The Importance of Cloud Business Intelligence to eCommerce Retailers

• Analytics can provide businesses with a competitive advantage; and
• AI (artificial Intelligence) and machine learning are becoming force multipliers for data analytics.

But what have we learnt in the past from Cloud Business Intelligence. The following insights were provided by Dresner Advisory Services’ 2019 Cloud Computing and Business Intelligence Market Study.

First, 48% of organisations (an all-time high) say cloud BI is either "critical" or "very important" to their operations. As the online landscape only gets more competitive, it is likely that this number will increase in the years ahead.

Second, organisations have more confidence in cloud BI than ever before and 2019 saw a sharp upturn in cloud BI’s importance; driven by the trust and credibility organisations have for accessing, analysing and storing sensitive company data on cloud platforms running BI applications.

Biggest adopters of Cloud Business Intelligence

The Dresner Advisory Services’ study also found that the department that placed the greatest importance on cloud BI in 2019 was the Marketing & Sales department; which was also one of the most prolific users of cloud BI systems.

Small organisations (100 employees or less) are the most enthusiastic, perennial adopters and supporters of cloud BI. As has been the case in prior studies, small organisations are leading all others in adopting cloud BI systems and platforms.

The Retail/Wholesale industry considered cloud BI to be the most important, followed by the technology and advertising industries. Organisations competing in the retail/wholesale industry see the greatest value in adopting cloud BI as enabling them to gain better insights into how to improve the experiences of their customers and in streamlining their supply chains.

Key Requirements of Business Intelligence

Advanced visualisation, support for ad-hoc queries, personalised dashboards, and data integration/data quality tools/ETL tools were found to be the four most popular cloud BI requirements in the Dresner Advisory Services’ 2019 study.

Marketing and Sales departments had the greatest interest in several of the most-required features of BI, including: personalised dashboards, data discovery, data cataloguing, collaborative support, and natural language analytics.

The Retail/Wholesale industry led the way in terms of its interest in several BI features, including: ad-hoc query, dashboards, data integration, data discovery, production reporting, search interface and data catalogue.

Compared to their peers, Marketing & Sales departments rely on a broader base of third party data connectors to get greater value from their cloud BI systems. The greater the scale, scope and depth of third-party connectors and integrations the more valuable marketing and sales data becomes. Relying on connectors for greater insights into sales productivity & performance, social media, online marketing, online data storage, and simple productivity improvements are common in Marketing & Sales departments.

The Dresner Advisory Services’ 2019 study demonstrates the importance the Retail/Wholesale industry places on cloud BI and the benefits it can provide to Marketing & Sales departments; such as improving customer experiences and streamlining supply chains. So, if you’re not already using cloud BI in your business, perhaps it’s time to start thinking about it before your competitors get a competitive advantage.