8 Business Intelligence Tools & Software to Improve Business Growth

Katie Holmes
9th September 2022

Generate meaningful insights and increase revenue with these business intelligence tools.

It’s no secret that data is the foundation of success. 

Without data, you have no way to measure whether or not your efforts are paying off. 

There’s a great demand for data, and the statistics back it up. 88% of marketers say collecting first-party data was their top priority in the last year. 

To capture first-party data, many companies are turning toward business intelligence tools. 

And rightly so. 

Business intelligence tools can help turn data into actionable insights and allow you to identify new and great opportunities for your business.

But what are the best business intelligence tools for your team? 

Keep reading, and we’ll take you through a list of our best tools for business intelligence. 

For this article, we’ll discuss:

What are business intelligence tools? 

Chances are you know what a business intelligence tool is, but for the sake of clarity, let’s quickly take a look at how they work.

Business intelligence is a process that uses data to generate insights that help businesses make better decisions. 

BI tools and software collect and store data from multiple sources, including transaction, customer, and marketing data. This data is then analysed to reveal trends and patterns that can be used to improve business operations.

What are the benefits of business intelligence tools?

Business intelligence tools can offer several benefits to businesses, including:

What to look for in a business intelligence tool?

Business intelligence tools help turn data into insights that inform an organisation’s strategy and help them make better decisions. 

There’s a lot to think about when it comes to business intelligence tools. Below, we’ve listed some factors you can take into consideration to help find the right fit for your existing tech stack.

1. Allows for data collection and analysis

The purpose of a BI tool is to collect, analyse and share operational information and data. When looking at a modern BI solution, keep collaboration in mind. 

Consider how easy it is to distribute data and share reports among your teams. If the tool doesn’t provide an environment where your team can collaborate, you’ll have great difficulty making data-driven decisions for your company.

2. Provides valuable reporting and visualisation

In this data-driven world, the ability to generate and share high-powered reports and dashboards is an absolute must. 

Ideally, you want a tool that can keep your reports and dashboards up to date in real-time and provide valuable insights to apply across your entire business.

3. Easy integration with other leading platforms

It’s hard to create a data-driven culture if your applications aren’t speaking with each other. 

Be sure to consider whether the tool you choose is easy to set up and can integrate with other applications, including the tools you use for marketing and sales reporting.

4. Has no hidden costs

Before selecting an analytics tool, you need to know what’s being sold and at what price. 

It’s not uncommon for providers to charge additional fees for setting up your account, integrations and extra usage. It pays to know what you’re getting involved in to avoid any unexpected charges further down the line.

What is the best business intelligence tool?

There are many different types of business intelligence tools and software available, and the best solution for a business will depend on its specific needs and goals. Some of the most popular BI tools and software include: 


Ruler Analytics 

Ruler Analytics offers many benefits that can help you better understand your company’s performance. 

Yep, it’s our product. But give us a chance to explain why you need Ruler and how it can help improve your performance. 

Ruler is a powerful data reporting and visualisation tool that aligns your anonymous visitors, leads and closed deals to provide actionable insights and data-driven insights.

It works by tracking every visitor over multiple touchpoints, sessions, traffic sources, keywords and more. 

Related: How to view full customer journeys with Ruler

When an anonymous visitor completes a conversion, whether that’s via form fill, phone call or live chat, Ruler will send all of the data it has captured about your lead to your CRM or sales tracking system. 

Each contact in your CRM is enriched with Ruler’s attribution data, allowing you to keep track of your leads as they move down the funnel.

Once a lead converts into a deal or sale, the customer’s data, such as the revenue amount and marketing touchpoints, is sent back to the Ruler database. 

This information is then attributed across the customer’s touchpoints, allowing you to see which marketing channels are having the greatest impact on your revenue metrics and goals.

Related: How Ruler attributes revenue to your marketing

Ruler also integrates with just about any tool and traffic source, enabling a streamlined flow of data and accurate reporting across your entire tech stack.

Pricing for Ruler starts at £199 a month, with plans based on features and the number of website visitors. You can save 20% by paying annually and there are special rates for agency partners.

Pro Tip

Want more information on Ruler and the services we offer? Book a demo to see Ruler in action and learn how it can help your data-driven decision-making and improve ROI.

Book a free demo of Ruler


Datapine

Datapine is a powerful business intelligence tool that allows your team to explore, visualise, measure and share their company data. 

One notable benefit of Datapine is its ability to display and show your data in one central dashboard, allowing you to make quick but informed decisions.

Its intuitive drag-and-drop interface lets users at every level of your organisation explore their data and generate meaningful insights within minutes.

Datapine has price plans for all types of businesses based on their data analysis and visualisation needs. For pricing, you’ll need to request a demo of the product.

Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI is a popular reporting tool that’s used by many companies worldwide. 

Over 5 million subscribers are benefiting from Power BI. It doesn’t come as a surprise. Power BI is a stand-out solution and offers streamlined data integrations and visualisations.

The advantages of Power BI are countless. However, the most significant benefit of Power BI is that it’s straightforward to use. Accessing data is easy and seamless, allowing your team to focus on more important things.

Power BI Pro is cloud-based software that comes with a monthly fee of $10 per user. There is a premium plan available, but that will cost you £4,995 per month. 

Sisense

Sisense is another powerful business intelligence tool that offers a host of benefits to its users.

Its solution allows teams to easily integrate different data sources, perform advanced data analysis, build interactive business dashboards and generate key business insights.

Pricing for Sisense is custom based.  Sisense claims to work with you to create a customised solution that specifically meets your needs and fits your budget. The best way to get a price is to fill out a form on the website. 

Tableau

Another popular entry on this list is Tableau and rightly so. 

Tableau is a powerful platform that allows you to better track and analyse your data.

It seamlessly integrates with your existing technologies, such as your marketing analytics and CRM, to create a single source of truth about what is and isn’t working. 

Tableau offers a free version of its product, but with limited capabilities. Tableau’s pricing is available in three subscription options. Tableau Creator from $70, Tableau Explorer from $35 per month and Tableau Viewer from $12 per month. 

YellowFin BI

If you’re an enterprise company, then Yellowfin could be the BI tool you’ve been looking for. 

Yellowfin BI is an ‘end-to-end’ analytics platform that allows you to extract tons of value from your data.

This BI tool has the user at its heart. Yellowfin offers a ‘Launchpad Package’ that walks you through how to build integrations, dashboards and reports in the Yellowfin platform.

YellowFin BI offers customised pricing to suit your specific requirements, but you can expect to pay up to $3,000 for five users per year.

QlikSense 

Qlik Sense is a complete data analytics solution that allows you to create flexible and interactive visualisations.

It empowers users to generate and publish their own visually stunning dashboards and reports to produce data-driven recommendations.

The pricing for Qlik Sense starts at $30.00 per user per month. Qlik Sense also offers a custom plan based on the customer’s request.

Zoho Analytics

Zoho Analytics is a sophisticated BI and data visualisation software. It lets you analyse your data, create stunning data visualisations, and uncover important business insights in minutes.

One notable benefit of Zoho Analytics is that it’s highly integrable and lets you track and analyse data through a wide variety of data sources.

There’s just one catch with Zoho Analytics. You’ve probably guessed, but Zoho Analytics is only available to existing Zoho users. 

Pricing for Zoho Analytics starts at $25/month (supports two users, 500,000 rows & unlimited Workspace in the account). 

Is Ruler the business intelligence tool you need? 

There you have it, our list of business intelligence tools. 

As you’ve probably noticed, each tool has distinct features and purposes. 

So, what works for one team might not work for another.

Ruler, however, is a universal product that can benefit almost any company.

It automatically adds attribution data to all your leads and deals in the CRM, allowing you to track marketing’s impact on opportunities and revenue more effectively. 

Another great thing about Ruler is that it can be used as a standalone product or in combination with other tools to enable the flow of data between your teams. 

Don’t take our word for it. 

See how other businesses track ROI using Ruler’s attribution and data-driven insights. Or book a demo and see Ruler in action for yourself.

book demo - revenue attribution - www.ruleranalytics.com