Introduction
Business intelligence (BI) platforms have become indispensable tools for organisations looking to gain actionable insights from their data.
At its core, BI refers to technologies and processes that analyse raw data from various sources, transform it into meaningful information, and communicate insights that drive strategic business decisions. With the right BI solution, companies can identify opportunities, trends, and challenges in near real-time - allowing them to outmanoeuvre the competition.
Sontai offers a powerful prebuilt BI solution designed specifically for small and midsize enterprises (SMEs). Our intuitive cloud platform combines key capabilities like data visualisation, advanced reporting and data integration in one unified interface.
Sontai aims to make enterprise-grade BI accessible for organisations without the IT resources of large corporations. The preconfigured dashboards and reports allow stakeholders across the business to self-serve the insights they need in minutes without relying on IT or data experts.
This article provides an in-depth look at how Sontai's prebuilt BI platform can drive tangible results for businesses, with examples of real-world success stories. We will cover the key features of their offering, best practices for maximising value, and what sets them apart from competitors.
Most importantly, we will demonstrate how Sontai empowers organisations to go beyond just collecting data - to leveraging intelligence that facilitates data-driven decision making and strategic planning.
Understanding Business Intelligence
Business intelligence (BI) refers to the technologies, applications and processes used for gathering, storing, accessing and analysing data to help business users make better decisions. The key components of a BI solution include:
Data sources - This includes all the internal systems and external data sources from which data is collected. Common data sources are CRM systems, ERP systems, financial data, web server logs, social media data, etc.
Data warehouse - A central repository where data from multiple sources is consolidated and organised. The structured data is used for querying, reporting and analysis.
Reporting and visualisation - BI tools generate reports and interactive dashboards to visualise data insights. Charts, graphs and maps help highlight key trends, metrics and KPIs.
Advanced analytics - Applying statistical models, machine learning algorithms and predictive analytics on the data to discover insights not apparent with regular reports and dashboards.
The core purpose of BI is to convert raw data into meaningful insights that can drive better decisions. Key roles played by BI include:
Identify and analyse changes, trends and opportunities hidden within large volumes of data from diverse sources. This provides a competitive advantage.
Enable data-driven decision making across the organisation rather than intuition or gut feel. Decisions backed by data are more accurate.
Optimise business processes, target marketing campaigns, expand into new markets etc. based on data-backed insights.
Track KPIs in real-time to monitor performance and progress towards business goals. Act on deviations or drops in KPIs.
The tangible benefits realised by implementing a strong BI solution include increased revenue and profits, higher customer satisfaction, improved marketing ROI, operational efficiencies, and faster innovations.
Introducing Sontai's Prebuilt BI Offering
Sontai is a trusted provider of business intelligence solutions tailored for small and medium-sized enterprises. Our prebuilt BI offering provides an easy way for companies to start leveraging data insights without the need for costly and time-consuming development and implementation.
Sontai's prebuilt BI includes pre-configured dashboards, reports, and analytics that are ready to use out-of-the-box. This enables organisations to quickly connect their data sources and start deriving value immediately.
Key features and advantages include:
Library of pre-built templates for multi-channel sales, category, finance, automotive and more.
Automated data integration from multiple sources.
Role-based access and sharing controls.
Cloud deployment for ease of access.
Sontai's prebuilt BI is designed for the needs of specific departments and industries. It has delivered tremendous value to customers across consumer goods, retail, automotive, waste management and more.
For example, a consumer goods brand used Sontai's prebuilt sales analytics template to gain insights into their retail channels, product, customer and promotional performance. By optimising promotions based on data-driven insights, they achieved a +12% increase in marketing ROI within months.
Driving Tangible Results with Sontai
Sontai's prebuilt BI offering enables organisations to achieve tangible results in various ways:
Streamlining Reporting Processes with Intuitive Dashboards
Sontai provides intuitive, interactive dashboards that allow users to easily visualise key data and metrics. The dashboards consolidate information from multiple sources into a single view, eliminating the need for tedious manual reporting. Users can drill down into the data, filter by parameters, and create custom views to quickly generate reports. The dashboards update each day as new data comes in, ensuring users always have access to the latest information.
With Sontai, companies can configure role-based access and customise access for different teams or objectives. This streamlines reporting by allowing users to immediately access relevant data without having to request custom reports or manually compile information. The reduction in reporting workload enables personnel to focus on analysing data and deriving insights rather than just assembling reports.
Enabling Data-Driven Decisions through Visualisation and Analysis
Sontai includes powerful data visualisation and analytical capabilities to uncover trends, outliers, and patterns in data. Interactive charts, graphs, and data visualisations enable users to explore information more intuitively. Built-in KPIs, trend analysis, and deep dive tools empower fact-based decision making.
Users can analyse historical data to look for insight that can predict future outcomes. The platform provides capabilities to analyse root causes behind fluctuations in KPIs. This level of granular analysis is only possible with Sontai's unified view of all relevant data sources.
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Providing Controlled Access and Data Integration for Comprehensive Insights
Sontai consolidates data from disparate sources through pre-built connectors and APIs. This provides users with a comprehensive view of the information required for decision making, as opposed to siloed datasets. Robust access controls and permissions allow showing users only the data relevant to their role.
The unified data model maintains integrity between metrics and dimensions, ensuring users have trust in the data accuracy. Sontai follows best practices around data security and compliance monitoring. The access controls give organisations confidence in adopting a data-driven culture across teams.
With streamlined reports, powerful analytical tools, and integrated data access, Sontai empowers organisations to make timely decisions based on accurate insights. The prebuilt BI offering removes the barriers traditionally faced in reporting and analysis, enabling better performance.
Case Study 1: How NWH Group Revolutionised Reporting and Analysis with Sontai
NWH Group is a leading waste management company from Scotland. As the company grew, their existing reporting and analytics processes struggled to keep up.
The finance team at NWH Group was bogged down with tedious and manual reporting tasks. It took until 10 days after the end of each month to compile sales reports from their ERP system. Once the reports were prepared, not only were the reports out of date, they offered minimal insights for the sales team. Without easy access to detailed analysis, reps found it difficult to identify growth opportunities and compare performance across regions.
Implementing Sontai's prebuilt BI solution helped NWH Group transform their reporting and empower data-driven selling. Through pre-built connectors, the company was able to seamlessly integrate data from their ERP system, finance system and operational systems into Sontai's cloud analytics platform.
Report generation was now fully automated, freeing up time for more impactful analysis. Instead of waiting over a month, sales reps got access to interactive dashboards updated daily with key metrics like overall revenue and product line performance.
With Sontai's drilling and filtering capabilities, the sales team gained visibility into granular details underlying the numbers. Reps could analyse trends and anomalies to understand what's driving results in top territories and apply those best practices across the organisation.
By leveraging Sontai's prebuilt BI, NWH Group reduced their monthly reporting timelines by over 40 days while enabling more insightful analysis and data-driven decisions. The sales team could now maximise their selling time armed with the latest revenue analytics at their fingertips.
Case Study 2: How Tack Room Distillery Saved 350 Hours Per Year Using Sontai
Tack Room Distillery is a modern spirits company based in England. As they continued expanding into new markets, their reliance on Excel spreadsheets for sales and inventory reporting became increasingly cumbersome. The manual processes led to frequent data errors and made it difficult to access insights in a timely manner.
By implementing Sontai's prebuilt BI solution, Tack Room Distillery was able to automate their reporting and replace spreadsheet dashboards with interactive visualisations. This addressed several pain points:
Consolidating data from multiple sources into a single view
Eliminating manual processes that were error-prone and time consuming
Enabling self-service access to reports and dashboards
Quickly creating visualisations to spot trends and opportunities
Within months of adoption, Tack Room Distillery was able to make data-driven decisions that led to measurable results:
350 hours saved per year by automating reporting
8% increase in inventory turnover by optimising stock levels
13% revenue growth in new markets optimised using Sontai's segmentation features
The prebuilt data extraction and visualisation capabilities in Sontai empowered the company to eliminate repetitive manual work and focus on deriving value from their data. By combining centralised access to metrics with interactive dashboards, Tack Room Distillery was able to drive transformative business outcomes.
Best Practices for Maximising the Value of Sontai's Prebuilt BI
Selecting the Right Data Sources and Configuring Integrations
One of the most important steps to maximising the impact of Sontai's prebuilt BI is selecting the right data sources and properly configuring the integrations. Trying to analyse multiple disconnected data sources can lead to an incomplete picture. Prioritise connecting the data sources that will allow you to track your most important KPIs and metrics. Work closely with your implementation specialist to ensure all data sources are properly integrated and mapped within Sontai's platform.
Customising Dashboards to Align with Company Goals and KPIs
The real value comes from customising Sontai's dashboards to focus on the specific KPIs and metrics that are most relevant for your business goals. Avoid trying to create a single, generalised dashboard. Instead, build role-based dashboards aligned to the objectives of specific teams or departments. Provide self-service data exploration but include highlighted charts and graphs for important metrics to guide users. Take advantage of the Sontai Team to customise your templates to make them fit exactly what you need.
Training Employees on Using Sontai's BI Product Effectively
Make sure to thoroughly train employees who will be using Sontai's BI platform. Provide user guides, online training resources, and in-person sessions to walk them through interpreting the dashboards and using the self-service analysis features effectively. Emphasise how the insights can inform their day-to-day decisions and actions. Address any resistance by showcasing success stories and the tangible benefits other companies have achieved. A proper training program is essential to drive user adoption and maximise the return on your investment.
How Sontai Compares to Other BI Products
Sontai stands apart from other business intelligence solutions in the market in several key ways:
Prebuilt dashboards and reports: Sontai comes with prebuilt dashboards and reports tailored to different industries and use cases. This enables rapid time-to-value compared to solutions that require building visualisations from scratch.
Intuitive interface: Sontai prioritises ease of use with a user-friendly interface. Less technically savvy users can easily connect to data without coding and analyse their data with ease.
Affordable pricing for SMEs: Many BI tools are prohibitively expensive for small and medium businesses. Sontai offers flexible, affordable pricing scaled for SMEs.
Scalability: Sontai's cloud-based architecture allows it to scale with data volumes and users without degradation in performance. It can grow with customers over time.
Connectors for 30+ data sources: Prebuilt connectors make it easy for Sontai to integrate data from diverse sources like Xero, Shopify, QuickBooks, Amazon Seller etc.
Focus on actionable insights: With features like conditional formatting, drill downs and decomposition trees etc. Sontai enables users to derive actionable insights from their data.
By combining an intuitive interface, purpose-built dashboards, and powerful analytical capabilities at an affordable price point, Sontai delivers unique value as a BI solution for SMEs looking to drive tangible business results.
TAKE ACTION TODAY
Want to learn more about Sontai?
Book a personalised demo to see how Sontai can bring your data to life, today!
Conclusion
Business intelligence solutions play a crucial role in enabling organisations to gain actionable insights from their data. As discussed throughout this article, implementing a robust BI platform is key for driving tangible results across all business functions, from sales and marketing to operations and finance.
Sontai's prebuilt BI offering provides a streamlined, cost-effective way for companies to start leveraging data-driven decision making. With intuitive dashboards, seamless data integration, and easy customisation, Sontai empowers users across an organisation to access visualised data insights.
The use cases and customer examples highlighted demonstrate the power of Sontai's BI capabilities. By implementing Sontai, companies can expect to see measurable improvements in efficiency, productivity, and performance. Sales teams can understand their customers better, operations teams can optimise processes, and executives can identify growth opportunities.
Finally, Sontai's prebuilt BI solution enables organisations of all sizes to unlock the full potential of their data. The platform's robust feature set and ease of use facilitates turning raw data into actionable insights. Companies that leverage Sontai can gain a true competitive edge through data-driven decision making powered by comprehensive business intelligence. The tangible results speak for themselves – Sontai paves the path to becoming an insights-driven organisation.