How to Choose the Best Cloud Business Intelligence Tools

By Emily Pribanic - Published on June 7, 2018
How to Choose the Best Cloud Business Intelligence Tools

Switch to a cloud-based business intelligence tool to improve your organization.

With the right business intelligence tool, your company will not only operate more smoothly but more efficiently as well.

With many organizations switching to cloud-based tools, it is no wonder many are also beginning to use cloud-based business intelligence tools as well. Cloud-based business intelligence (BI) tools not only increase the performance of business intelligence but also level the playing field for small and medium businesses to be able to better compete with larger companies.

While business intelligence tools have been around for several years, cloud business intelligence tools are a bit different. For one, cloud-based BI reporting tools are executed off-site, delivered remotely, and implemented through the cloud. Cloud-based BI tools are also less expensive to run compared to other on-site business intelligence tools and even remove time-consuming responsibilities. It can be difficult to know how to choose the best BI tools for your company but with these simple steps, that process will be much easier.

Steps to Choose the Best Cloud BI Tools

Identify
The first step to ensure you choose the best business intelligence tool that is right for your business is to determine what type of BI software will best fit your business needs. Here are the different types of BI tools you can choose from:

Reporting and Querying Software
This cloud-based BI software allows you to create reports easily, run regular reports, create organized listings, and even perform cross-tabular reporting and querying.

Online Analytical Processing
This cloud-based tool allows you to easily and selectively extract and view data through multi-dimensional analytical queries.

Dashboards
This type of BI tool consolidates and arranges numbers and metrics and can either be cloud-based or a stand-alone application. Dashboards give an at-a-glance view of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) relevant to specific objectives or processes.

Data Mining
This type of application will help you discover large dataset patterns using machine learning, database systems, and statistics.

Business Activity Monitoring
This type of BI tool provides monitoring, risk monitoring, operational expectation, and even other computer systems monitoring.

Data Cleansing & Preparation
This type of application can detect and remove, or correct, inaccurate records from a database or a set of records.

No matter what your business needs are, it is essential that you do not just choose one of the top business intelligence tools because it is popular, but that you choose one that will adequately fit your business needs. A good BI tool will offer you scalability, security, real-time integration, analytical features, role-based access, a responsive interface, and will be industry specific to your business needs.

Essentials of Top BI Tools

Whether you decide that a cloud-based dashboard or online analytical processing BI tool is right for your business needs, there are a few features that you should ensure your new tool offers.

  • Self Service
  • Analytics Platform
  • Advanced Analytics
  • Mobile Analytics
  • Data Visualization
  • Dashboards
  • “What-If” Analysis
  • Data Connectivity
  • Multi-Language Support
  • Data Blending
  • Location Intelligence
  • Interactive Reports
  • Meta Data Layer
  • Data Warehousing
  • Data Refinement

Business Intelligence Tools List

It may be difficult to begin your cloud-based BI efforts, but here is a business intelligence tools list of the top cloud BI tools that can help make your journey easier.

  • Sisense
  • Microsoft Power BI Pro
  • GoodData
  • BOARD
  • Birst BI
  • Pyramid Analytics
  • Adaptive Insights
  • Information Builders WebFOCUS Platform
  • IBM Cognos Analytics
  • MicroStrategy

Business intelligence tools can help your organization scale and speed products and services for maximum effectiveness.

Emily Pribanic | Emily is a graduate of the University of North Texas. She has her B.A. in Advertising with a concentration in Copywriting. Emily has been writing since she was young and has a creative imagination. She lives in Dallas, Texas with her family and two cats.

Emily Pribanic | Emily is a graduate of the University of North Texas. She has her B.A. in Advertising with a concentration in Copywriting. Emily has been writing s...

Related Posts