Affordable Business Intelligence Tools to Grow Your Business

Sometimes you need to glean more insights from your data than the system itself may be able to provide. In these cases it’s worth taking the time to look at business intelligence software that can help you uncover the real truths hidden in your CRM data.

Business Intelligence software is no longer the remit of enterprise organisations. Now it can be deployed effectively and affordably at any size of business. With excellent integration options available for many CRM systems, leading BI tools can provide you with advanced analytical capabilities that can help shape the future direction of your business.

Common Challenges for Business Intelligence and CRM

Where do I start?

Your CRM system may not include a good analytical tool that lets you really get to grips with your data. Certain enterprise CRM systems have these tools built-in to them, but not all; and while systems built with SMEs in mind may have some great analytical features, they can’t always offer the depth of knowledge that a dedicated tool can offer.
As with other areas of the CRM world, the best place to start is with a question: “What do I need to get from my data?”

To help you reach an answer, we’ve produced The Analytical CRM eBook, a free resource to help you understand the relationship between BI and CRM (also referred to as analytical CRM).

Understanding what you want to achieve with analytical CRM will help you find the right approach to implementing it within your organisation.

Should I be looking at software?

Probably! But be sure to ask yourself two questions before you start:

When should I look?
What should I look for?

The answer to the first question is probably fairly simple. It should be either before, or after deploying CRM in your organisation. It almost certainly should never be “at the same time as I deploy CRM.” Keep things simple!

Why does it matter whether you look to implement analytical CRM before or after your main CRM system? Because the purpose of the tool changes.

Applying analytical CRM before deploying a CRM system can help you with effective data cleansing, ensuring any information you import into your new CRM database is tidy and trustworthy. Applying analytical CRM to an existing CRM system is a way to uncover hidden information within your database and make informed decisions about your route to market.

As to what you should look for, youneed to make a decision about whether you want to implement a traditional business intelligence approach, that relies on hardware infrastructure and a large team dedicated to working with the tool; or if you want to implement an agile approach that leads to self-discovery of your data.

By understanding when you need to apply analysis to your data, and what kind of tool you require to do so, you’ll be in a good position to understand the tools available on the market.

Where can I get help finding the right analytical tool for my CRM?

With us! If you’re looking for help choosing the right analytical tool to work with your CRM system, talk to our team. We offer a free, independent CRM consultation that can help you get started with your project. During the consultation one of our CRM experts will help you define what you need to achieve with analytical CRM, how you can go about doing so, and start to think about which BI software might be right for your organization.

Not sure what you need?

If it’s still early in your CRM project, or you’re not sure what direction to go with CRM at this time don’t panic! Just reach out to us for some CRM advice and we’ll help steer you in the right direction for your organization.