What Is Business Intelligence and Why Does It Matter?

Business intelligence (BI) involves collecting, analysing, and interpreting data to gain insights and make informed decisions within an organisation. The booming data analytics industry has led to the development of advanced BI tools, enabling businesses to gather and interpret data in innovative ways. Trends such as adaptive artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics assist companies in decision-making and risk management.

The global market for business data and analytics should reach approximately $665 billion by 2033 [1]. BI encompasses the software and components needed to interact with business data effectively. Discover business intelligence, its benefits, and how to implement these tools in your workplace.

What is business intelligence?

Business intelligence is the set of tools and systems used to collect and analyse business data to gain insights that allow businesses to make informed decisions. Business intelligence tools give customers insights into how a company performs now and in the past. By using business intelligence and analytic tools, you can help companies predict what can happen in the future. 

Examples of business intelligence tools

Business intelligence is a category of resources a business can implement to collect data rather than referring to a specific tool. For example, a point-of-sale system may collect receipt data at checkout, and website analytics programs capture website traffic and use patterns. An inventory system similarly tracks the items you have on hand so you see at a glance what you may need to reorder. 

All of these tools are examples of business intelligence. Business intelligence tools conduct data mining, perform text and predictive analytics, and provide users with dashboards and tools to interact with and sort the data.

Case study: Sainsbury's data-driven transformation

To understand how companies use business intelligence tools to drive innovative decisions, consider how Sainsbury’s responded when faced with challenges in the modern retail marketplace. Sainsbury’s implemented a unified data and analytics (D&A) strategy, leveraging business intelligence tools to create a scalable and governed data model. The new system provided best-in-class analytics experiences to colleagues across the business.

The unified D&A strategy led to significant improvements. Employees across the company now use various custom analytics applications for everyday decision-making, driving improvements in sales, waste reduction, and inventory management. Using business intelligence tools, Sainsbury’s identified trends and leveraged this intelligence to drive decision-making, ensuring their market position remained strong. This case illustrates how companies are using business intelligence to innovate and maintain a competitive edge in today’s market.

Benefits and advantages of business intelligence

Business intelligence is like a guiding light, helping you understand what’s happening with your company and customers. Consider how the following critical benefits of business intelligence can help you:

• Track performance over time and in real-time: Business intelligence gives you the foundation to make decisions based on facts and current trends in your company. 

• Set benchmarks for performance evaluation: Business intelligence provides metrics to track success and measure performance in various objectives. 

• Identify customer preferences and behaviour: Business intelligence tools allow you to observe how customers interact with your brand and products, allowing you to react quickly to trends and marketing messages. 

• Improve supply chain efficiency: Business intelligence gives you more accurate information to communicate with suppliers and distributors to keep supply chains running smoothly. 

• Faster, more accurate decision-making: Using trusted business intelligence tools, your company can make wiser decisions with less risk because you lower the number of unknown variables.

• Increased profitability: Taken as a whole, these benefits of business intelligence help companies improve their performance. 

How to embrace business intelligence in your workplace 

Implementing business intelligence effectively can transform your organisation's decision-making process. Follow these steps to ensure you maximise the benefits of BI tools in your workplace: 

• Choose the right business intelligence tools: Understand your company’s goals and objectives, identify key stakeholders, and consider business strategy when selecting the best BI tools for your needs. 

• Assemble a BI team: Identify who will be responsible for business intelligence. Make sure to include representation from all key stakeholders, including the departments that business intelligence affects directly. 

• Embrace trends: Many industries increasingly engage in a data-driven culture, with emerging technologies and integrations happening quickly. Business intelligence tools allow greater flexibility in responding to emerging trends and managing risk. 

• Make business intelligence part of company culture: Engage all stakeholders in business intelligence, including training employees on how to use it and why it’s important for company objectives. 

Business intelligence jobs

As you grow familiar with business intelligence and how to use it in the workplace, you choose to pursue a career in business analytics. The business intelligence market in the United Kingdom should climb to a 9.2 per cent CAGR through 2029, which means you should notice an uptick in jobs for business intelligence professionals over the next few years [2]. Consider the following roles:

Business intelligence analyst

Average annual salary: £39,455 [3]

The primary role in business intelligence is that of a business intelligence analyst. As a business intelligence analyst, your job would be to help companies implement business intelligence tools to collect and understand data. You would then use the data results to advise decision-makers on how to improve or expand the company. This position requires critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and knowledge of how business intelligence systems work. 

Hear what it's like to be a business intelligence analyst from Sally at Google:

What that means is, I work with data to help improve the hiring experience at Google.

Manager of business intelligence

Average annual salary: £61,771 [4]

As a business intelligence manager, you would be responsible for a team of analysts collecting and interpreting data. You would help determine which tools and resources your team would use and communicate the findings of your data with senior executives or other decision-makers. In some companies, you may report to a senior business intelligence manager. 

Business intelligence engineer

Average annual salary: £56,867 [5]

A business intelligence engineer, or BI engineer, manages the processes and systems in a company relating to data collection and analysis. In this role, you may train other teams on effectively using BI tools.

Getting started with Coursera

Business intelligence (BI) involves collecting, analysing, and interpreting data to gain insights and make informed decisions within an organisation. Advanced BI tools, such as adaptive artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics, assist companies in decision-making and risk management.

Get career-ready for a role in business intelligence with the Google Business Intelligence Professional Certificate on Coursera. Design data visualisations, practise data modelling, and create effective dashboards as you learn from industry experts at your own pace.