Business intelligence consulting

Making business decisions has become more complex, which is why BI consultants specialise in helping you use your data in the most helpful and efficient ways. The amount of information decision-makers have to contend with is far beyond what has ever been available, and even if you have a great BI solution in place, mining through big data isn't an easy task. It’s almost impossible to accurately use all of that data without engaging the right BI consulting services. You need to work with someone who can interpret the masses of data sources into something meaningful that meets your business requirements and drives your organisation forward. 

There are also many different types of BI consulting services available, and BI consultants can work with you in a number of areas, from supply chain management, through to customer experiences and quality assurance testing. Choosing BI consultants with training and expertise in your chosen BI solution and technology stack will allow for deeper, advanced analytics of data sources. While the overall strategy, analytics methods, reporting and delivery of BI consultants will vary, it's vital to work with BI consultants who have proven experience in achieving results for businesses like yours.

A business intelligence consulting company gathers insights from data to streamline business processes. This can be applied across every aspect of the business, with compiled data used to ensure that every system in the business is running at optimal levels. A business intelligence specialist will look at current and historical data and use predictive modelling to anticipate the best course of action going forward. 

This data can be used to increase the efficiency of HR processes, improve operational systems across your supply chain, or understand customer behaviour to meet emerging trends. A business intelligence consultant will look at where your organisation has come from, where it currently is and how to best move it to exactly where it needs to be.  

Working with someone with proven business intelligence expertise will ensure that you have the skills to adapt your business and meet challenges preemptively, by anticipating changes and acting on them well in advance. 

The core focus of a business intelligence consultant is to improve decisions made across your organisation. They will analyse data gleaned from data warehouses, reports, BI tools and data mining to understand your business needs.

This may mean addressing gaps in an organisation, replacing inefficient processes with highly efficient or automated ones, or shifting systems used within the business to allow a business to scale.

Typical business intelligence consulting services include:

• Researching and analysing various data sources
• Implementation and management of BI software and solutions
• Creating strategic plans for an organisation to accelerate growth and address business challenges successfully
• Implementing BI tools and software that meet the needs of an organisation
• Working closely with management, key stakeholders and executives to ensure that changes being implemented are aligned with organisational goals
• Working with developers and vendors to successfully implement technological solutions
• Data aggregation and analysis of available data to improve the efficiency of organisational systems
• Monitoring and reporting on various areas of an organisation to ensure that business intelligence is being well utilised

When looking for a great business intelligence consulting partner to work with, you must choose a consultant with the skills you need to grow your business. This may be industry-specific knowledge or expertise in working with the business intelligence tools you use or plan to implement. Talking to a BI consultant about your particular goals is a good place to start. Ask lots of questions, and look at previous projects and case studies. 

Word of mouth is also important, so ask around to see which business intelligence consulting services others recommend. Experience is key, but so is the ability to deliver cutting-edge solutions where needed. This demands a strong understanding of BI platforms and also the overall development and implementation process.

You need to have confidence in your BI consultant to drive your business forward, and past performance and industry credibility goes a long way towards establishing this. 

Successful business intelligence consulting requires a very honed ability to organise data, to begin with. BI Consultants must be able to liaise with and engage all relevant stakeholders in an organisation present and discuss high-level company data. 

From here, a business intelligence consultant must employ strategic thinking. Having the ability to envision the bigger picture is essential, as is understanding key performance indicators. Critical thinking skills, paired with the ability to foresee emerging trends, allow data insights to be translated into actionable steps. This requires solid awareness of business principles and a high degree of understanding of an individual organisation's requirements. 

There are many elements of risk associated with future business planning, which is why a skilled business intelligence advisor will possess a sound ability to mitigate unnecessary risks while taking risks backed by logical and data-driven reasoning. Most importantly, a business intelligence specialist will be able to ensure that each decision made has been given the required oversight before making changes.

This ensures that all implemented changes are best aligned with an organisation's current situation and its longer-term goals and objectives.

Business intelligence consultants are generally highly skilled at understanding how different tools, software and technologies work together. Some business intelligence companies specialise in particular platforms or software, but most consultants are well-versed in the most popular solutions. If you are running a highly customised data and IT infrastructure, your business intelligence advisors may hire specialist consultants or developers to ensure that your project has a successful outcome. 

Most experienced consultants can work with your organisation's existing structures, utilising any third-party skills as necessary. As a highly experienced business intelligence consulting firm, Tridant will take a holistic view of your business requirements and perform advanced analytics to create a BI strategy for your organisation, whether it's forecasting sales trends or analysis of reporting accuracy, our team will identify opportunities to utilise data aggregation.

Business intelligence consulting companies use many metrics to measure the overall success of their projects. Meeting projected growth goals indicates that a project went well long-term, but in the short term, factors such as cost savings and more efficient processes are success indicators.

Being able to deliver reporting and dashboards to an organisation that provide accurate and actionable insights is another excellent measure of a project well done. Each project will have different timelines and milestones to gauge success, and knowing that these are met is a clear sign to a consultant that their input has been valuable.

Aside from metrics and the implementation of data-driven insights, client satisfaction is a key measure of how well business intelligence consultants are performing. This demonstrates good communication and that relationships with organisational decision-makers have been well maintained.