How business intelligence can create modern business apps

Business intelligence (BI) is a term that has been around for a few decades now, but the definition has continued to evolve over time. BI platforms allow companies to collect and analyze data in order to make better business decisions. In this article, we will explore how modern BI platforms are empowering businesses to create custom apps specific to their unique needs.
 

 

Creating custom apps on a BI platform

One of the benefits of using some BI platforms is that they allow companies to quickly create custom apps. In many cases, businesses can build an app in just a few hours by leveraging pre-built templates and connectors to various data sources. This flexibility is essential for businesses that need to quickly adapt to changing market conditions.

Additionally, BI platforms like Domo offer a wealth of features that allow businesses to customize their apps according to their specific needs. For example, business users can easily add or remove columns from their reports, filter data based on specific criteria, and create charts and graphs that help them understand complex datasets.

By leveraging a true BI platform, businesses can avoid the time and expense associated with custom software development. In most cases, custom software development can take months or even years, decreasing the value you receive from the app. Custom apps built on top of an existing BI platform are incredibly easy to get started and provide a favorable time to value when compared to a home-grown solution.
 

BI apps can help you gather data and insights about your customers

Apps built on a BI platform are excellent at gathering data and insights about your customers. BI tools are able to connect to pre-existing business systems and software, allowing you to leverage customer databases and insights that you have already collected.

Data exists in all aspects of your business. Making sure your employees have access to the right data can be incredibly challenging, especially if IT has to become involved. BI platforms help facilitate a quicker integration process through the creation of pre-built data connectors that can be stood up in a few minutes with the click of a button. Now, all the data you have on your customers can be combined into a single easy-to-use interface using a BI business app.
 

BI apps can help you build better customer relationships

Having access to the right data at the right time can drastically improve your relationships with your customers. Organizations and teams of all kinds — such as sales or customer support — can have access to real-time data about the customer they are currently interacting with.

Business apps help facilitate better customer interaction, whether that be through email, phone calls, or instant messaging. With so much work being done on computers, employees can leverage a BI platform to easily access different business apps that they use on a daily basis. No more fumbling between different systems, forgetting passwords, or apologizing to customers for not having the answer. BI apps will give your teams more power than ever before to ensure a positive customer experience.
 

BI apps allow you to leverage new technologies

BI apps can also leverage new technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve business processes. With companies generating more data than ever before, BI platforms help businesses put their data to work by transforming it, analyzing it, and displaying it to end-users through an app.

Even if you are a small business, you can still leverage these new technologies with pre-built tools that BI platforms already possess. Predictive analytics such as forecasting, sentiment analysis, and natural language processing can be possible for companies of all sizes — even if you don’t have a dedicated technical team.
 

BI apps can improve your decision-making process

Business apps can improve the daily decisions you make on behalf of the business by providing you with accurate and timely data. This data can then be used to generate unique insights that would not have been possible without a BI business app.

As companies adopt a BI tool and create business apps, they become more data-centric in their decision-making processes. Evaluating the business and executing changes no longer becomes a guessing game when you have a BI tool. As you identify what’s most important for your business, you can tailor your BI app to answer these specific questions.
 

BI apps can make your business processes more efficient

BI apps are the perfect tool to help streamline business processes because of their capabilities to automate and integrate systems. Traditional companies spend so many hours doing routine things such as data entry, ad-hoc analysis, editing Excel spreadsheets, and filling out reports. Business apps can streamline these outdated business processes through new technologies developed on the BI platform.

Business apps can also create a single source of truth that your employees can easily access. With so many hours in the workday, productivity is paramount to business success. With the help of a BI business app, you can ensure that your employees are spending their valuable time on tasks that produce the highest impact on the business.
 

BI apps can help you achieve better results in a shorter period of time

BI platforms also allow teams of all sizes and technical competencies to create custom business apps in a fraction of the time of traditional development. Because business apps leverage data that already exists within your business, development can be focused on more critical aspects of the app such as data analysis and UI/UX design for the end-user.

Using a BI platform, businesses can literally stand up fully functioning robust business apps in a matter of weeks. These apps can add tremendous value to the company as employees begin to use them and realize the power of leveraging the business app in their day-to-day activities.
 

 

How can I get started with BI and business apps?

When considering the investment in a BI platform to create custom business apps for your business, it’s first important to understand what your main goals are for the app. Business apps should have a specific purpose that can be tracked by measurable outcomes.

A great way to get started with BI is to interview different people within your company — such as managers, individual contributors, or key executives — to help identify the current pain points they are experiencing. BI app’s purpose is to make the life of the end-user that much easier.

Another best practice when integrating a BI platform into your business is to start with a pilot or test group. Your team can build a business app for their specific use case, and then have the pilot group test it throughout the development process. Using a method called user acceptance testing (UAT), the business app can be further refined and improved as business users go about testing it. You will be amazed to see how excited end-users will get when they see the power of a BI business app demonstrated to them first-hand.
 

Conclusion

Cloud-based BI platforms are revolutionizing the business intelligence landscape by giving businesses of all sizes the ability to create customized apps. By identifying the areas where your business could benefit from a BI app, you can empower your team with the data they need to make better decisions and drive growth.