These are the main features you should look for in your data analytics tools, whether you’re looking at best-of-breed or a full suite.
Artificial intelligence
In the top business analytics tools, AI helps organizations identify patterns and oddities in the data and make predictions for the future. Retail and manufacturing businesses can use these predictions to determine how many people they’ll need on staff each day, while product-based businesses can use them to determine their inventory needs.
AI can also take unstructured (qualitative) data from user reviews, social media posts, and survey feedback and use text analysis to turn it into structured (quantitative) data that businesses can then gather insights from.
Real-time data updates
In order to get the best insights, businesses need to use the most recent data they have. Because of this, business analytics tools need to update in real-time as new data comes in. Real-time data can help businesses identify website issues before they lose too much traffic and react to market trends faster. Up-to-date data is especially important for small business analytics because they typically have the flexibility to adjust to changing market conditions.
Shareable visualizations
People don’t consume data in a silo; they work with their team members to determine how their insights impact the business and what they need to adjust. When employees create data visualizations, they need to be able to easily share them with their coworkers, so they can collaborate on analysis. Additionally, data scientists can push embedded analytics to the applications where users are making important decisions, streamlining the decision-making process and reducing the risk of error.
Most business analytics tools offer shareable reports that users can export as a PDF and then email to key stakeholders, but those reports are static. Top analytics software, however, will allow users to collaborate on dynamic dashboards and visualizations that allow them to manipulate different parts of the data.