Running a successful alcohol brand in today’s complex and quickly evolving industry landscape requires access to big data and in-depth reports. Business intelligence reporting allows alcohol brands to better understand the market, their customers, and their business performance in order to continue improving. In fact, leveraging actionable insights from business intelligence reports can help you make strategic and tactical decisions for your business. Learn more about BI reporting and how it can help your brand.
Defining Business Intelligence Reports
In essence, BI reporting allows businesses to identify trends and see how different variables affect each other and certain Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Advanced BI reporting tools include features like Natural Language Processing (NLP) that allows users to search data without any coding knowledge. Users can simply enter verbal queries and get results.
BI reports can come in practically any form: PDFs, tables, and spreadsheets are all commonly used to present information. Data visualization uses charts, graphs, and histograms, which can also be helpful in representing information in an accessible way. The good news for alcohol brands is that BI reporting is more advanced than ever before and can be completely customized and automated. Specific reports can be generated on a regular schedule to help stay on top of trends.
Why is BI Reporting Important?
The alcohol industry is increasingly competitive as more producers enter the market. Staying relevant in a crowded market requires easy access to comprehensive data and insights. If you’re already gathering data about your alcohol brand’s performance, customers, competitors and general industry trends, you’ll need to analyze this data and translate it into understandable business intelligence reports.
BI tools and certain types of software are used to collect and analyze all the essential information so that no insights are overlooked. The insights from these reports are used to develop more effective strategies when it comes to marketing, distribution, sales and much more. Ultimately, these BI reports help alcohol brands make informed business decisions that lead to profitable results.
Two Types of BI Reporting
BI reporting can be broken down into two main categories:
- Managed reporting is when an IT professional or data analyst collects the data and prepares a report for non-technical users.
- Ad-hoc reporting means that non-technical individuals can use a platform to produce reports on their own, so that they don’t have to rely on an analyst.
The Role of a BI Reporting Analyst
A BI analyst uses an array of software, tools, and technology to collect information and use it to make recommendations for improvement. This role is becoming increasingly important as more businesses are able to access big data. A BI analyst can play a pivotal role in identifying areas of revenue loss and finding ways to increase profits.
Traditionally, alcohol brands have had to rely on BI analysts to present data and uncover trends. However, BI reporting platforms are making this information more accessible and allow decision-makers to produce reports in practically any format. Owners and managers can generate reports at any point and quickly make key strategic decisions.
Best BI Reporting Tools
Some of the more recognizable names in BI reporting include SAP BusinessObjects, QlikView, and Clear Analytics. The main drawback to these popular programs is that they come with steep learning curves. While they make BI reporting more user-friendly, they do require some level of expertise in order to customize reports and build dashboards. Overproof, on the other hand, is the only platform designed with the specific metrics and analytics used by leaders in the beverage alcohol industry already baked into the dashboard, making it by far the best BI reporting tool for the industry.
Another great thing about Overproof is that you don’t have to be a business analyst or have any experience in IT to use the tool. Powered by artificial intelligence, Overproof Platform was designed specifically for use by beverage alcohol executives and brand managers while Overproof App was designed specifically for field agents.
Overproof provides a variety of reports for every level of the commercial process from strategy to execution. Field users such as Sales Representatives and Brand Ambassadors can assess how well a venue fits their go-to-market strategy, and if they are meeting their goals. Brand Managers can visually review reports on their depletion data, volume, sold accounts, points of distribution, brand and product placements, order efficiency, sales performance, fulfillments, account churn, and more.
Fueled by day-to-day actions taken by our customers and by data we collect from trusted third parties, Overproof Insights turns regular metrics into smarter metrics that help businesses and brands succeed.
Overproof’s U.S. database includes more than 1.5 million on- and off-premise venues, with key proprietary data that goes beyond aggregate data-points like location and busy hours. Our 30+ attributes include premium rating; menu insights; tasting conversion insights; and competitor supplier and distributor presence. Armed with Overproof’s BI reports, customers can make better decisions and fuel business growth.
For the foreseeable future, BI reporting will continue to drive the alcohol industry. For brands, it is important to find accessible tools that can collect and analyze data in order to produce reports that directly inform the decision-making process and help sharpen strategies.
FAQs
What is a BI report?
Business intelligence reporting tracks data trends over time so that alcohol brands can identify trends and make informed decisions.
What is the purpose of BI reporting?
BI reporting delivers comprehensive data and makes it accessible to decision makers so that it can be interpreted and used to take action.
What are the two types of BI reports?
Managed reporting is interpreted and presented by a data analyst or other IT professional. Ad-hoc reporting uses platforms to create reports for non-technical users.
What is a BI reporting analyst?
A BI reporting analyst uses reports to identify places where alcohol brands can improve their business.
What is the best BI reporting tool?
While there are a lot of reporting tools on the market, Overproof is the only platform that is specifically designed for the alcohol industry.
