Business Intelligence Q&A with Cleverbit Software

The Cleverbit Software team is made up of over fifty software and BI developers offering BI services to companies all over the world.

Our range of services includes bespoke as well as software customisation and integration based on the Microsoft technology stack, team augmentation through our DevTeams, as well as business intelligence (BI) services.

Below we have compiled a list of frequently asked questions on BI.

How would you describe BI in terms of what it can give to a company?

Let’s start by saying that BI is no longer a luxury that only large companies can afford. Rather, it has become a necessity in a competitive environment that no company can afford not to have.

Companies of any size are literally sitting on a lot of data just waiting to be converted into actionable insights.

What type of data are you referring to?

Companies generate data continuously. Some of this data they may not even realise exists.

It could be data in the CRM, in the ePOS system within a retail environment, website logs, and much more. The data could be in a raw state, or within excel sheets for example. Seemingly unrelated data sources that are just waiting to be mined and which can help the business understand where it is now, where it can go, and the different options it has to reach its objectives.

More specifically, in which areas of a company’s operations can BI have an impact?

There are unlimited scenarios in which BI can bring significant advantages. These go beyond the financial aspects one would first think of, when thinking about BI, and that can affect each part of the organisation.

For example:

In Logistics, one can use BI for an improvement in the efficiency of warehousing, procurement, resources inventory and lifespan cycle and maintenance.

In Operations, one could focus on KPIs that can assist real-time decision making, planning and forecasting, and operational resources allocation.

In Marketing, BI can help you stay ahead of the game by providing competitor insights, customer satisfaction KPIs, and identify new opportunities before others do by helping you anticipate market trends

In HR, BI can help in performance indicators, organisation health, human resources allocation, hiring and turnover rates, working hours, and workforce needs.

This is by no means an exhaustive list.

Does everyone in the company need to be an expert in BI to gain the benefits?

No, not at all. This is another area where we can help.

After helping you collate data from across all your systems, we will help mine it, and then transform it visually into maps and graphs that your team can interact with. This will allow everyone to gain insights that will improve decision making and will lead to an improvement to the bottom line.

To what extent will this process empower the company’s employees to achieve more?

An important part of the project involves empowering users through training to make the best out of the technology on their own terms, including automatic data storytelling and instant replies to natural language queries. We call this ‘Self-Service BI’.

But will all this cost an arm and a leg?

Far from it. The advantages gained will far outweigh the costs. For most of our clients, the return on investment in BI was achieved in months, rather than years.

Ok. So let’s say a company is interested in your BI services. How does the process look like?

We would start off with a thorough analysis of stakeholder requirements, data sources and business needs. We will recommend the best solution based on the features required and will evaluate the different pricing models to suggest proper licensing. We will then implement, test and launch, providing a feedback loop for continuous improvement.

How long would it take for companies to start reaping the benefits of BI?

With our agile approach and access to affordable software tools, time to market will be significantly reduced with insights almost immediately available.

What technologies do you use to deliver your BI services?

While we are well-versed in most of the BI solutions available on the market, we are predominantly focused on Microsoft products. So, our technology selection is based on the Microsoft Azure BI Stack and Power BI.