Cloud BI: 7 Benefits & Reasons Why It Is The Right Choice

Ever since the term ‘cloud computing’ was introduced by Google’s Eric Schmidt during an industry conference back in 2006, it has revolutionized the way we do business and there is no going back.

From delivering unparalleled mobility, scalability and cost savings, more companies are relying on the cloud to run their business operations and store their data than ever before.

In fact, the recent IPO of Snowflake (a cloud-data storage company) at an incredible $33 billion valuation heralds the acceleration of companies looking to store and analyze the vast troves of data that they generate daily.

Getting insights into data is no longer optional, it is a business necessity.

Organizations today are looking for a business intelligence solution that not only effectively analyzes their data, but can easily integrate into their existing data warehouses and uncover insights seamlessly.

With Cloud Business Intelligence (BI), enterprises of all sizes will be able to gain insight on demand from their data to make better data-driven decisions without the hassle of cumbersome software or hardware – thanks to the agility and accessibility of its cloud capabilities.

What Is Cloud BI & Why It Is The Future Of Data Analytics

Like many other cloud-based tools such as CRMs and email marketing software, Cloud BI solutions are hosted on a virtual network of remote servers on the internet.

They provide businesses with the ability to access and analyze their data to gain key insights for smarter data-driven decision making.

Forecasted to reach $24.7 billion in 2020 despite the global slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, business intelligence spending will continue to grow in the following years with enterprises shifting towards Cloud BI solutions as working from home becomes the new normal.

While on-premise BI solutions have been around for decades, Cloud BI is a more robust and agile solution that breaks down the traditional barriers and requirements to get started.

Packed with features such as visualizations and highly intuitive dashboards, Cloud BI is fast becoming a necessity for companies looking to compete harder and innovate further by making sense of their data.

In fact, according to Dresner Advisory Services, 72% of enterprise software vendors highlighted that Cloud BI is essential to their go-to-market strategies in 2020 which will likely reach 95% in a post-COVID-19 world.

In this article, we will be taking you through the benefits of Cloud BI and why you should adopt it to drive transformation in your organization.

7 Benefits Why Cloud BI Is For You

With the massive growth of Cloud BI solutions, we have compiled for you 7 key reasons it is the perfect choice to help build a data-driven culture for your organization – regardless of whether you are running a small team or managing a large corporation.

1. Highly Scalable & Elastic

One of the biggest factors when it comes to choosing a BI solution is how flexible it is to accommodate the current size of my organization today and as it grows in the years to come.

On-premise BI solutions are usually installed at a static point in time where the organization’s data generation and usage might be modest but as the organization grows exponentially, the BI solution might not be able to keep up.

Your BI solution has to easily scale in line with your organizational growth & data needs without the need for additional installations or hardware modifications.

With Cloud BI, you will be able to swiftly increase or decrease your BI system needs and capabilities as and when is needed – allowing you to only pay for what you require, enabling your organization to enjoy cost-savings.

2. Unparalleled Ease Of Use

Because of its nature to be highly scalable and flexible for a multitude of organizations, the Cloud BI solutions tend to be easier for users to operate.

From intuitive dashboards to beautiful visualizations, modern Cloud BI solutions allow users to interpret, track and make sense of their organization’s data.

However, the very best Cloud BI solutions are those that are powered by conversational analytics. This means that users will be able to speak directly to their data and ask questions like how they would in a normal conversation.

Asking simple questions like “How much has our business earned last year” and “Which product is selling the best” will allow users to begin insights that will help make better data-driven decisions.

At its core, Cloud BI solutions help to enable the democratization of data, allowing your organization to better achieve a data-driven culture.

3. Faster Deployment Speed

The business world today is all about making fast decisions and taking products to market as quickly as possible – and the same applies to your business intelligence solution.

Traditional BI solutions normally require the setting up of an integrated system of not only the software but also a team of IT experts to assist with the set-up.

This could very well mean tens of thousands of dollars and days being spent to deploy the solution, not to mention any additional costs that might arise from troubleshooting.

With Cloud BI solutions, the burden of managing, installing and updating the software will fall on the service provider.

No matter how simple or complex your business situation is, Cloud BI allows for swift implementation so that you can spend time gaining insights instead of wasting it in a complex web of set-up.

In fact, many BI SaaS providers will provide a free trial for you to test out their platform without any risk at all.

4. Reliability & Security

Cloud BI solutions are highly reliable with highly secure locations for their application hosting.

Many applications are hosted and deployed on cloud infrastructure providers such as Amazon Web Services, allowing for continuous up-time of the services, allowing users to analyze their data and glean insights without any downtime.

Certain Cloud BI solutions have an added layer of security by being only an add-on that analyzes your datasets without having to move or transfer your data away.

This gives the added benefit that your data will stay private on your premises.

5. Maximum Accessibility & Mobility

When it comes to fostering a data-driven culture for your organization, data democratization is key.

And that will mean equipping the users throughout your organization with the means to easily access and utilize the BI tool to gain actionable insights.

Whether they are using it as part of their daily routine or during collaboration meetings with their fellow team members, having the ability to gain insights on demand is a critical factor that will determine the adoption of the BI tool.

Cloud BI tools, such as Qbo, allow users to access the platform from anywhere without any accessibility or efficiency issues – whether it is through their laptops, mobile devices or even during a team meeting on chat platforms such as Microsoft Teams.

6. Ease Of Integration To Existing Datasets

From on-premise servers to data lakes and data warehouses like Snowflake, organizations store their data in a myriad of ways that result in highly fragmented and disparate data.

Modern Cloud BI solutions today help to analyze all the data in its original form, without the need for additional preparation from your IT teams.

This helps organizations to not only save money on hiring experts to prepare data-sets, but it also helps to expedite the process of getting insights on time to make swift decisions before any opportunities are lost.

7. Ever-Evolving Visualizations & Intuitive Insights

One of the biggest appeals of today’s Cloud BI solutions is the beautiful visualizations users can enjoy when they are looking to make sense of their data and insights.

Cloud BI solution providers constantly update their tools to ensure their key features such as visualizations, natural language processing and search algorithms are up to date and are on the cutting edge of the industry.

This means by choosing a Cloud BI solution, you will not have to worry about utilizing your IT team (or hiring developers) to update or modify the BI tool itself. Everything will be handled by the vendor.

Qbo – The Cloud BI Solution For Data-Driven Decision Making

At Unscrambl, we understand the need for organizations of all sizes, from the Fortune 500 to small business owners, to effectively harness the power of their data to stay competitive and innovate ahead.

We created Qbo, a Cloud BI tool that can connect to databases both on-premises and data-warehouses such as Snowflake. Powered by conversational analytics, we believe in accelerating data democratization throughout organizations by allowing users to talk directly to their data by simply asking questions.

The era of real-time business intelligence and insights on demand has come.

Embark on a free 14-day trial today and gain actionable insights into your data for faster & better business decision-making.