Business intelligence is growing – quickly. Gartner reported the worldwide business intelligence and analytics market would reach $16.9 billion in 2016. That continued growth into 2017 has several key implications affecting the entire business world.

1. Advanced Analytics Becomes the Standard for the Business User

Five years ago, creating executive dashboards was a significant investment. Now, thanks toemerging trends such as Power BI, everyone on a company can view the data that’s relevant to their role. This has revolutionized the business intelligence landscape, making it a must-have for companies interested in remaining competitive. The increases in productivity, better decision making, and other gains results in significant increases in profitability for companies using BI. This effectively sets a new business standard, and companies not harnessing this tech will be left far behind.

2. “Verticalization” of Data Analytics

Tailoring business intelligence software to a specific industry isn’t new. Business intelligence solutions providers have been doing this throughout technology’s rise.

But what is new in 2017 is the degree of customization and configuration a single solution can offer.

For example, creating verticalized dashboards used to require separate BI solutions. Pulling relevant data from one database into a separate table took hours of dedicated IT resources. This had to be recreated for every separate vertical.

Now, a single solution – such as Power BI – can quickly create multiple custom dashboards delivering relevant data. Users can have a fully customized, properly configured solution to immediately view the data they need. This fast turnaround and ease-of-use will be the norm in business intelligence future trends, helping the use of BI become standard (as mentioned in our first point).

3. Data-driven Decision Making Throughout the Enterprise

Any function that uses data-driven decision making – such as management, C-suite, or sales – obviously benefits from having their data immediately in front of them.

But in 2017, one of the top emerging trends will be the use of data throughout the enterprise for all functions.

For example, customer service can gain greater insight into customer patterns, tracking the activities of a specific customer to deliver a better experience. Supply chains can use the same data as management to ensure goals are met.

Across every function, industry trends indicateeveryonewill use BI.

4. Better-Defined Data Governance

In many cases, business intelligence was a solution added onto existing functions instead of its own specific resource within the company. This often led to ad hoc data governance without defined rules.

Now, as the prevalence of BI grows, companies need to define their data governance and put systematic measures in place to enforce governance. BI is simply too big to use without defined rules.

5. Improved Teamwork and Collaboration Across Enterprise Through BI

One of the key advantages of solutions like Power BI is custom dashboards. Sales teams need to see different data than marketing, for example. So even if the same dashboard template is used for both functions, they’ll see information relevant to their respective roles.

However, all the data comes from the same databases. And as these databases update and push data to dashboards in real-time, everyone using the data will be on the same page.

This naturally enhances collaboration, ensures functions can collaborate seamlessly, and avoids time-consuming (and frustrating) conversations about which data set is right.

6. IT Becomes More Important to All Functions

One business intelligence industry trend in 2017 will be a greater recognition of IT’s contribution to business success. Since everyone in the enterprise uses business intelligence, like pulling data from Azure or SQL databases, the individuals making that a possibility will become more important.

This means it is critical for companies currently lacking the right IT staff to find quality partners or solutions providers.

7. Data Literacy Becomes Critical

Even though business intelligence solutions do their best to ensure data is displayed in an easy-to-understand way, data literacy will still be critical for business success. Understanding how to interpret data isn’t just for MBAs anymore; every person interacting with data will require some degree of data literacy.

For many companies, this means you should have additional training when implementing a business intelligence solution. Even a few hours of training could greatly enhance the average employee’s ability to interpret (and thus leverage) big data.

If your business isn’t currently using business intelligence solutions, then rolling out BI to your team should be a top priority in 2017. Microsoft’s Power BI has been the leading business intelligence software since it took the industry by storm in late 2014. Power BI keeps you on-trend, enabling you to remain competitive and gain market share.

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