Why CIOs Need Business Intelligence

by IT Executives Council | Dec 27, 2022 | Data Analytics

It goes without saying that CIOs need to possess an unsurpassed level of intelligence to excel in their leadership positions. When you hear the word “intelligence” as it applies to a CIO, you probably think about the seemingly countless technical skills required to lead an organization deep into the 21st century. Mastering technical concepts such as artificial intelligence is a vital part of running the technical side of things for organizations of all sizes, across every industry. However, intelligence for CIOs encompasses much more than mastering rapidly evolving and equally rapidly growing technical skills.

CIOs also must master Business Intelligence (BI) tools.

The executive role of a CIO has transformed from a supportive leadership position that provides technical perspectives on how to solve complex business problems to a role that requires a deep understanding of how data drives organizational success. Business intelligence tools allow organizations to gain access to and then analyze a wide variety of data that previously did not factor into executive-level decision-making processes. Data-backed decisions help CIOs not only promote developing new and improved digital initiatives, but also leverage data to make the best business decisions for their respective organizations.

What is Business Intelligence?

The road to defining contemporary BI began to be paved in the 1960s, when organizations utilized certain tools to improve the way they shared information between departments. Business Intelligence as a concept did not emerge as an official term until 1989, when it represented reviewing computer models to reach decisions that impacted more than technology issues. BI optimizes data tools, mining, and visualization to implement the most effective business practices that help the C-Suite executives of organizations make the right decisions.

Your organization has conquered the often-misinterpreted concept of modern BI when it obtains a comprehensive understanding of its data to initiate change and remove inefficiencies from the decision-making process.

What Are the Common Methods Used to Establish BI?

Business intelligence is much more than a singular concept, but instead, it represents a larger term that describes the process of gathering, storing, and analyzing data to enhance business performance. CIOs have several methods for incorporating BI into the decision-making process.

Data mining refers to accessing databases, statistics, and machine learning (ML) tools to reveal business trends. Creating a detailed reporting system allows C-Suite executives such as a CIO to share the data analysis that forms the conclusions leading to well-informed decisions. One of the key metrics for BI involves comparing current performance statistics such as profit margin with historical data that measure the same metrics. This before and after analysis of data has especially helped C-Suite executives understand the negative financial consequences of operations during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Descriptive analytics analyzes preliminary data to discover what happened after making certain business decisions. BI methods also include querying, which allows CIOs to ask data-driven questions and then receive the answers from examining large sets of data. Statistical analysis takes the results provided by descriptive analytic techniques to refine and simplify statistics that describe business trends, as well as why they developed into successful operational strategies. Finally, visual analysis represents a BI method that closely examines data through the art of storytelling to explain business insights.

How Does a CIO Get the Most Out of Business Intelligence?

Understanding BI and implementing methods to maximize the benefits of the data-driven tools that comprise it are two different things. Since right before the pandemic the application of BI tools has emerged as one of the most important areas of interest for CIOs for several reasons. By leveraging the full potential of BI tools, CIOs should be able to collect data-driven information that allows them to make critical business decisions, while eliminating the mental fatigue that frequently is associated with analyzing data sets. BI can help a CIO streamline the flow of vast amounts of data to prevent risking legal violations, as well as convert the IT department from a cost center to a vital source of information that gives an organization a competitive business advantage.

CIOs need to implement the best Business Intelligence practices to improve value, eliminate data waste, improve data accuracy, and change the role of the IT department into a center of strategic importance for making the right business decisions.

What Should CIOs Expect with BI Moving Forward?

CIOs lead the pursuit of establishing technological advantages that provide their organizations with a competitive edge. This has been the CIO’s fundamental challenge since the advent of the technology revolution. As we move forward, Business Intelligence tools, like Power BI, should help CIOs improve the decision-making process for all C-Suite executives. BI trends indicate the decision-making process should rely more on automation to allow CIOs to return to their roots by exploring ways to enhance the technical capabilities of their respective organizations.

If you are interested in learning more about a solution like Power BI, please consider reaching out to our partner MIBAR. They understand the value of powerful BI software, and know the role it provides in improving your decision making while growing your business. Implementation, integration, training, and more, they provide you with the tools, technology, and know-how to leverage business intelligence software now and in the future.