Top Business Intelligence Trends and Predictions for Distributors
Using technology to analyze your distribution business’ data isn’t just a trend — it’s becoming a clear competitive advantage. The future of business intelligence (BI) promises big rewards for distributors who adopt this tech. In fact, businesses with solid BI tools were three times more likely to have experienced strong revenue growth over a two-year span, according to International Data Corporation research.
BI tools organize and analyze data and automate processes so your team can make better, more informed decisions. This leads to increased revenue and reaction time, improved customer outcomes, and fewer supply chain disruptions.
Here’s how business intelligence makes this possible, plus top BI trends and predictions to keep in mind when selecting a tool.
Trend 1: Integrated Business Intelligence
If you’re like most distributors, your data probably lives all over: in your customer relationship management (CRM) system, eCommerce platform, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, among others. The most profitable businesses are developing a data culture where information from multiple systems lives in one place.
Integrated business intelligence creates a centralized landscape of data accessible by all team members. This means efficient and fast conversations among departments, which leads to better collaboration. With tools like White Cup CRM + BI, data disarray can be a thing of the past.
Trend 2: Self-Service Personalized BI Dashboards
Generic reporting is out. Personalized dashboards, sometimes referred to as self-service BI, are in. These reports empower employees with the latest data, cutting out a multi-step process that can interfere with both communication and revenue.
BI tools like Tableau, Looker, and Power BI tend to be intimidating to anyone other than a data analyst, making them difficult for employees to use. When BI tech is user-friendly like White Cup BI, your sales reps won’t have to query the IT department or waste hours learning how to create reports. White Cup BI offers pre-built dashboards that are immediately usable for each of your employee types because they’re tailored specifically for the distribution industry.
Trend 3: Cloud-Based Business Intelligence Software
To navigate the future of business intelligence, real-time updates with cloud-based BI will become essential. These solutions are faster to implement and launch without extensive IT involvement.
Quick access to insights and easy-to-use interfaces are the hallmarks of cloud-based BI. Other benefits of cloud-based business intelligence tools include:
- Data democratization across departments
- Reduced costs to deploy and manage
- Accessed remotely through mobile
- Scalable to meet company needs
Trend 4: Predictive AI Analytics and Task Automation
The generative AI boom has accelerated progress for machine learning in all businesses, including distributors. One exceptional ability is using AI to forecast sales predictions based on historical trends/seasonality unique to your distribution business. Your sales reps are better positioned to plan strategies that increase revenue when given precise insights.
AI can also assist with routine customer management. For example, ChatGPT is integrated directly within White Cup CRM to help create first drafts of marketing campaigns and personalized emails. Or, use it to automate tasks to proactively manage customer relationships. Using an AI tool to spot these opportunities means less time wrangling data and more time focusing on sales and customer interactions.
Trend 5: Mobile Business Intelligence
Few things frustrate on-the-go employees more than using software that’s not mobile-friendly. BI tools that offer an intuitively designed mobile experience deliver important data right to your employee’s fingertips quickly and easily.
The White Cup CRM and mobile app with built-in BI is one solution for remote distribution employees. At a glance, employees can track sales history, access contacts, and communicate with other team members as they’re prepping for on-site visits.
No matter which tool you choose, make sure it’s mobile-friendly so employees have quick, anytime access.
White Cup BI: The Power of Business Intelligence and CRM
The future of your business is too important to compromise with a business intelligence tool that’s hard to use and doesn’t integrate with your CRM. And not all BI tools are created with distributors in mind.
With more than two decades of expertise in distribution, we built White Cup BI specifically for distributors. It’s packed with new features to help you prepare for the future of business intelligence.
With our mobile app, every team member can now get the insights they need while on the road. No matter their tech expertise, employees can quickly create personalized reports, or choose from 40+ distribution-specific dashboards and 1,100+ ready-made reports tailored to the business.
Leverage our new AI integration to reduce busywork for sales reps so they can focus on outstanding customer service and selling. White Cup BI with AI will help you sift through your historical data to create advanced sales forecasts viewed by rep, location, and product so you can plan for stability and sales growth.
Future-proofing your business with White Cup BI that integrates with White Cup CRM may be just the competitive advantage you need to achieve your goals. Ready to see how? Schedule a demo today.