To give your company a competitive edge, you need to use your business intelligence effectively, and a good way to do that is through business analytics software. Business intelligence software has built-in best practices that facilitate intuitive decisions and actions based on gathered corporate data.

Centralize your data to illustrate customer profiles, market research and segmentation, predictive analysis and other processes that help you command profitable strategies. Here is what you will get with business analytics software:

1. Tools for data warehousing, information management, analysis, and reporting.

2. Customization and scalability to meet your unique business needs.

3. Business intelligence software that integrates smoothly with other software solutions.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find a comprehensive BI software platform with multiple capabilities

A comprehensive BI solution should include reporting, analytics, scorecarding and dashboards for a fully functional product that gives your company a competitive edge.

I recommend: Cognos 8 Business Intelligence offers a wide range of business intelligence solutions on one platform, including adaptable reporting, multidimensional analytics, information-rich dashboards for multilevel communications and scorecarding to enable strategizing and monitor performance. Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition Plus includes interactive dashboards, online analytics, real-time predictive intelligence and high-volume production reporting.

Get a business intelligence software solution you can customize and scale to your business needs

If you are a small or midsized company, your corporate intelligence will differ from that of larger organizations, and you should find software that is scaled to the particular needs of companies your size. No matter the size of your company, you also need business analysis software that can be customized to your unique business goals.

I recommend: SAS Solutions provides business intelligent solutions for small to midsized businesses that include forecasting inventory, finding new customer segments and other analytics. Telargo provides efficient BI solutions for companies of all sizes and offers a software development kit to further customize your BI solution.

Purchase BI software that smoothly integrates with your existing applications

For full functionality, your BI software should easily integrate with existing software. Incompatibility will require time-consuming troubleshooting. Some packages interact with many Microsoft Office Suite programs, providing smooth interface.

I recommend: JasperForge Open Source Business Intelligence Suite is optimized for Microsoft Windows and Excel, easily integrating with Microsoft's server and desktop platforms and applications as well as ExcelPivotTable reports. MicroStrategy integrates with multiple platforms, including UNIX systems. It provides developers with guides and tutorials to customize reporting and integrate intelligence into existing processes and applications.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Business analysis software doesn't have to be expensive. Some vendors offer analysis packages that range from $100 to $1,000 and provide advanced features.
• •  Find business intelligence software specific to certain industries, including finance, manufacturing, hospitality, insurance and entertainment.