The world today is becoming more and more data-driven. As companies look to stay competitive, they are continually on the lookout for tools and software that will help give them insights to improve daily tasks and the overall scope of their operations. This is where business intelligence (BI) software comes into play.

What is Business Intelligence?

According to Mary K. Pratt of CIO, “Business intelligence (BI) leverages software and services to transform data into actionable intelligence that informs an organization’s strategic and tactical business decisions. BI tools access and analyze data sets and present analytical findings in reports, summaries, dashboards, graphs, charts, and maps to provide users with detailed intelligence about the state of the business.”

Business intelligence tools don’t tell you what to do or what will happen based off the drummed-up statistics you inquired about—however, it offers a way for the user to examine data to understand any trends or insights that can lead them to make smarter business decisions.

For example, a company might utilize business intelligence to examine their supply chain operations. The admin of the BI tool could examine where delays are happening in their shipping processes, what time of the day they are experiencing these delays, which products are most involved in these delays, etc.

How can Human Resources Apply Business Intelligence Tools?

As an HR representative, admin or manager—you’re probably wondering how you or your department could apply such software to better improve your own operations? You may be looking for ways to guide employment education and progress, enhance wages, manage recruitment, obtain employee demographics, etc.

As all BI tools have their subtle differences, the core functions of the available software should be mostly similar. Having access to a BI tool will offer these benefits to any HR automation tools to any HR department:

  • A self-service business intelligence tool

− Using a Q&A function, you’ll have the ability to ask the software a question using natural language to help pull the vital information you need quicker

  • Dashboards, reports, and datasets

− You have the power to create personalized dashboards, combining data sources to help you monitor your most important data

  • The ability to connect to nearly any application or data source

− It won’t matter if the resources live in the cloud or on-premise. Some examples include Excel Spreadsheets, SharePoint and Google Analytics to name a few

  • Make fast business decisions

− Since the tool is internal, you won’t have to hire 3rd parties to do the analysis for you. Also by analyzing the most recent data, you will be able to make informed decisions in quicker durations

  • Constant Innovation

− BI tools are updated nearly every month with new features and function

For a sample of how you might use a BI tool, click here

With the power of this data in your hands, you will be able to leverage the information in front of you to make better business decisions not just for your department, but for the whole company. When it comes down to it, the most important asset a company has is the very people they employ. Discovering where you can better improve the lives of your employees, the better your company will operate.

We are excited to share that all Arcoro clients will soon have access to a new and powerful BI tool in March 2018. Gaining the insight required for making data-driven choices is necessary for making better business decisions.

Utilizing our connectivity with one of the most powerful business analytics service providers, users can enjoy interactive visualizations. By using the self-service business intelligence capabilities, end users can create reports and dashboards with data retrieved directly from our
HCM solution