Business intelligence(BI)
Measurement and data
Measurement and data
Business intelligence (BI) is collecting, combining and visualising company data so you decide on numbers instead of gut feeling.
A BI setup has three layers: sources (your shop, CRM, accounting, ad accounts), a place where that data is collected and cleaned, and a reporting layer where you see it — Power BI, Looker Studio or Metabase, for example.
The gain is rarely prettier charts. It is in definitions: once revenue, margin and 'customer' mean the same in every system, arguments about whose number is right stop and the conversation moves to what you will do.
Start small. One dashboard with the five numbers you steer on weekly delivers more than a full data warehouse that may exist in nine months.
Tip
Start by surfacing the numbers you actually steer on. A dashboard with five clear metrics delivers more insight than eighty numbers nobody looks at.
Related terms
- KPIA KPI is a number you steer on because it links directly to a goal, such as qualified enquiries per month or cost per customer.
- ConsultancyConsultancy is paid advice from outside your organisation: a consultant analyses a question, advises on the approach and often helps with the execution too.
- AttributionAttribution assigns the value of a conversion to the channels and touchpoints that preceded it.
- Conversion trackingConversion tracking makes the actions you care about measurable — an enquiry, purchase, phone call or download — so you know which channels and pages produce them.