In today’s data-driven world, the volume of information available is staggering. Think about your daily activities—whether you’re making a digital payment for your morning coffee, checking traffic updates on your phone, or searching for information online, every action generates data. This data shapes how cities, businesses, and even sports teams strategize for the future. For example, my favorite football and racing teams are leveraging extensive data points to enhance player performance and improve fan experiences.
However, these large organizations can sometimes struggle to manage their data effectively. If major companies face hurdles in extracting valuable insights, small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have even more reason to feel overwhelmed. The abundance of data can be both an opportunity and a complication for SMBs.
The Challenge of Measuring Data
For SMBs, the task of storing, processing, and gaining insights from vast amounts of data can be daunting. Picture a busy small business where finance team members are inundated with requests like:
- “Can you clarify my profit margins?”
- “How well is a specific product performing?”
- “What metrics should guide our future investments?”
At the same time, sales teams and managers want to understand customer interactions with new digital offerings. If there’s an IT staff member available, they too are bombarded with similar inquiries. Producing the necessary data to respond to these questions becomes a significant burden for teams relying on basic spreadsheets.
Spreadsheets: A Limiting Factor
While spreadsheets can handle straightforward analysis, they fall short when it comes to the extensive data challenges that SMBs face today. Many leaders I speak with often mention they are stuck with “load-bearing spreadsheets,” which are like structural beams in a building, supporting multiple departments within the organization.
Some SMBs continue to rely on spreadsheets due to familiarity, a belief that alternatives would be too complicated, or simply a lack of awareness about the powerful data tools available today. If you’re not a tech expert, it’s understandable that you may not know how IT services could streamline your business operations.
Fortunately, there are innovative solutions that can revolutionize data collection and analysis.
Unlock Deeper Insights with Business Intelligence
Business intelligence (BI) tools do exactly what their name implies—they transform your business data into actionable insights about operations and challenges. This continuous intelligence enables more informed decision-making regarding sales, resource allocation, supply chain management, and market conditions. Typically, these insights are presented through intuitive dashboards featuring graphs and charts for easier comprehension.
For instance, a biotech SMB we worked with had been using cumbersome spreadsheets to manage complex scientific data related to drug delivery therapies. This approach often took days to yield answers to even simple queries. After implementing BI solutions, we helped them reduce the time from inquiry to insight from days to mere minutes.
Begin Your BI Transformation with Us
At Amazon VGT2, we specialize in helping SMBs rethink their data analysis strategies through BI. Our team is equipped to guide you through the sometimes-overwhelming landscape of business intelligence, even if you lack in-house technical expertise.
As an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner, we utilize a variety of BI tools, including Amazon QuickSight, to convert data into visual formats that are easily analyzable. By integrating data from multiple sources, the biotech SMB was able to identify correlations, make informed decisions, and gain deeper insights without needing technical proficiency.
AI-Driven Insights with AWS
With tools like QuickSight, businesses gain access to real-time dashboards that aggregate data from across their operations. This means that complex questions can receive straightforward answers—something traditional spreadsheets struggle to provide. The best part is, users don’t need to use technical jargon when querying QuickSight; everyday language suffices, democratizing analytics for all employees.
By adopting BI, you empower your team to showcase their contributions backed by data. Many SMB leaders who have embraced BI report unexpected advantages, such as enhanced efficiency and improved decision-making.
If this sounds beneficial for your business, we invite you to explore further. We are offering free consultations for SMBs eager to uncover the insights hidden within their data. It would be advantageous to involve team members who understand data sources as well as those who know the needs of the business.
Don’t worry if your SMB lacks significant technical expertise—we can navigate these challenges together. Our data analysts and machine learning specialists are dedicated to helping SMBs maximize their data potential with BI tools, regardless of their technical background.
Discover how your organization can interact with data in innovative ways on AWS. Our knowledge of various data tools and platforms will set you on a path to transformation, focusing on outcomes that matter to you. Schedule your free consultation today and uncover the capabilities of your data in a modern cloud environment. If you want to learn more, you can check out this excellent resource that provides further insights into BI. Additionally, explore this blog post for more engaging content, and refer to this authority on the topic for a deeper understanding.
Leave a Reply