Can your organization handle a Business Intelligence (BI) solution? Do you and your team have the time and the expertise to work with it? Can a medium-sized or entrepreneurial company afford it?

The good news is that today’s BI models can deliver solutions for every company, regardless of size, resources, or market niche.

Using a BI platform for reporting and analyzing can help a company make critical decisions six times faster than its competitors, according to Domo. Regardless of whether you represent a strong enterprise or a small to medium-sized business, this is an advantage that applies to all. We emphasize advantage because BI tools aren’t a luxury anymore in terms of costs and time, and every company can profit.

By 2017, over 50% of business users and analysts in companies will have access to self-service tools.

A common myth is that only big companies, with huge amounts of data and complex business operations, can afford and benefit from a BI solution. Many medium-sized companies or start-ups have some concerns about the efforts, resources, and costs required to implement a BI platform. The reality in 2017 is that every business can transform its data into insightful information with modern BI tools, due to the rapid technological progress made in the last few years.

Let’s take a reality check and address some common concerns surrounding BI adoption in a company.

Do I need a BI solution?

One common myth regarding Business Intelligence is that only enterprises and large companies can truly benefit and gain value from implementing a BI solution. In a way, this is like saying that if you don’t have hundreds of thousands of clients and masses of data, you can’t benefit from real-time sales reports or a customer relationship management platform.

Irrespective of your company size and capabilities, you can take advantage of the power of data in order to develop efficiency in your organization by eliminating wasteful processes and ensuring data from all relevant sources is in one place. This will make it easier to understand how your customers behave, improve sales, and identify new opportunities for growth.

Nowadays, modern platforms can solve problems for any company, whether they are a giant enterprise or a much smaller operation. Both can profit from the same business solutions and tools, built differently, according to their individual needs and resources. A medium-sized or small company can have particular versions of BI tools, often designed to be easier to use and more accessible in terms of costs and adoption.

Can I afford a BI platform?

If you take a look at Google searches, you can see that a lot of people are concerned about the price when they search for a BI platform. Many are expecting expensive acquisition and implementing costs and to have to invest in infrastructure and hardware capabilities.

In the past, these concerns were all justified, however, the technology has moved on and modern Business Intelligence solutions can now be customized for different needs, affordable for any organization. Now you can acquire a package, or a scalable solution, for your needs and resources, or you can use a self-service BI solution.

In order to implement them, you can rely on your existing hardware and IT professionals, or use a virtualized infrastructure in the cloud. You should no longer be concerned about the potential costs of having to hire new IT specialists or qualified data analysts.

Extensive training and time-consuming usage

If we want to help provide you with a better and more realistic image of the total costs necessary for adopting such software, we should speak about the training and time required for using BI to maximize results.

A BI platform is thought to be time-consuming, disruptive, and requiring specialized expertise or extensive training. It is true that if you want incredible results from any tool or platform you use you should invest time, attention, and persevere.

Nowadays, BI tools can help you enormously. Using a solution designed for a medium-sized or small company still requires some training and working with specialized tools, but this can be achieved with an efficient initial training program. Once you are familiar with the interface, tools, and features, you’ll work with a single platform for all the data, through an organized and intuitive interface that is easy to customize. You don’t need to be an expert in data analysis or to have tech skills; every individual in an organization can learn to use a modern BI solution.

As you can see, the costs of a BI platform are no longer prohibitive for a medium-sized or small business. The implementation process is now easier and faster, while the interfaces and dashboards can be customized and efficiently used even by non-technically skilled individuals from a company. Business Intelligence tools are now accessible to every organization.

If you still have questions about what Business Intelligence solutions are suitable for you, or about the implementation process, we would be happy to help.