Business Intelligence Tool: Analysis, Evaluation, and Comparison

This report provides an in-depth analysis of business intelligence (BI) tools, examining their characteristics within the business environment. It explores key features such as self-service reporting, fast implementation, in-memory analysis, report scheduling, advanced security, mobile access, data warehousing, and data visualization. The report highlights the advantages of BI tools, including their ability to create competitive opportunities, improve communication, and facilitate data-driven decision-making. Furthermore, it addresses current issues associated with BI tools, such as the complexity of handling them and the need for skilled personnel. The report underscores the importance of BI tools in enhancing business outcomes and offers insights into the evaluation and comparison of commercially available BI solutions.

RUNNING HEAD: Business intelligence 1 | P a g e
Name of the student
Topic- Business intelligence
University Name-

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Abstract
BI technologies provide all the historical current and the future predictive views of the
business operations. The business intelligence is used for handling the structured and sometimes
the unstructured data to help identify, develop and create the new strategies for the business
opportunities. The main outcome of this report is that by using the BI tool, data warehouse
transforms the ease with which users can use their investment in business intelligence and greatly
enhances the power and performance. There are several BI tools which will not only assist the
organization to increase the overall outcomes of the business but also establish automation in the
business process. However, this report has suggested one BI tool which could be adopted by
organization to increase the efficiency of the business. This business intelligence tool will be
used for handling the structured and unstructured data to help identify, develop and create the
new strategies for the business opportunities.
Key words
BI= Business Intelligence tool
Data computation- Cyber system
Data storage- Place to keep the data
Anti-virus software- software to keep the data safe

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Table of Contents
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................2
Key words....................................................................................................................................................2
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Characteristics of the business intelligence tool in the business environment.............................................4
Characteristics of the business environment have the huge advantage in the expertise...........................8
Evaluate and compare two or more commercially available Business Intelligence tools.........................9
Comparison of the identified tools.............................................................................................................11
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................12
References.................................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
With the increasing ramified economic changes and complex business structure, business
intelligence has gained momentum throughout the time.
Business intelligence consists of strategies and technologies that are used by the
enterprise in the business for the data analysis of business information. The aim is to provide the
business with the easy interpretation of the big data. Identifying the new opportunities and
implementing the effective strategy based on the function of the business can provide the
business with the competitive market advantage and long-term strategies (Boselli, et al. 2017).
Characteristics of the business intelligence tool in the business environment
The some of the characteristics of the business intelligence that are common in today‘s world:
(A) Self – Service reporting: There is the common nature of the business means that only the selected
employees within the organization have the technical expertise to build and maintain the reports.
This can slow down the business reporting process.
Self – service reporting should be one of the key business intelligence features that user should
look for when evaluating reporting solutions. A self- service solution allows the user to generate
their powerful reports, without the requirement of the technical skills.
(B) Fast implementation: The major issues with business intelligence are complex, time-consuming
implementation process. Sometimes the figures show that these companies could end up 100% to
300% of the original software cost which slows down the company process (Broda, Oracle
International Corp, 2015).
One of the most important business intelligence features is fast implementation process. A
term of the expert is appointed at every stage of the business throughout the implementation
process. The term is of skill person are appointed so that there is no delay in the working and
work can be done on time.
(C) In- memory analysis: In- memory analysis is one of the business features in the business
intelligence in the term of functioning that is powerful yet easy to be used by the business. In –

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memory analysis allows the business users to analyze the data themselves with no special skills
and having to depend on the IT specialists.
The users can ask and answer the questions that are put on them. They can also quickly
compare the performance over time, customers sectors that deal with the customers and the
geographies.
Users should not worry about the complex queries damaging the performance of the
company- Analysis happening in- memory is away from the production system.
(D) Report scheduling: The ability to create the stunning and incredible report is important but
building the report is only the half work that is been done what users actually do with these
report is equally important (Caseiro, & Coelho, 2018).
There is no use of creating these reports if these reports are not used in the way they are
to be used by the people and do not reach the people who can truly benefit from these reports.For
this reason, reporting scheduling is one of the features of the business intelligence that we can
expect business intelligence and the reporting solution.
The schedule can help to arrange the email reports to individuals and groups in and out
of your organization (Turban, Sharda & Delen, 2011).
(E) Advanced security: The topic about which we can talk with no doubt that is advance security in
the business system and especially when it comes to cloud BI solutions. So we can understand
that security is one of the business intelligence features, it is very important that user only see
that information that they need to see nothing else. In this way, users share information with the
employees, managers and the suppliers so we use the encryption code that is information will be
reached to the user in the form of code and this code is converted in words so that information is
only understood by the person who needs to understand is that no one else cannot so it is one of
the best ways of security, and now the days it is mostly done by all the company so that they can
save their data from reaching in the worry hands (Gaardboe, SVARRE and Kanstrup, 2015).
(F) Mobile access: In today s’ work environment Mobile is no longer counted as the luxury product
but one of the important features of the business intelligence.
With the busy ongoing life of the people, it is crucial that they can easily access management
information wherever they are with the help of their mobiles and tablets, this has led to a huge
surge in the demand for the mobile BI capabilities- till 2013 the growing tools has raise from

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42% and this features is expected to rise in the coming years and it will continue to become one
of the important features of the business intelligence features in the today’s market world.
(G) Data warehouse: It is totally possible to have the successful business intelligence solution
without having the data warehouse. But having this, will only benefit user and will supercharge
their business BI strategy, and making it one of the important features of the business
intelligence (Hair et al..2015).
Data warehouse transforms the ease with which users can use their investment in business
intelligence and greatly enhances the power and performance.
(H) Data visualization: Data visualization has been a major component in the overall effort to make
business intelligence more mainstream and widely accessible. It has become one of the business
intelligence features in the recent years.
In the advanced stage of the business, it has become important that information should
be communicated across different levels of the business. The data visualization can allow the
user to present the large volume of the data in a much more simplified and user-friendly manner.
(I) Office integration: One of the most important features of the business intelligence in the business
organization is the office integration is the ability to integrate with the Microsoft office, micro
excel, and the Microsoft word plugin , allowing users to:
 Building the table in seconds for the accurate up to date data of the warehouse data.
 Drill down the exact as the user would have done in the ms excels.
 Access the spreadsheet so that the data can be refreshes automatically from the BI.
There are several advantages of the business intelligence that can create competitive
opportunities for enterprise (Ivan, 2014).
The business intelligence produces the company with lots of benefits it can eliminate lots of
the guesswork within the organisation and help to increase the communication and coordinate
the activities in the organisation, and help the companies to reposed immediately to the financial
conditions, customers performance one of the most important topic, and the supply chain
operations the BI is used for improving the performance of the organization at the wide level.
Information that is collected is treated as the second most important resources so that the
company can take the effective decisions on the accurate time will take the consumer satisfaction
in mind (Laudon, and Laudon, 2015).

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As the time is going the business have changed the lot the way of dealing with the customers
have reverse completely how it is possible to reach users’s customer anywhere, everywhere, and
anytime. But for doing that there should be a lot of coordination between the people so the
features of the business intelligence play a key role in the life of the business.
As we have seen in the companies that the work is transferred to the different stages but the
business intelligence changed it now the people are self-responsible for their work they have to
provide self-service the work is only given to the person who specializes in their work. The work
is done in the best way possible (Lei, Yifei and Yi, 2015).
As the business environment is growing so fast that the work should be done as fast as
possible there should be fast implementation so all the things in the organization the customer's
problem should be handled immediately and the solution should be provided to them in such a
way that the customers are satisfied. The strategy should also be implemented at the right time so
that the resources are not wasted, and we can get the expected result that we are expecting while
making the strategy. And for the fast implementation of the work the skilled person should only
be appointed at the correct place, so we can see that fast implementation is one of the advantages
of the business intelligence in the today's market world (Pichler, 2015).
The business is expanding with the great speed and there are so many documents and files that
are prepared so it is very important that there should be report scheduling in the organization.
Work that is done should be available at the correct time we the user need it, if this is not the
case then there is no use for the work to be done and all the work that is done will be wasted, so
when the report scheduling is done the files are arranged in the prepare format and is available at
the time when the user needs them.
The security plays the key role in the business organisation as the data that is there in the
company cannot be made available to all the people in the organisation only a few people can
only be known about it so it is very important to have security and for that security there are lots
of measures that are taken by the security department of the organization (Popovič, et al. 2014).

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Characteristics of the business environment have the huge advantage in the expertise.
After analyzing all the details of the BI tools and its impact on the business organizing, it could
be seen that the characteristics of the business environment have the huge advantage in the
expertise (Chen, et al. (2012).
Current issues with BI tools
With the expansion of the business, each and every business needs to adopt business intelligence
tool in their value chain activities to increase the overall outcomes of the organization. There are
several current issues with the business intelligence tools which have been faced by the
organization.
The complication to handle the business intelligence tool- It is analyzed that use of business
intelligence tools and its uses in the processing system increases the complexity of the business.
Only a few of the people know the process to handle the business intelligence tool in the
organization which resulted in the increased cost of the process and less implication of the
adopted business decisions.
Reporting analyzing across multiple systems- Top management faces issues related to
reporting analyzing across multiple systems in the process organization. Most companies collect
data with the help of new business tools process system. The problem is related to data which
often spread across a verity of the different system and software's which becomes complex to
manage the data in an efficient manner (Power, Sharda & Burstein, 2015).
Unlocking data buried in the system- It is the biggest issues which resist organization to make
the effective business decision on the basis of the imperative decision. It is analyzed that even if
the user knows where the data is but it does not necessarily mean whether it would be accessible
to the user or not. These issues increase the complexity to read the data for the efficient decision
making in the organization.
Uploading and pulling data from the server- After analyzing all the details, it is inferred that
organizations are facing issues related to uploading and pulling data from the server. It becomes
complex when an untrained person does it in the absence of the trained employees. It requires
proper training and development program to upload the pulling data from the server.
The increased cost of production for business at the initial level- The business intelligence
tools requires the hiring of experts employees who are efficient in handling the upgraded BI
tools. In addition to this, adapt to the advanced technologies, the organization needs to arrange

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proper training and development program for employees which will increase the overall
outcomes of the business. Therefore, it could be inferred that at the initial level, the company
faces the high amount of cost for installing new BI tool in business which may impact the cost of
production of business (Prabhu, et al. 2017).
BI-centric collaboration- It may be hard for the organization to cope with the advanced
features of BI which may affect the organizational culture. The company needs to arrange proper
department to evaluate whether the BI implemented has centric collaboration in the business
process. Therefore, it could be inferred that company needs to set up BI based organization
culture to promote the innovative business process (Anandarajan, et al. (2012).
After analyzing all the issues and challenges of the BI in business, it could be inferred
that BI should be adopted in the organization after following proper analytical program and
training program. It will not only assist the organization to increase the overall outcomes of the
business but also establish automation in the business process. This could be understood with the
clear example that Cosmos café in New Zealand adopted BI system in an organization which set
automation in its business process and establish online business chain for its clients. However,
due to the non-efficient employees and less effective training program, it failed to manage the BI
system in business and mismanaged its business process system. The success of the BI adoption
is highly based on the employees training program and efficient business functioning (Puklavec,
Oliveira and Popovič, 2017).
Evaluate and compare two or more commercially available Business Intelligence tools
According to the list of the best BI tools, there are several BI tools which could be used by the
organization to manage its complex business structure and complex issues program in the value
chain activities of the organization (Qureshi, Khan and Saif, 2017).
Sisense
It is one of the leading BI tools in market which has a high capacity to collect the required data
and manage it for the future business decision. Users could easily use Sisense BI system tool to
keep the data safe and secure on clouds. It could be accessed by only authorized users to pull the

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query from the system. It contains all the basic feature of the BI tools and assists management to
bifurcate the collected data in determined approach (Sanyal, et al. 2018).
icCube
It is accompanied by the BI tool software application which assists management to make use of
all the online application in its value chain activities. It establishes nexus with its on-the-fly-
authentication and authorization on all the combine and connected data in the designed system.

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Domo
Domo’s business optimization software BI tool brings together all the people, data, and insight
business users to identify the details about what is happening in the particular process of
organization. It also assists in the management of the confidential information of the business to
make effective business decisions (Sauter, 2014).
IBM Cognos Intelligence
This IBM Cognos intelligence BI tool assist organization set multiple uses of the excessive
reliance program for the better handling of the process issues. The new IBM Cognos Intelligence
is installed in the business process of the organization so that communication and process
functions could work through the set one dashboard mechanism (Grigori, et al 2014).
Comparison of the identified tools
After analyzing the benefit of the different BI tools, it is inferred that IBM Cognos
Intelligence BI tool is the best BI tool for the organization with the complex structure, it assists
in setting effective communication program and internal control system. The Domo BI tool is
also the good tool but due to its high complexity and training program, it is not viable for the
success of the organization. icCube BI tool is also having the security complexity which may
result in business destruction by the ill-intentioned person in case if proper safety measures are
not taken into consideration. On the other hand, Sisense may increase the overall effectiveness of
the work (Sayedi, Ghafari, and Hojati, 2017). These different tools given have their own intents
and suitability of these BI tools could be measured on the basis of nature of business, complexity
and value chain activities. However, IBM Cognos Intelligence BI tool will be more useful as
standard business BI tool which would assist organization to increase their overall return of
busienss. Therefore, in the end, it could be inferred that IBM Cognos Intelligence BI tool is the
most effective tool for the efficient business functioning of the organization. Nonetheless, proper
training program would be required to set up this upgraded business channel.

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Conclusion
After analyzing all the details of the BI tools it could be inferred that BI technologies
provide all the historical current and the future predictive views of the business operations. The
business intelligence is used for handling the structured and unstructured data to help identify,
develop and create the new strategies for the business opportunities. These various BI tools assist
in handling the complex work in an efficient manner. However, Cognos BI tool is the most
effective tool for the business organization to add up new advanced technical features in the
value chain activities of the organization. Now, in the end, it could be inferred that if business
organization want to install new BI tool in its business then it first needs to focus on the safety
and security measures by installing anti-virus software's to keep the data secure from the ill-
intentioned users.

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