ACC202 Excel Assignment: Exploring Business Intelligence Tools

This assignment provides a comprehensive overview of Business Intelligence (BI) tools. It begins with an introduction to BI tools, defining their role in data-driven decision support systems and executive information systems. The assignment then explores various BI tools available in the market, such as Sisense, Yellowfin BI, and others. It delves into how companies across different industries, including oil, retail, and apparel, utilize BI tools for informed decision-making. The core features of BI tools are examined, with a focus on open integration and pivot tables, highlighting their advantages like better decision-making, time-saving, cost-saving, and user-friendly data presentation. The document concludes with a list of references to support the information provided. This assignment provides valuable insights into the world of BI tools and their significance in today's business landscape.

Business Intelligence tools
Introduction
Business Intelligence tools are softwares which provide data driven decision support system to the
user. It is also used for denoting executive information Queries, report, systems and for books
briefing. These tools are user friendly and can directly use by the user without much support. These
tools provide insights to the manager on the basis of data processing which can be used by the
manager to take quick and correct decision. (Mopinion , 2018) There are many Business Intelligence
Tools available in the market that ease business decision making encompassing the following:
(a) Sisense:
(b) Yellowfin BI;
(c) Clear Analytics;
(d) SAP Business Intelligence;
(e) Oracle Hyperion System;
(f) Micro Strategy;
(g) Jaspersoft etc
Companies using Business Intelligence Tools
Companies around the globe for the purpose of easing the decision making and using complex data to
assist in problem solving rely on Business Intelligence tools. Some of the major giants relying on this
software has been detailed here-in-below:
(a) Oil Industries Companies like BHP Billion uses the technology for the purpose of controlling
the price paid for distribution, marketing and refining of oil; (CHRISTIANSTEVEN
SOFTWARE, 2018)
(b) Retail Industries like Walmart used this technology to reduce theft at outlets;
(CHRISTIANSTEVEN SOFTWARE, 2018)
(c) Apparel Industries like Nike, Zara use this technology to track the latest trends.
Chief features of the Business Tool
The chief features of the Business Intelligence Tool has been detailed here-in-below:
(a) Open Integration: This is one of the most important feature of business analysis tool. Under
this feature, the smart BI tools shall be able to access not only the data of the organisation for
processing but also the mail, social media and website for providing relevant information to
the end user. For Instance, BI tools instead of providing internal sales data also provides
comments of sales and reviews of the products which have been made during the concerned
period. The BI tools processes a bunch of report to generate actionable report both from
company domain and external public domain and this smart feature enables quick decision
making for the company.
Advantages
(a) Better decision making on the basis of information;
(b) Time saving;
(c) Cost saving;
(d) User friendly presentation of data.

(b) Pivot Tables: The second most important feature that attracts the business world towards
Business Intelligence tools is the use of Pivot Tables. These feature enable extraction of
useful information for the company from the large set of complex messy data. In addition to
extraction of meaningful data from the pile, some additional features like sorting, addition,
count, filter etc can be used to generate the desired result. This helps in analysing information
and discovering hidden business trends. Also, the tool presents the data in a separate tab in the
form of a report which is user friendly. (Conrad, 2018)
Advantages
(a) Better decision making on the basis of information;
(b) Time saving;
(c) Cost saving;
(d) User friendly presentation of data.
(c) Other features encompass ranking reports, what-if analysis, executive dashboard, interactive
report etc.
References
CHRISTIANSTEVEN SOFTWARE, 2018. 3 Industries That Use Business Intelligence To Support Decision
Making. [Online]
Available at: https://go.christiansteven.com/bi-blog/3-industries-that-use-business-intelligence-to-
support-decision-making
[Accessed 4 MAy 2019].
Conrad, A., 2018. 10 Critically Important Business Intelligence Software Features. [Online]
Available at: https://selecthub.com/business-intelligence/critical-business-intelligence-features/
[Accessed 4 May 2019].
Mopinion , 2018. Top 15 Business Intelligence Tools: An Overview. [Online]
Available at: https://mopinion.com/business-intelligence-bi-tools-overview/
[Accessed 4 May 2019].