Top business analytics tools to learn

Key takeaways:

• Business analysis tools are used to collect and analyze data about an organization’s performance so that you can make decisions about how to improve it.

• Data visualization software like Tableau and Qlikview allows users to create charts and graphs based on data they have entered into the database. They are great at helping you understand your company’s performance trends over time.

• Dashboards provide real-time updates on key metrics like revenue per employee or Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).

Business analysis tools are essential to understanding your business, especially while making sense of data. They give you the power to analyze your business’s performance and make predictions to see what needs to change and how.

When choosing an analytics tool, it should be easy to use without advanced training or experience in statistics or data science. You want an app that will give you valuable insights without requiring extra work on your part. You shouldn’t spend hours reading manuals or learning how to use the software before it starts benefiting your business.

What is business analytics?

Business analytics is an umbrella term that refers to data, statistics, and quantitative analysis to gain insight into how a business performs. It can also be used to understand customer behaviors and preferences and optimize existing processes and products.

Business analytics has many applications in various industries, but it’s most commonly associated with marketing. One of the most common ways of using business analytics to improve marketing efforts is by optimizing ad campaigns, which involves understanding what ads are best for each target audience segment.

What are business analytics tools?

Business analytics tools are used to collect, analyze, and interpret data from your business. They can help you to make better decisions about your business and its operations.

For example, if you have an e-commerce store, business analytics tools can help you figure out how much money you are making on each item and where your customers are coming from. This information can help you make smarter decisions about which products to carry in your store and how much they should cost.

Business analysis tools also let you monitor the performance of different areas of your company’s operations. For example, suppose you are a restaurant owner who wants to know how many customers each server gets in their shift, a business analytics tool could help you automatically track this information.

You can find business analytics tools online or through other software providers specializing in this type.

Top business analytics tools

If you are looking for a business intelligence tool, there are a few different options. Here are some of the top analytics software:

Tool	Description
QlikView	It allows you to explore data visually, and then use it to build dashboards.
Splunk	It lets you search through all your data in real-time.
Board	It integrates easily with other tools like Tableau and Power BI.
Sisense	It allows you to analyze your data without having to be an expert in SQL or coding.
Tableau	It helps you build interactive dashboards, reports and data visualizations.
Excel	It allows you to create spreadsheets and perform basic statistical analysis on them.
Power BI	It enables you to easily visualize your data, explore trends and identify patterns. It’s also great for collaboration.
RapidMiner	It is a tool for predictive analytics and machine learning.
Dundas BI	It helps you make sense of your data.
MicroStrategy	It enables companies to manage their data and gain insight into it.
SAP Business Objects	It lets you build reports, analyze data, and share information with others through dashboards and reports.
Oracle Business Intelligence	It is a collection of software products that offer several different features related to business analytics, including data integration tools and reporting capabilities.

• QlikView

QlikView is a business intelligence tool that helps you gain insights into your data by visualizing it. It is easy to use and can be used by non-technical people, which makes it an excellent choice for small businesses that need a quick way to make sense of their data.

• Splunk

Splunk is an enterprise-scale analytics solution that you can use to monitor and analyze your entire IT infrastructure. It is ideal for businesses that want deep insights into their data but don’t have the resources or expertise to build their business intelligence tools from scratch.

• Board

Board is an agile project management tool that lets you track what’s happening with your projects (and projects involving multiple teams). It includes features like Kanban boards and Gantt charts that allow you to visualize everything from project status to budgeting in one place.

• Sisense

This cloud-based solution gives you access to a wide range of pre-built reports. You can also build your own using Sisense’s drag-and-drop interface. It’s great for people without a lot of data analysis experience, but it still has enough power to impress even experienced pros.

• Tableau

Tableau is another cloud-based tool but has a much more robust reporting system than Sisense. It also has some more advanced analytical tools built in, which makes it ideal for more complex projects, especially those involving large datasets with multiple variables.

• Excel

Although not as sophisticated as the other two programs listed above, Excel is still an excellent business intelligence tool for creating basic reports and graphs. Excel is worth checking out if you are starting data analysis.

• Power BI

Power BI is one of the most well-known business analytics tools in companies like Microsoft and Salesforce. The software allows users to visualize their data in various formats, including charts, graphs, and dashboards. It’s also compatible with multiple third-party software platforms and services, like Salesforce and Google Analytics.

• RapidMiner

RapidMiner is an open-source platform that helps users analyze data through predictive analytics. The tool offers an interface that’s easy to use and understand. It also features automation capabilities that allow you to build models without writing code.

• Dundas BI

Dundas BI is another popular analytics software that uses drag-and-drop functionality to help users visualize their data in new ways. It comes with pre-built connectors for many standard business intelligence solutions like Tableau or QlikView, so you don’t have to worry about integrating new programs into your workflow just yet if this is your first foray into analytics software.

• MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy is a cloud-based platform that allows users to analyze data and create visualizations quickly and easily. It can be used by anyone who has access to the internet—no IT support is required.

• SAP business objects

SAP Business Objects is another cloud-based solution that offers users an easy way to create reports and dashboards. The software is designed for small businesses that want to use data analytics but don’t have the resources or time required for custom-built solutions.

• Oracle business intelligence

Oracle Business Intelligence is an on-premise solution that helps companies make better decisions based on their data. It is complex enough to require technical expertise and professional training, but it’s also flexible enough for individual users with no coding experience.

Using business analytics tools

Tools used in business analytics can help you with the following:

• Data collection

Data collection is gathering data from an external source and then transferring that data into your business analytics application. The most common source of information is the internet. The data you collect can be from websites, social media platforms, or private databases. It is important to note that this type of data can’t be ordered in bulk. You must set up a system for collecting it manually or automatically as it becomes available.

• Data analysis

Data analysis is taking your collected data and turning it into actionable insights that you can use to improve your business processes and performance metrics. Data analysis can be done manually or automatically, depending on your needs and budget. Still, either way, it requires advanced expertise in statistical methods like regression analysis and machine learning algorithms like neural networks and support vector machines (SVMs).

• Data mining

Data mining is the process of gathering data from a variety of sources and organizing it into a format that can be analyzed. Data mining tools help you understand what your data is telling you so that you can make smarter decisions.

• Optimization

Optimization is figuring out how to make something better or more efficient. Business analytics means using mathematical models to find ways for your business to perform better. If you are running a restaurant, for example, optimization might help you figure out how many tables you should put in your dining room.

• Data visualization

Data visualization is turning data into a picture, such as a bar graph or pie chart. It helps you understand the information more quickly.

Data visualization tools allow you to create visualizations from your data, which can be helpful for both beginners and experts. Analytics software like Tableau will enable you to build an interactive dashboard that displays your data in an easy-to-read format to see trends and patterns in your business’s performance.

Benefits of using business analytics tools

Business analytics tools are becoming more and more popular today. This is because they have several benefits that make them worth using, including:

• Bringing together relevant data

Business analysis tools bring together the data you need wherever it’s stored. They can pull data from a single source or multiple systems, making it easy to compare and contrast different aspects of your business.

• Accuracy and efficiency

While there are still ways for humans to make mistakes with their analysis, tools used in business analytics help ensure that the data you use for decision-making is as accurate as possible. They can also automate some of the processes involved in gathering business intelligence, which helps save time and money on labor costs.

• Increased customer satisfaction

Business analysis tools can help your business increase customer satisfaction and loyalty by better understanding how your customers interact with your product or service. It is also important to note that many of these tools will help you discover what your customers want before they even ask for it, which is excellent for improving the overall user experience.

• Reduced cost, increased revenues

Because business intelligence tools allow you to learn more about your customers and how they use your product or service, this information can be used to create new products or services that are better suited for their needs. In addition, the insights these business intelligence tools provide will help you develop new marketing campaigns that are more likely to convert leads into paying customers.

Bottom line 

You get a top-notch education when you choose a business analytics course available on the Online Manipal platform. Our business analytics course is exclusively designed by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), and covers data mining and machine learning, essential data analytics tools for any business analyst. You will also learn how to use statistics software like R and SAS and connect your data analysis with other business processes (like marketing).