Top 14 Benefits of Business Intelligence - Part II

The first of half of this investigation into the benefits of Business Intelligence (BI) – Yellowfin: Top 14 Benefits of Business Intelligence (Part One) – introduced you to the concept of BI and the first seven benefits as devised by the team at

Now, let’s pick up where we left off. A well-executed and maintained BI environment will:

Help you understand customer behavior: Identify, track and monitor customer purchase habits to effectively segment your current and future customer base.
1. Help you identify and capitalize on up-sell and cross-sell opportunities
2. Allow you to use customer data to meet and exceed customer expectations
Make you aware of emerging crises: BI software can keep decision-makers abreast of ongoing operations via regular, scheduled reports. In addition, BI software can be configured to send automated alerts to appropriate decision-makers to notify them of incidents that require action – such as warehouse stock quantities dropping below a predefined level.
Reduce resources and labor costs used for the collation, analysis and distribution of vital business data: Eliminate time and resources previously spent on correcting data errors and manually compiling spreadsheet-based reports.
Help streamline operations: Quickly, easily and effectively identify and address areas of operational inefficiency.
Deliver superior supply chain visibility: Organizations can achieve deep end-to-end insight into their supply chain, allowing them to effectively manage procurement, fulfilment, stock, transport, warehousing and retail processes.
Improve data security: By accessing organizational data through a single portal, via a password protected BI environment, data security can be effectively managed. Data access can be restricted by segmenting users according to predefined groups.
Help to develop and deliver better forecasting: Answer ‘what if’ questions with a click of a button. Forecasting and planning can be conducted by taking existing data sets, applying theoretical projections and estimations to that information, to model and predict future outcomes.