6 BI Tools Your Startup Actually Needs

In 2020, there's no legitimate reason for companies, including startups, not to take advantage of business intelligence tools.

Getting a business off the ground - and keeping it there - takes a lot of work. Data can give you a leg up, but only if you're able to translate it into actionable insights. BI technologies are how that rubber meets the road.

But BI is a broad category: Which types of tools are actually worth the investment?

Before any data can be analyzed, it must be accessible. A category of tools known as ETL, which stands for "extract, transform, load," pulls information from heterogeneous sources, applies needed transformations to the data, and then inputs it into a data warehouse, where it's now ready for consumption.

Without ETL, none of the "sexy" side of data analysis is possible. Tools like ETLrobot are the bridge between data collection and AI-driven insights. Integrations with Google Analytics, HubSpot, LinkedIn, and more allow it to work with many different types of data.

A data warehouse is a central repository for structured and unstructured data. ETL processes can pull information from multiple sources into a data warehouse, which is used to store, organize, and keep that data safe.

Oracle offers a data warehouse, though the space also contains many smaller providers. Look for one that offers 24/7 support and uptime of 99% or more to ensure you always have access to your company's data.

It's easy to spend huge amounts of time studying your competition, researching keywords, and optimizing content for search engines. SEO is a smart investment, given that many shoppers start with search, but it shouldn't suck up all your time.

Traffic analysis tools like Ahrefs can take much of the work off your shoulders. Use them to understand the terms you're ranking for, which your competitors are ranking for, and which might make sense to target.

There's a reason why more than 90% of businesses with more than 11 employees depend on customer relationship management software to build rapport with customers. But research suggests that only about half of smaller companies benefit fully from their CRM's capabilities.

CRM software stores details about past customer interactions. Top CRM tools also point out trends in customer demographics, purchasing behaviors, and customer support needs. HubSpot and Salesforce both offer popular CRM programs.

Although CRM systems and other tools often come with visualizers built in, the best ones are standalone programs. Tableau, for example, has drag-and-drop visualization tools that let you slice information in dozens of different ways.

Use visualizers to spot trends you might not be see in raw numbers or even simple line graphs. Charts are great ways to look at proportions, projections, and progress toward certain goals. Visualizations also make for better presentations when, for example, you need to meet with board members or company investors.

As companies generate increasingly larger amounts of data, they're turning to predictive analytics tools to anticipate future trends and behaviors. Predictive analytics tools use regressions and machine learning to tease out the relationship between two or more variables.

Microsoft Azure's Machine Learning Studio is a popular choice, as is Sisense. Both tools have applications across business domains: Use them to understand what qualities future hires should have, spot manufacturing efficiency improvements, identify new marketing audiences, and more.

In less than a decade, BI tools have gone from virtually unknown to "can't live without it" solutions. Not every company needs every category of them - a chain of gas stations probably doesn't need to maintain profiles on specific customers - but all can benefit from some BI investments. Which are right, of course, is up to you.

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