Overview
- Analytics and business intelligence provide an understandable view of the business and derive actionable insights.
- We will discuss the 6 Top Business Intelligence Tools You Should Learn To Begin Your Journey In This Field.
Introduction
The last decade has demonstrated the great importance of data and its powerful capabilities. Organizations that follow a proactive approach tend to move forward while others gradually become obsolete.. Dell's data maturity model classifies organizations into four tiers. According to this model, most of these companies can be classified as Data aware which is the lowest level.
Business Intelligence tools help organizations achieve a better level of data maturity.
There are tons of business intelligence and analytics tools, so, Which one would you choose to start your journey? Good, the answer is not crystal clear, since the tools cannot be compared head-on, but each has its own benefits.
Gartner Releases Its Top Business Intelligence & Analytics Report Every Year. You can check out this magic quadrant 2020 from Gartner to better understand the tools. This is current to January 2020.
Before starting, if you are a beginner in the data science and analytics space, I highly recommend that you follow this free course to understand the basics, career path and much more:
What is Business Intelligence and Analytics and why should we care??
Organizations use business intelligence tools to collect, store and analyze data from business operations to find useful information.
Traditionally, Business Intelligence tools were used to generate reports and create dashboards. Many of these weren't even available in real time. But many things have changed over time and we have now entered the era of modern business intelligence..
Modern Business Intelligence tools are capable of in-depth visual analysis, advanced statistical analysis and even advanced machine learning modeling for big data. These tools allow you to connect to multiple varieties of data sources with high security..
Don't worry if you're new to the world of analytics. Many of these tools are developed with non-technical minds in mind. Include features such as natural language searches, drag and drop analysis and much more.
But nevertheless, I advise you to understand the basics of analytics and data science. This is a good starting point for you..
In this article, i will share 6 business intelligence and analytics tools that I find really effective in the business environment and that are easy to learn. So let's get started.
Table of Contents
- Picture
- Power BI
- QlikSense
- MicroStrategy
- Looker
- ThoughtSpot
Tableau is the tool you always love and, especially, the king when it comes to data visualization. Its easy-to-use interface and drop-down capability will help you focus on what's important.: understand data and storytelling.
Tableau has been my go-to tool when I needed a quick analysis. One of the great things about Tableau is that you don't need coding experience or any advanced analytical knowledge., Tableau has your back.
It is a very reliable tool that provides connections to a myriad of data sources with high security. Then, What are you waiting for? Create a dashboard, report and share with your colleagues in real time.
If you are interested, You can learn the best tool for data visualization in this free course-
Power BI is a wonderful tool provided by Microsoft. What's more, Gartner has recognized Microsoft as a leader for thirteen years in a row in its Magic Quadrant for Smart Business and Analytics Platforms!! If you are looking to work on projects that consist of custom visualizations, advanced analysis libraries and seamless integration, This is the tool of choice!
If you have been a long-term user of Microsoft services like MS Excel, you will feel comfortable using this tool, as it provides seamless integration with other Microsoft offerings.
Power BI provides a lot of flexibility when performing data cleansing, modeling and other statistical tasks. You can even ask questions in natural language and get insight into your data and insights. I've seen admins love this feature in Power BI.
Qlik Sense is a data analytics platform that provides a complete end-to-end solution for turning raw data into actionable insights. It has increasingly become the choice of many world-class organizations.
Qlik Sense prides itself on being a modern BI tool by providing an associative difference engine. This will help you combine data from all sources and manage relationships automatically and securely..
Users of all origins can make use of this platform by performing simple textual searches, so you don't need to be a developer to use simple functions. Although you may need some coding skills when it comes to advanced tasks and customizations.
MicroStrategy is a very powerful tool used for enterprise-level business intelligence and analytics, used by many leading companies in the world. Has an extensive library of analytical functions and visualizations, and also the ability to handle big data.
What's more, you do not need to be technically competent to use MicroStrategy analysis services. In fact, provides many mobility solutions so your smartphone can safely access all intelligence (really useful in times of pandemic)
MicroStrategy provides many other advanced options, como HyperIntelligence, Identity y Telemetry, that make it a much more advanced BI tool, safe and modern.
ThoughtSpot is a BI tool focused on AI-powered search and analytics. It has recently gained great importance by becoming a unicorn company in a very short time and its users are some of the biggest names in the industry such as Apple, Walmart, etc.
Can work on visualizations, reports, interactive panels, advanced analysis of your data using this tool. It's a great tool for people of all backgrounds who want to turn data into useful information..
What's more, thoughtSpot attempts to automate the entire task of analyzing data by providing a natural language search option for its users along with suggested information powered by its artificial intelligence engine..
Looker calls itself a data platform consisting of subcategories: Modern BI and Analytics, integrated knowledge, data-driven workflows, data-driven workflows and custom applications. What's more, can connect to a large number of databases and cloud systems.
Looker provides a unique feature: Looker blocks are pre-built pieces of code that you can choose and use for your analysis. These can include SQL patterns, data models, custom visualizations, etc. This can make up for your day when you're in a rush to create your reports..
Looker is a comprehensive tool for many of your needs, including real-time reports, interactive dashboards and advanced analytics.
Final notes
To complete, In this article we have analyzed the 6 top business intelligence and analytics tools in this article. While this is not an exhaustive list of all the tools, It is a good starting point. These are some of the efficient tools that will help you improve your data history.
I'd definitely love to hear about your favorite BI and analytics tools in addition to these.. Let me know in the comments!!
