The term “business intelligence” has become exceedingly popular in recent years, especially with the influx of technology to many outdated industries. When working in the field of facilities management, making business intelligence an integral part of your growth strategy not only provides clarity on goals and gaps in your current workflow but provides your team with a comprehensive, solution-oriented overview to take actionable steps towards future success for your company. Here, our team of data-driven software experts at SCLogic discusses the impact that business intelligence can have on your organization and how you can utilize our in-building logistics software, Intra, to maximize efficiency and profit through a data-backed strategy. 

What is Business Intelligence?

If you are currently working in facilities management with outdated software, you may not have heard of business intelligence. In short, business intelligence combines business analytics, data visualization, data tools and infrastructure, and best practices to help organizations make data-driven decisions. Business intelligence analyzes current data and historical data to give your team a comprehensive understanding of your status and establish any patterns that may be of interest. After gathering the data on your company or department, business intelligence can be used to display results visually, such as in graphs or charts, to provide clarity in a user-friendly format. 

How Can Business Intelligence Help Facilities Managers?

Now, you may have an understanding of what business intelligence is in a general context, but what if you’re struggling to apply this to your specific industry or position? Good news, for those in the facilities management and in-building logistics realm, we have you covered. Utilizing business intelligence tools can be fantastic for facilities managers, providing reports that resonate with both employees and stakeholders alike. 

Consider this, you are an office manager working to bring your office back to normal post-pandemic. If request management takes up a large portion of your day, business intelligence can be used to identify gaps in your daily workflows and act accordingly. For example, maintenance dashboards for team or ticket management provide managers and supervisors insight into how these requests are being processed, at what speed, and what jobs may require additional manpower. 

For mailroom managers, business intelligence can also be particularly helpful in monitoring both employee and partner performance. By utilizing a configurable analytics dashboard through facility operations software such as Intra, you will have extensive oversight of both inbound and outbound package tracking information to ensure that your entire team is working as efficiently as possible. If you are working with multiple partners, you can identify patterns in delivery times, misplaced packages, and more to help you identify which partners are exceeding or failing to meet their SLA requirements. 

What Long-Term Strategy Impacts Can Business Intelligence Have?

While business intelligence can provide extremely detailed information in a short amount of time, one of the primary goals of using business intelligence is to provide your team with long-term success through data-driven insights. From industries such as manufacturing and entertainment to higher education institutions worldwide, business intelligence provides the opportunity for your team to gather, analyze, report, and act on data in a user-friendly and visually pleasing manner. 

Dashboards such as our Intra Analytics Dashboard are configurable to your team’s unique pain points, giving you the ability to monitor specific information and adjust your dashboard as goals change. Are you looking to monitor the response and delivery times of your various partners? Done. Interested in identifying patterns of reactive maintenance in assets throughout your university or facility? Absolutely. Want to gain insight into student package pickup habits to identify potential gaps in your mailroom? You’ve got it. These are just a few ways business intelligence can help your team make strategic, data-backed decisions for long-term success. 

Not only does business intelligence improve strategy, but it provides a gateway to exponential revenue growth both for your department and your organization as a whole. Think about all of the times that you’ve faced roadblocks or limitations due to budgetary or staffing restrictions, but were unable to obtain additional money from stakeholders and decision-makers. For stakeholders, data reigns supreme, and this trajectory will continue for years to come. Providing tangible, visual data for stakeholders bridges the gap between your needs and their restrictions. By showing negative patterns that ultimately cost your company more money and positive patterns where your department is exceeding expectations, you are more likely to obtain an additional budget for your department. 

How Can SCLogic Help You Implement Business Intelligence Practices?

If you are looking at expanding or updating your current facilities management technology, or are even just taking a peek at all the modern offerings that are out there, we’re here to help! As a company with over twenty-five years in the in-building logistics realm, we’ve had countless opportunities to create, test, and improve our facilities management software as customer needs change. Through extensive collaboration amongst internal teams, working with partners across a variety of industries, and gaining direct feedback and data from customers across the world, we’ve built Intra with an emphasis on adaptability, efficiency, and usability. 

Now, our work doesn’t just stop after installation. We understand that implementing new software can be difficult, especially with employee adoption, which is why we prioritize consistent communication through our technical support, integrations, and customer success teams to foster meaningful relationships and help you succeed. To learn more about our offerings, email [email protected] or schedule a demo with one of our team members today!