There are many tools and skills to learn and perfect in the world of today, which is changing quickly. Business knowledge and intelligence are two of the most crucial business talents in today data-driven and digital era.
Business acumen is now seen as a crucial organisational competency. Business intelligence may help organisations stay ahead of the competition by raising brand recognition, employee engagement, and profitability.
Additionally, firms are five times more likely to make quicker and more informed decisions when using BI analytics. In this situation, developing one’s business intelligence abilities is essential. The best BI tools for 2023 are listed in this post. Although there are many BI tools available now, I’ve produced a list of the top 10 expected to be most widely used in 2023.
1. Google Data Studio
A no-cost web-based product, Google Data Studio was introduced in 2016. However, Google’s most persuasive selling argument might be its simple, user-friendly design for business intelligence.
Pros: With Google data, including that from Google Analytics, Search Console, and YouTube analytics, this application operates superbly. A Google Sheet allows you to obtain any data.
Cons: It is cumbersome to have many pre-built connectors that can be utilised to retrieve data from different sources. It’s difficult to work with different data kinds.
It has a considerable edge over other analytics suites since Data Studio provides a large variety of analysis and visualisation tools. Complete web-basedness of Data Studio may be a drawback. If you’re prepared to share, it’s easy. However, you won’t be able to export to PDF or any other popular file types. It is also restricted to deliver reports manually.
What sells Google Data Studio?
- Data Studio includes a plethora of third-party connectors that enable you to connect to and pull data from sites like Amazon Seller, Stripe, and Facebook Ads.
- Google Data Studio is available for free.
- Filtering and analytics in real time
- Simple sharing and collaboration
2. IBM Congo’s Analytics
Congas Analytics is a cloud-based analytics and BI platform that is IBM’s most significant business intelligence package.
Congas Analytics can ingest data from various sources to produce interactive dashboards, visualisations, and reports. Small and large businesses, as well as organisations of different sizes and from other industries, are all users.
According to IBM, Cognos Analytics is a decision-making tool with AI integration. This platform includes a special feature where you may browse charts and get notifications at the same time. Additionally, you will get immediate updates.
What sells Cognos Analytics?
- Simple team collaboration via email, web, and Slack
- Data storytelling in a variety of formats
- You have the option of installing and accessing the cloud or on-premise.
- Dashboards and reports on shares delivered via email, website, or Slack
- To combine and evaluate related sources, machine learning is used.
- AI recommendations are used to create interactive dashboards, visualizations, and reports.
3. Looker
Prior to learning that Looker was a BI tool, I was unaware of its existence. I only learned of its existence after applying for three full-time Data Analyst roles at Disney, Warner Media, and a local startup. Looker had to be on my list of BI tools I needed to know when I initially took a look at it.
Business intelligence software called Looker is browser-based. It may be modified and is simple to use. Furthermore, interactive visualisations can be made using graphs and charts. Many parallels exist between Tableau and Looker.
The dashboard building drag-and-drop functionality of Looker is its strongest feature. It would be quite advantageous for nontechnical users. Any device can be used to access visualisations and reports. For users to work together, they can also be exported from the Looker dashboard.
What sells Looker?
- Connects to a SQL database owned by the user or another data warehouse.
- It provides a proprietary Look ML syntax for optimizing query results.
- On all devices, real-time visualizations are available.
- Dashboards can be created using drag-and-drop functionality.
- Web and mobile device accessibility
- Installations on-premises or in the Looker cloud
- Allows you to export visualizations to share with others.
4. Microsoft Power BI
Power BI, Microsoft’s most popular offering in business intelligence tools, is designed for use by business analysts and data scientists.
I discovered Power BI while interning at Larsen & Toubro in 2017. Power BI is used to analyze revenue expenses across departments as well as employee efficiency and real-time data processing for welding and arching shifts.
Power BI is simple to use, with a drag-and-drop interface. This gives MS Excel users a sense of familiarity or resemblance. Power BI is a platform that does not necessitate any coding. This is most likely why it has become so popular. Power BI provides a variety of connectors for connecting to Azure.
The Microsoft blog Why Power BI explains and justifies why Power BI is a must-have for Data Scientists. Power BI easily connects, models, and visualizes data. It generates memorable reports that are personalized with brand KPIs.
My personal experience with Power BI has shown that it slows down when dealing with large data sets. If your data is very large, you should think about other options.
What sells PowerBI?
- Utilize on-premise, cloud, mobile, and website services.
- It offers a single interface for gathering and manipulating data.
- AI-powered suggestions for creating analytics are provided to users.
- Click-and-go generated interactive reports and visualizations
- Apps and analytics are centralized to improve collaboration.
- R and Python can perform advanced analytics calculations.
6. SAP HANA
Relational database management system (RDBMS) developed by SAP is called SAP HANA (High-Performance Analytic Appliance). Its main job is to perform the duties of a database server, storing and retrieving data for applications that need it.
Using SAP Data Services, SAP HANA is an ETL-based replication that moves data from non-SAP sources to SAP in order to target the HANA database. Companies built on SAP employ SAP HANA to quickly process massive volumes of real-time data.
Data scientists may not be able to use HANA because SAP is a closed-source environment, but enterprises and SAP professions may find it valuable.
What sells SAP HANA?
- Real-time updates on business intelligence trends
- A memory-based high-speed database that enables rapid transactional and analytical processing.
- SAP Business Objects BI Solutions are linked for insights and analysis.
- SQL and SAP ERP interfaces provide access to third-party applications.
- Self-Service Analytics in BI
7. SAS
Similar to R, SAS is a tool for performing sophisticated statistical operations and data analysis. SAS is a closed-source, commercial software programme that supports intricate modelling. Professionals and major organisations use SAS because it is a very dependable technology.
Although SAS is not the ideal tool for beginning data scientists, it can aid in your beginnings.
Without a doubt, SAS is the industry leader in business analytics. However, R or Python may have more remarkable features than SAS does. The modelling and visualisation of SAS data can be difficult. The learning curve can be challenging and occasionally frustrating for large organisations with large budgets.
What sells SAS?
- With a single SAS Business Analytics license, you can access data from over 60 data sources, including RDBMS files, PC files, Hadoop, and Amazon Redshift.
- An interactive self-service interface for profiling, cleaning, and blending data.
- This enables complete integration with the analytics pipeline.
- In one location, self-service data discovery, reporting, and world-class analytics are combined.
- Access to advanced analytics capabilities without the need for coding, including correlation, forecasting, and decision trees, as well as text analytics and many other applications.
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- Insights and analytics require strong data analysis skills.
8. Tableau
Tableau is a popular tool for business intelligence data visualisation. Data analytics are reliable and effective thanks to Tableau. Cleaning and simplification of raw data is made simple by Tableau’s visualisation dashboards and workbooks.
Large businesses like Verizon, Charles Schwab, and Coca-Cola have long utilised Tableau to help them make educated decisions. A Tableau tool should be available to anyone with an interest in a career in data science or analytics.
What sells Tableau?
- A diverse set of features and clients
- Offers business intelligence solutions that can be used on-premise, publicly, or fully hosted
- Installs on-premises, in the public cloud, and in the Tableau cloud.
- Web and mobile access
- Users can use self-service, intuitive analytics without any technical knowledge.
- Data is integrated from multiple sources, both on-premise and cloud-based.
- Real-time visualizations can be created with a few mouse clicks.
9. TIBCO Spotfire
Spotfire, a Massachusetts-based business intelligence firm, was acquired by TIBCO (Wikipedia) in 2007. Spotfire’s general visualisation capabilities are similar to those of Tableau and QlikView.
Both Tableau Public and Power BI Desktop are available for free. TIBCO Spotfire, on the other hand, costs $650.00 per user per year. Independent Data Scientists may be dissatisfied with the lack of a free version. This case study explains how Accor Hotels used TIBCO Spitfire to improve customer experience and integrate more quickly, easily, and simply.
TIBCO was the pioneer in analytics and integration. Spotfire was also present. You can find a list of TIBCO customers here.
What sells TIBCO Spotfire?
- A wide range of visualizations are available (around 16 options)
- Analytics apps can be built, deployed, and shared using a mobile browser.
- The Recommendations Wizard generates visualizations on its own.
- Using statistical/regression models, you can gain predictive insights.
- Spotfire Cloud provides centralized storage of up to 250GB.
10. Zoho Analytics
A self-service platform for business intelligence, Zoho Analytics, is offered by Zoho, a web-based online workplace. It’s a platform that runs on the cloud but can also be set up locally. To gather data, Zoho can connect to a variety of sources. Through its self-service features and popular business software, Zoho can automatically combine data. The US data centre is where the data is stored.
There are 500 000 enterprises, about 2 million users, and 50 million reports on Zoho Analytics. According to my study, Zoho Analytics offers the largest network of third-party connections, with more than 500 business app integrations. Consider looking at this tool.
What sells Zoho Analytics?
- Mobile, on-premise, and cloud services are all available.
- A minimum level of expertise is required.
- Data from multiple sources are automatically synchronized.
- Dashboards, visualizations, and reports can be created using a drag-and-drop tool.
- Dashboards and share reports are available via the website or app.
- Promotes collaboration
