Business intelligence has exploded in recent years thanks to the arrival of AI-powered, automated software tools. It’s estimated that 90% of Fortune 500 Companies are using it to gain an advantage over competitors and smaller companies are following suit.
In this article, we’ll examine the 8 major benefits of business intelligence. Maybe you’re yet to be convinced about its potential contribution to your business. Perhaps key decision-makers in your organisation need more evidence to be convinced about its value.
We’ve unpacked what it can potentially mean for your organisation, different departments and your team. The benefits listed below have been inspired by real-life examples from WatchMyCompetitor’s (WMC) clients across a wide range of industries.
Benefits of business intelligence from the perspective of WMC
1) Build a fuller, clearer picture of the market
In a competitive market, your competitors are actively seeking to steal market share and grow their business. Every action they undertake has the potential to impact your position in the market, sales and future success.
Likewise, if something happens to them such as an industry fine or PR blunder, it could create opportunities. If you’re not tracking the market, you could discover the news too late to protect your interests or make the most of a situation.
Business intelligence keeps your finger on the pulse of the industry you’re operating in. It’s important because it gives you a complete and up-to-date picture of what’s happening so that you’re in a better position to respond.
2) Become the authority on regulatory changes
If your industry is subject to regular regulatory change, waiting for official updates or commentary in trade publications may offer enough time to plan the appropriate response.
But using business intelligence can give you the insights to do more. For example, by monitoring the right sources for mentions of planned changes or discussions preceding them, you can start to build up a clearer understanding of how they’ll impact your industry.
That could give you the opportunity to create content around the topic and establish your organisation as a leading voice that others follow. As a result, you can build trust amongst customers, attract the right candidates and raise awareness for your brand.
3) Win the talent market
Are you operating in a small or competitive talent pool? If you’re missing out on great people and your competitors are leading the race to the best talent, it has the potential to impact your productivity and future prospects. It could also give them a sizable advantage in the market, meaning they get stronger while your organisation plateaus.
Monitoring your competitors can turn the tide. By tracking their approach to salaries, benefits, messaging, marketing channels and tactics, and other aspects of their proposition, you can begin to understand the reasons for their success and where you need to improve.
Not only that but you can spot potential areas of weakness that you can exploit to your advantage. The more informed you are, the more effective your own recruitment strategies will be.
4) Perfect your product roadmaps
Launching a new product or feature brings an element of risk. If it doesn’t go well, the financial impact can be devastating for an organisation not to mention the impact on the people involved. If your product is going head-to-head with other products or has the potential to disrupt the market, understanding the competitive landscape is incredibly valuable.
Business intelligence gives you the ability to track and understand rival product roadmaps. You can see when and how they launch their products and even when products are discontinued. You’ll gain insight into what’s working and what isn’t and where there are opportunities and threats. This level of business intelligence can inform your own product roadmaps so that you increase the potential for your launches and updates to be a success.
5) Minimise the impact of your competitors’ marketing activity
If a competitor changes its website, messaging, content or channel focus, or marketing tactics, it could improve their results and see them gain an advantage in the market. By tracking every change they make in real-time, you won’t be playing catch up trying to work out what they’ve done differently to grow market share.
You’ll have a clear picture of the approach they’ve taken and be able to analyse why it’s worked. You’ll be armed with the most up-to-date intelligence to adapt your strategies and improve your website so that you reduce the risks to your market position.
6) Respond faster to market threats and opportunities
Whether it’s the threat of a new entrant or product in the market or an opportunity created by a competitor facing financial struggles, the window of time for you to act in order to protect and grow your revenue is small. The longer you leave it, the greater the risk of them impacting your revenue or of another organisation seizing the opportunity first.
Because competitor activity is tracked in real-time and analysed by market experts, your business intelligence is ready for you to act upon immediately. You can move faster to minimise threats and capitalise on opportunities. Five-times faster, in fact.
7) Empower teams and individuals to get better results
Business intelligence isn’t only valuable to data and insight teams. It has the potential to benefit multiple departments, teams and individuals across your organisation. Whether it’s marketing, sales, product or even senior management, business intelligence can be used to help them make smarter strategic decisions to improve results.
A number of business intelligence tools offer the ability to set up alerts for specific types of insights and share them directly with relevant stakeholders, meaning they don’t need to access the dashboard directly. Some will integrate with the communication and data visualisation tools your organisation is already using to smooth the transition to becoming a data-driven company.
8) Increase the value of your department to the organisation
Every department needs to prove its worth to an organisation. The more valuable it is, the more budget and resource it can expect. That could present the opportunity to grow your team, invest in training and development, offer promotions and even improve your own career prospects.
By leading the project that brings valuable intelligence into the organisation, you can increase your department’s value. You can give teams and management a clearer understanding of the market they’re part of and the competitors they’re up against.
They’ll have data that helps them become better at their jobs and achieve better results. All of that will shine a favourable light on you and your team.
Enjoy the benefits of business intelligence with a industry leading platform
WMC tracks, captures and analyses the intelligence it gathers to provide insights that can be used to optimise your product, marketing and sales strategies as well as make smarter, better-informed decisions as a business. Get the benefits of real time business intelligence on one dashboard:
Filter out the noise and receive valuable data
Sifting through companies’ entire global digital footprint could result in outdated data or missed opportunities. WMC AI tech can filter out irrelevant data, and ensure each of your departments receives the latest relevant information.
Intelligence that gives users actionable insights
Different departments require different data to devise, analyse and evaluate their strategies. WMC’s business analysts can provide your departments with concise and actionable intelligence to stay ahead.
Automated tracking and analyst insights
Avoid the slow and labour intensive data tracking methods. WMC automates the process and utilises both AI and BI analyst expertise to collate the data you need
