Cloud Business Intelligence to Make Data-driven Decisions

Businesses continue to seek tools to analyze data for improved decision-making. It enables them to run their operations efficiently. And with the cloud becoming mainstream for organizations of all sizes, it is now embraced with business intelligence (BI) strategies. While BI helps them deliver the correct information at the right time, Cloud BI provides access to data from anywhere.

This blog will discuss specifics of cloud business intelligence, how it works, its advantages, capabilities to look for in BI software, top BI tools, and how Rishabh Software can help you with Cloud BI solution development.

Table of Contents

• What is Cloud Business Intelligence?
• How does Cloud BI Work?
• Advantages of Cloud Business Intelligence
• Capabilities to Look for in Cloud BI Software
• Top Cloud BI Software
• How can Rishabh Software help Build Cloud Business Intelligence Solutions?

It refers to transforming data into actionable insights within a cloud environment. It uses cloud-based platforms and services (AWS, Azure & more) to gather, store, analyze, and share data in real time. And it is without the need for on-premises infrastructure or hardware. Cloud BI enables businesses to store and manage their data in the cloud, allowing them to scale up or down quickly as their needs change.

With Cloud BI, organizations can access data from multiple sources, such as databases, spreadsheets, and other applications, and analyze it using sophisticated algorithms and data models. The insights generated from these analyses can help organizations make data-driven decisions and gain a competitive advantage. Often provided through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, it offers users access to the software through a web browser rather than installing it on their hardware. It allows for greater flexibility and mobility, as users can access their data and BI tools from anywhere with an internet connection.

Cloud BI is becoming increasingly popular as organizations seek to take advantage of the scalability and flexibility of cloud computing. By leveraging cloud BI, businesses can reduce hardware and software maintenance costs while improving their ability to analyze and act on their data.

Did you know?

• The business intelligence market will increase by 7% CAGR from USD 26.7 bn in 2022 to reach USD 52.6 bn by 2032, suggests Future Marketing Insights
• The global cloud analytics market will jump by 22.32% CAGR and reach USD 128.89 bn by 2030, as per Grand View Research.

Cloud BI offers higher flexibility, scalability, affordability & security to your critical business data & insights.

Listed below are the basic steps to suggest how cloud BI works:

• Data collection and storage: Data is collected from various sources such as databases, spreadsheets, social media, and other applications. The data is then stored in the cloud using cloud storage services.
• Data analysis: The data is processed using cloud-based BI tools and algorithms to generate insights and identify trends and patterns.
• Data visualization and reporting: The analysis results are presented as charts, graphs, and dashboards. The users can access these reports and visualizations from anywhere using a web browser or a mobile device.
• Collaboration and sharing: The users can collaborate with others in the organization by sharing the reports and dashboards. They can also set up automated alerts and notifications to keep everyone informed about the latest insights.

You have to choose one of the following three cloud deployment options for your BI solution:

• Public Cloud – A public cloud is the most affordable option as you can pay as you go, and the infrastructure cost is split among the cloud tenants. Small & mid-sized companies with limited budgets and mid to low regulatory compliance needs can leverage cloud benefits with this option. Also, organizations dealing with big data workloads can migrate to the public cloud. The control of the infrastructure lies solely with the cloud provider.
• Private Cloud – A private cloud is a go-to option for compliance-heavy businesses focusing on data security. While it is the most expensive, it provides dedicated computing resources & storage facilities exclusively to meet your company’s needs. So, even though you deploy your BI solution on a rented data center, you control the infrastructure.
• Hybrid Cloud – If deploying your total data on a private cloud is not affordable, but you need to comply with strict regulations, you can adopt a middle ground. A hybrid cloud combines the qualities of both public & private cloud environments. So, your mission-critical data can go to a private cloud, and the less sensitive data can stay on a public cloud. The two settings can operate simultaneously while the workloads can move between them.

While cloud-based business intelligence offers immense benefits to organizations. Following are the key advantages:

• Scalability: The cloud provides easy scaling up & down without the need for increasing hardware or software. You pay as you go at a fair rate for the cloud BI service.
• Flexibility: Cloud BI solutions are highly flexible, allowing businesses to integrate new data sources quickly and easily or change their analytics workflows as needed.
• Accessibility: Cloud BI solutions can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, making it easy for businesses to collaborate and share insights across teams and locations.
• Reduced Costs: Cloud-based business intelligence tools save costs on IT infrastructure & software that are essential for an on-premises setup. Also, cloud-based services are easier to manage, allowing your internal team to focus more on business-critical initiatives.

Choosing the proper structure for your cloud BI software is essential to meet your company’s needs. While BI tools comprise various components for analytics & reporting, they could differ in their offerings. And while selecting a cloud BI solution, listed below are some of the capabilities to look for:

• Data Integration: Integrating data from various sources, such as databases, data warehouses, and cloud-based applications, is a critical capability. The software should be able to extract, transform, and load (ETL) data from different sources and enable data blending to facilitate analysis. For instance, Microsoft Power BI has purpose-built tools & end-to-end analytics architecture. It supports your entire BI journey, from data extraction & modeling to deriving valuable insights. Learn more about Rishabh’s Power BI Consulting Services.
• Advanced-Data Analytics: Your BI system should have built-in advanced analytics capabilities, including predictive analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. These capabilities should allow users to identify data trends, patterns, and anomalies and make data-driven decisions.
• Collaboration: Your BI tool should provide multiple collaboration options and sharing mechanisms on reports and dashboards. The software should provide sharing and commenting features to facilitate teamwork and improve decision-making.
• Mobile Access: Cloud BI software should provide mobile access to data and analytics, allowing users to access reports and dashboards from any device. The software should be optimized for mobile devices to provide a seamless user experience.
• Security: Cloud BI software should provide robust security features, including data encryption, access control, and user authentication. To protect sensitive data, the software should comply with industry standards and regulations, such as GDPR and HIPAA.
• Integration with Other Software: Cloud BI software should be able to integrate with other software, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Marketing Automation, to provide a comprehensive view of the organization’s data.
• Scalability: Cloud BI software should be able to scale to meet the organization’s changing needs. The software should be able to handle large volumes of data and support multiple users without compromising performance.
• Cost-effectiveness: Cloud BI software should be cost-effective, with transparent pricing and no hidden costs. The software should offer a range of pricing plans, including pay-as-you-go, to meet the organization’s budget and requirements.

By considering these capabilities, organizations can select a cloud BI solution that meets their needs and enables them to make data-driven decisions.

Following are some of the most preferred & popular cloud BI software:

Microsoft Power BI

It is a leading business intelligence tool recognized for its analytics & visualization capabilities. It is an excellent tool for non-technical business users.

Features

• Data ingestion from many structures like streaming data, IoT data, relational data, big data
• 100+ in-built data source connectors, including Azure data source ecosystem, file data sources, online services, databases
• Dataflows, including ingestion of relational & big data, enrichment, cleaning
• Data modeling powered with Artificial Intelligence (AI), including Azure ML, Automated machine learning (AutoML)
• Quick insights, real-time data analytics, and predictive analytics
• A wide range of reports, including preconfigured company-wise reports, ad hoc reports, embedded reports
• Visualization through interactive dashboards, custom & pre-build visuals, drill-down functionality, natural language

Please read our blog on Power BI benefits & use cases.

Tableau

A popular business intelligence tool recognized for its visual analytics capabilities.

Features

• +75 native data source connectors
• A wide range of visualizations, including interactive reports & dashboards
• Predictive analytics
• Collaboration & sharing insights
• Support for no-code data queries
• Robust security

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) provides an on-premise set of tools & services that help create graphical, mobile & printed reports using SQL servers & other data sources.

Features

• Data ingestion from relational, multidimensional & XML-based sources
• Regular and on-demand reports
• Auto alerts on critical events
• Access control on content from mobile devices, web browsers, or email

Qlik Sense

A data analytics & business intelligence software, it offers strong AI & ML (Machine Learning) capabilities.

Features

• Deployment options like on-premises, cloud, & multi-cloud
• Data connectivity for file-based data, big data streams, on-premises or cloud data
• Natural language interaction
• Data storytelling functionality
• Advanced data preparation
• Drag-and-drop visualization
• Self-service visual data discovery
• Associative analytics engine
• Mobile & embedded analytics

Looker

It is a big data analytics & business intelligence software. It is recognized for its ML and reporting capabilities.

Features

• Transforms Graphical User Interface (GUI) based input into SQL queries and sends it to the database in live mode
• Numerous visualizations and customization options
• Many connectors and integrations with platforms like Google BigQuery, Snowflake, AWS Redshift
• Capability to create Real-Time Dashboards
• It has support from multiple cloud-based platforms like AWS for advanced hosting

With our focused business intelligence development services, we offer data-driven business analytics. We have an experienced team with technical proficiency in using BI tools like Power BI, Tableau & more. We help you define BI strategy while architecting & implementing the needed infrastructure. Our team helps integrate multi-source data and apply analytics techniques to automatically extract insights from the input records.

Listed below are two from many of our success stories helping customers globally;

Case Study: Data Warehouse Solution for Hospitality Business

A US-based F&B & Resort management company wanted to eliminate data silos and efficiently manage disparate data from 20+ sources. It was an outcome of multiple acquisitions with varied data source integration. They tried to unify their business data and merge numerous business applications.

We helped create a data warehouse and utilized Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) and Power BI to map the various KPIs, including expense management, demand forecasting & customer satisfaction.

Key takeaways;

• 50% increase in workflow efficiency
• 40% reduction in data quality issues
• 99% accuracy of business understanding available on-the-go

Read more about how the developed cloud-based data warehouse system enabled the US-based hospitality giant enabled the US-based hospitality giant to manage disparate data from 20+ sources & derive valuable insights as per their needs.

Case Study: Machine Learning (ML) Driven Healthcare Monitoring System

A UK-based medical service provider wanted to build a system that offers real-time human activity recognition within the clinical systems to improve efficiency & patient care.

Our team developed an ML-based healthcare monitoring system to help collate the recorded data (historical & current health data sets) from various connected devices and the patient’s vitals. The customer dashboard incorporates metrics beyond traditional activity identification models and creates a dashboard based on multiple parameters such as gender, age, illness, treatment group, and more.

Key takeaways;

• 5x increase in operational efficiency
• 63% accurate diagnosis through ML models
• Real-time data collection & patient-intelligence

Read more about how the developed Machine Learning driven healthcare monitoring system enabled the UK-based medical service provider to improve clinical efficiency and patient care.