and techniques that analyse it and keep tabs on how it is doing on a day-to-day, monthly and annual basis. Created by tech companies, these tools are available in the form of different types of computer software. 

The software includes business systems and techniques that collect and analyse data, and present it in an understandable format. It’s the best way to record all your company info and keep updated about what’s happening in your business. 

With this knowledge, you can identify trends and patterns, and create new, seamless business models that are completely personalised to suit your business’s services and products.  

The Importance of Data Analysis Tools

If you want to achieve business success, you need to know all about your particular industry, and exactly who your customers or audience is, so that you can attract them to use your business services or buy your company’s products.

To do this, you need data sources, and you need to be able to access this information simply and quickly to get the results you’re after. This is what business analytics involves; these platforms analyse your company data to give you the answers you need, when you need them.

Your company data is divided into different areas – marketing, which is recorded on Microsoft Word, finances, available in Microsoft Excel, and so on. You also need all this data in one space so that it can be analysed efficiently.

These days, business analytics tools is a form of data science that gathers all the data together for analysis for you, saving you time and effort. You can also find additional data before completing an analysis.

Best of all, the data is constantly being updated. Security is often another issue, and this is also taken into account so that the data is safe and not available to the public.

Why Business Analytic Tools Were Created

Up until the 1970s, many businesses analysed data manually to compare statistics and the entire process was a lengthy one. But with better technology and more reliable databases, all sorts of analytics software became available to help companies analyse data faster and more effectively. 

However, many of the new tools that became available were so complicated that they were impossible to use, unless you had tech expertise. And this meant that companies couldn’t easily integrate the software into their business systems.

This issue has been resolved, but the programme often requires training, machine learning and certification before it can be effectively used.

The Tools for Business Analytics

• Business analytics tools are different types of software that take details from the various business systems a company has, and combine them so that they can be reviewed and analysed to help improve company operations.
• This analytics platform includes specific methods of predicting a business’ progress, offers statistics on different areas and keeps data saved for future use. This helps companies to see the bigger picture so that they can make the business more efficient, productive and profitable.
• The programmes cover everything from operations to converting customers, marketing and Human Resources.
• Business owners don’t need to analyse the data; the business analytic platform does this for them. It analyses the data and helps them make better decisions about their individual requirements. 
• Businesses usually have more than one type of analytics platform, so that owners and managers can have a complete overview of every aspect of the company. This way, they are able to see any areas that have weaknesses and sort out any issues. They can even use this information to forecast future profit results.
• This platform provides businesses with a complete understanding of how their businesses are doing at any given time. They also provide data on how to compete in the current market, improve customer service and be the best they can in their industry.

Ask Yourself These Questions Before Choosing a Business Analytics Platform

Before you select your business analytics tools, ask yourself the following questions. You also need to know out about your company's future prospects and something about your competitors.

So ask yourself:

• What data do I already have? Most companies already have some type of business analytics information. Work out what you have, and what you need before you choose a business analytics tool.
• Who are my customers? You need a clear understanding of your audience, and the people most likely to want your services and products.
• How do I reach my customers? You need to know what type of communication is required to reach the customers you’re focusing on, through marketing and advertising.
• What do I know about my industry? You should be well-versed in every aspect of your industry. The more you know, the more likely you will be to serve your customers well.
• What has happened in this industry in the past? You need to know how other companies handled any setbacks, or how they improved their services and products. 
• What is happening currently in my industry? Keep abreast of all trends so that you can predict new ones, and offer your customers the latest in your industry.
• Who are my competitors? It’s important to be aware of others in the same industry as yours, and what they are doing successfully to reach their market. With this knowledge you can work out how to better your offerings, and achieve more sales.
• What will happen in the future? You should also be able to predict what is going to happen in your industry. If you have a good idea of previous issues and what is happening now, this will make your job much easier. 

What to Look for in Business Analytics Programmes

• It’s difficult to have a clear idea of who your customer is, and what he or she wants. This is where business analytics programmes can assist.
• As you have different business systems for each department, it's time consuming to gather data from all of them to do the sophisticated analysis that software can do for you. Also, the programme not only does it quickly, but more efficiently, too.
• You want data that is easily accessible whenever you need it. You want to be able to share this information with others in the business so that they can use it to their advantage, to have key insights into their part of the business and make better decisions as a result.
• You need secure data that is regularly updated, analysed information you can access quickly and efficiently without any problems so that you can gain insights and make the right business decisions.
• This type of automated data is not only at your fingertips; it will also give you the big picture. 

4 Types of Business Analytics Tools

There are four distinct types of analytic tools, and together they will help you make better decisions in your business. Here, we look at each type of analytics tool, when it’s best to use it and how, combined, they can all play an important role in your business’s success.

It’s not enough for a business to have business analytics software – you need to know what the software will do for your business, and when it’s best to use it.

These four types of business tools cover all the bases: they include a descriptive tool, a diagnostic one, software to help you predict future success or setbacks, and a tool that is prescriptive.

Let’s discuss them one by one, as each is important for your business, and will help you understand the data it reveals. The insights each provides is excellent and timeous, and will help you make your business a success.

1.   Descriptive Business Analytics

This is the most commonly used business analytics tool, as the data is readily available. Descriptive Business Analytics looks at past events. It tells you the following:

• How much your company sold.
• How productive your company was.
• How many customers you had in a past period, for instance, the past three months.

This type of business analytics programme offers two different types of reports: ad hoc reports and canned reports. 

-       Canned reports cover a specific subject and have been used before. For example, a monthly report sent by your PR company or ad agency that offers results for a particular campaign.

-       Ad hoc reports are unscheduled reports and dashboards. These are only given when you ask a specific question, for instance, 'What types of people liked our Instagram business profile?'

You could also ask, 'How many people engaged in my latest Instagram post?' As this type of reporting isn’t specific, and changes every time, it will give you a better idea of the results.

How to Use Descriptive Business Analytics

• This business analytics tool creates reports that can be repeated for a particular duration, eg a weekly or monthly sales report that is automated and doesn’t require lots of admin.
• However, be aware that this is the most basic type of analytics tool. It will not create a call to action (CTA) or analyse why something happened, or why results aren't great. For that you need the next type of business analytics platform - Diagnostic Business Analytics.

2.   Diagnostic Business Analytics

This business analytics platform also uses data from the past to answer a particular question. Interestingly, this platform isn't used by many companies. They prefer to find out why, through Descriptive Business Analytics, and then ask the question, ‘What happened?’.

Diagnostic Business Analytics tells you:

• Why sales increased or decreased in a particular time frame.
• Why you have an influx of new customers.
• Why some of your products are doing better than others.

Diagnostic Business Analytics helps you work out cause and effect; why something happened. It’s broken down into two categories, query and drill downs and discover and alerts:

-       Query and drill downs provide more detail in the report, for instance, whether sales decreased because the time frame included a public holiday, or increased because of a particular ad campaign.

-       Discover and alerts predict a potential problem before it occurs. For instance, there might be a long weekend coming up, which means that sales for that particular time frame will decrease. You can also use the software to ‘discover’ your highest performer or the person best suited to being promoted.

How to use Diagnostic Business Analytics

• With this type of analytics tool, the answers are more detailed because the questions delve deeper.
• Because this type of software is so detailed, it would be a pity not to use it. 

3.   Predictive Business Analytics

This software is more advanced and delves deeper into the data to find out what is likely to happen. It’s the most commonly used analytics programme and takes data about the past to predict the following:

• How long you can use your machines before they need to be maintained.
• How likely it is that a particular financial decision could affect the business badly.
• When loyal customers may leave and turn to competitors.

Businesses use this popular analytics tool to find trends, causes and similarities. It is broken down into two specific categories, predictive models and statistical models, both of which are always used together.

-       Predictive models would take results of a sales prediction of, say, two different audiences buying a product, and give an idea of which audience would be the best.

-       Statistical models comprise data based purely on statistics.

How to Use Predictive Business Analytics

To use Predictive Business Analytics, you need to ask the following three questions:

1. What is the problem I need to solve?
2. How could this problem help me overcome problems in the future?
3. What could I do if I found a solution to this problem?

• This software takes data, reviews it and looks at how to solve a problem. 
• If you already have the first two types of analytics platforms, this third programme is much easier to use, as you already have the data you need and don’t need to search for it.
• Predictive Business Analytics takes you to the next step in the software evolution, which is Prescriptive Business Analytics.

4.   Prescriptive Business Analytics

The fourth and final pillar in the analytics tools, Prescriptive Business Analytics guides the business owner towards taking specific action. It literally combines the other three analytics programmes and helps you make a guided decision to act and be proactive.

This platform is often used by specialised businesses, like finance companies, insurance, healthcare etc. This type of analytics programme takes guessing out of the equation and rates the following:

• How to adjust the price, taking product demand and other factors into consideration.
• How to choose the employees that will most benefit from training.

Prescriptive Business Analytics is broken down into two categories: Optimisation and Random Testing: 

-       Optimisation involves making the best use of a situation, for instance finding the right solution to a problem. 

-       Random Testing will give you insight into whether you are making the correct choice. It will also suggest alternative choices that may give you an even better chance of success.

How to use Prescriptive Business Analytics

• Prescriptive Business Analytics uses all four analytics programmes to reach a solution. It’s important that you have first done the groundwork using the other three types of analytics software.
• This tool demands using established methods and procedures to achieve a particular result. 

5 Popular Business Analytics Tools

1.   Microsoft Excel

Excel is an essential Microsoft Business intelligence tool for every office environment. It’s also one of the most popular business analytics programmes available globally, and is used by most business people for some type of data analytics. 

This versatile tool offers numerous analytical tools, including sharing of workbooks. It also enables users to work together in real-time. You can upload data from all sorts of media to Excel, which makes it even more user-friendly.

On an Excel spreadsheet, which features columns and rows, you can format data, organise it and use it to calculate the data, which makes analysing it so much easier. It’s used for various systems, from compiling data to analysing financial statements, charts, graphs, accounts, programming and project management.

2.   Power BI

Another Microsoft analytic tool, Power BI is a collection of different platform capabilities, apps, features and services. It enables users to turn data into information that is easy to understand visually as well as intellectually. With this medium, you can connect your data together and share it.

It combines various different programmes together including Microsoft Excel, so that you can get the best use out of your data. Best of all, it’s easy to use, so everyone, from a business analyst to a company employee, can operate the system.

Power BI comprises a number of different elements, including a Windows desktop app called ‘Power BI Desktop’, an online service called the ‘Power BI Service’ and various apps that make the platform usable on Windows, iOs and Android devices.

3.   QlikView

This extremely popular business analytics tool has various unique features that sets it apart, and is used by small businesses and large enterprises. The features include patented technology and in-memory processing, which enable the user to analyse data really fast. 

QlikView offers users a wide range of interactive tools to visualise data in different ways. It also offers AI support that prepares the data and a unique ‘associative’ data engine so that users can explore data analytics in various ways.

Another unique development is the programme's ability to source public or open source data in the analytics cloud, like weather and economic conditions, populations and business demographics, and use this to analyse data effectively. 

This unique programme uses data visualisation through colour, i.e., it shows the different relationships between all sorts of data analytics using colours as codes.

4 & 5. PIG & HIVE

These two partner programmes by Hadoop both enable businesses to process and analyse vast amounts of data at a time. PIG was designed for those who do not have programming knowledge, and HIVE, which was designed together with Facebook, processes and creates data discovery and analytics using a special language called SQL, which is relatively easy to understand (e.g., far more so than Java).

PIG is renowned for being able to analyse large amounts of information at a time, whereas HIVE is tailored to be used by analysts. As a result, PIG, which is faster, is commonly used by researchers and programmers, while HIVE is used mainly for data analytics.

Project Management Software for Data: Popular Business Analysis Tools

Most businesses have a project management tool in place (for instance, here at maake we use Monday.com). These business intelligence tools enable managers and business owners to look at the full picture of what their company is doing. They find out exactly who is doing what and when, when deadlines are met or missed, and what still needs to be done. 

Project management software offers clear, detailed data mining tools. It captures information that can then be sent for statistical analysis. 

What a Project Management Tool Does

• It is a business intelligence programme that manages projects.
• The tool manages and tracks workflow throughout the business.

Users are able to add files and checklists online. They can even customise the programme so that it works best for their individual company.  

Combining Project Management & Business Intelligence Platforms

Project management programmes all have an analytics platform that is usually relatively simple to use. This business intelligence tool enables users to create charts and analytics reports which they can then share with others, either in the programme itself, or by email.

Analysts are able to see at a glance who is doing what in the company, how much is being achieved (e.g., in manufacture and sales), and how long each task takes. Data can then be gathered and used for analysis in a business analytics tool.