How People Make Business Intelligence Possible

It’s easy to believe the world of computers is a cold and lifeless void. Futuristic films always emphasize the role of machines in daily life and the absence of human contact. This is especially true of the data-saturated world of business intelligence. The truth, however, is that people touch every part of business intelligence, from data collection to actual software implementation in your own business.

Data Scientists

Data scientists are the brains behind most operations. Effectively everything we do, from banking to shopping to surfing the web, generates data. This much data is impossible to sort through without training. It’s an overwhelming collection of information, and sorting valuable insights out of the raw data takes both practice and skill. Today, new software solves many of our major problems almost before we realize there’s an issue. This is thanks to data scientists who recognize trends as they develop. They are key to any business intelligence operation, and their insights touch every product and report.

Data Analysts

Data analysts provide the link between data and information. They take numbers and turn them into a language. They work closely with businesses, taking their data and presenting it in a manageable format. This allows analysts to help businesses identify opportunities and problems within the company. While a data scientist works primarily with raw data, data analysts take the work of data scientists and turn it into language and concepts.

IT Employees

IT plays a critical role in business intelligence because it’s where all the data and information meet practical application. Your IT employees play many parts, including development, implementation, and emergency tech support. They know your specific business, along with all of its hardware and software, better than anyone else.

Unfortunately, most IT employees spend the majority of their time recording data and generating reports. This gross waste of talent turns one of your most innovative departments into a static entity. Employers essentially turn their IT departments into a group of multi-tasking data scientists and analysts. Business intelligence solutions create software to fulfill reporting roles, however. There are more than enough excellent programs available to generate both automated and on-demand reports. While every employer wants to see a human touch, or at least fact-checking, in major reports, there’s no need to spend months compiling data for them.

Used well, your IT employees can solve problems before you even realize you have them. They know your software well enough to not just solve problems, but suggest and implement new software that will save your entire business time and money. IT is about more than crunching numbers, after all, and in the age of Cloud computing and automated reports, there’s no reason your employees should have to.

Business intelligence software relies on human intelligence. From the initial work of data scientists to the implementation and support offered by your IT employees, people make business intelligence possible. This chain of roles creates a link from the vast wells of data to the software that keeps your business up and running at peak capacity.