Best Practices for Creating Business Intelligence Reports

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Business intelligence (BI) is a major feature of any company’s decision making processes, or at least it should be. Whether you’re a vendor providing a service, a physical product, or a combination of the two, business intelligence will help you make better decisions and use the data you amass for a particular purpose, in a focused way.

One way in which vendors and technology users can use business intelligence is by utilizing the Gartner Magic Quadrant Analytics and Business Intelligence report. Researchers such as Kurt Schlegel and Austin Kronz, who focus on business intelligence and analytics for Gartner, have reported on the innovation of the Magic Quadrant as a way to understand the movement in various industries. Business users and technology users can read the Gartner research publications to understand more about the Magic Quadrant theory of analysis, and the insights available in order to become a market leader with the highest ratings available.

Business Intelligence as a Way of Doing Business

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When a market leader is trying to understand the ins and outs of all the various and sundry details that go into their industry, it can be difficult to visualize all the data in a useful way. Business intelligence platforms help leaders do just that. These analytics platforms translate raw data into easily digestible statements of fact so that business users can make better decisions and move in the direction they wish to be headed. Analytics are key for any well-rounded business decision, and business intelligence platforms are indispensable when it comes to actionable analytics.

Magic Quadrants and the Opinions of Gartner

Researchers for Gartner, such as James Richardson, Rita Sallam, and Julian Sun, have developed an analytics schema that places businesses in various quadrants according to a number of predesignated criteria. By using modern analytics, businesses can see whether they are a challenger, a leader, a visionary, or a niche player. Once these business users know which quadrant they’re currently situated in, they can use the analytics inherent in the Magic Quadrant of the Gartner document, to better aim themselves within their industry. In this way, they both know where they were last year; and can make clear, actionable decisions in order to get where they want to be next year.

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Data culture plays a major role in utilizing the opinions of Gartner in order to develop your company’s completeness of vision. Whether you’re a niche player or a visionary, you need to think carefully about how to incorporate data analytics into your everyday business practice. It’s not enough for business users to use their own experiences in order to make decisions‚Äìby using both their own experiences and the wisdom garnered by applying artificial intelligence, businesses and their affiliates can revolutionize their work in a real way.

Bear in mind that not all analytics vendors provide the same services. In order to truly put together business intelligence reports in a way that creates long-lasting change to the data culture within your organization, choose an analytical tool that can provide both data preparation and data visualization. While the subjective opinions of individual end-users will be the deciding factor in any actual business decision, having an analytical tool like Salesforce on hand can help translate raw data into meaningful insights. In fact, data visualization is a key component of business intelligence reports; seeing as through the practice of data visualization, product managers can make their team members understand the real-life applications of the data. By making data more easily understandable, the data preparation is all worthwhile and the views of Gartner can more easily guide your team to use BI solutions in their decision-making process.