What is Business Intelligence and what are its advantages?

By | Oct 23, 2018 | Business Intelligence, Featured

What is Business Intelligence and what are its advantages in the logistics sector

What is Business Intelligence?

Business Intelligence (BI), according to a study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), is the ability to understand markets in order to make the right decisions. All this using processes, technology and applications that help the analysis of information.

Few organizations have enough discipline to focus efforts on optimizing their operations. Those that manage to do so are the ones that best adapt to market changes, consolidating faster.

Digitisation is the axis on which most companies are basing their competitiveness. In this area, Business Intelligence stands out as a tool that brings more value to decision making. But what is the impact that this tool generates in the daily life of any organization?

Main advantages of Business Intelligence in Logistics

  • No speculation: numbers speak for themselves. With data it is more difficult to make decisions based on opinions or intuitions. Business Intelligence allows you to make decisions in a more reasoned way. This makes it easier to adopt the right strategies more quickly.

"Without information, you're just another opinion." - W. Edwards Deming

  • Better knowledge of customers: anticipating is the best strategy. Having historical data of clients and/or knowing what their needs are, allows you to anticipate their decisions, speeding up the whole process.

"The best advertising is what satisfied customers do." - P. Kotler

  • Optimize operations: one of the main functionalities of the analysis provided by a Business Intelligence system is the capture of insights from your operations. Analyzing what is not working as it should, allows you to get the most out of your operations.

"If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd use 55 minutes to analyze it and 5 minutes to find a solution." - A. Einstein

It is as important to have data as to analyze them correctly.

It is of little use to have a lot of information about your business if you do not have tools and a previous strategy to analyze it. Many companies encounter similar problems: trying to monitor hundreds of data without first defining a few KPIs. It is crucial to first identify what the objectives are. A good analysis of the objectives will make it possible to focus on the appropriate indicators at a later stage.

Another fundamental part to get the most out of your BI are the management softwareThese are essential to act on these data. Currently most ERP for transport and logistics have this service. A logistics and transport management system allows the integration of the different areas of the business into a single database, enabling the extraction of operational information on a day-to-day basis. In this way, not only is the information completely aligned with the business (providing meaningful data), but it also allows for better decision making.

These new technologies are not limited to large corporations, they are a support for any company that recognizes the importance of its implementation, and the positive impact it will have on process optimization.