A Study of Business Intelligence Tools from Users’ Perspectives

Abstract

Business Intelligence (BI) has always been important for the enterprises. The enterprises can gain a competitive advantage from implementing BI. BI assists decision-makers to make decisions better by providing the information they need at the right time. The features of BI tools are slightly varied depending on the focus of BI software vendors. This article aims to discuss the main features as well as advantages and disadvantages of various BI tools from users’ points of view. The study reveals that the advantages of these BI tools are the ability to connect internal and external data sources, the ability to provide interactive dashboards with drag-and-drop interfaces, the ability to share and collaborate for dashboards and reports, and the ability to control access and sharing permission. Most BI tools are cloud-based; therefore, users can access these tools from any browser with an internet connection. The disadvantages of BI tools vary among these tools which include slow performance and difficulty in extracting or exporting data. The article also highlights the improvements of these BI tools recommended by users such as improving performance for live connection, supporting various file formats, and disclosing price information on the website. This study can benefit enterprises, BI software vendors, and academic staff.