mercredi 30 juillet 2014

Business intelligence and Help Desk Software – A Match Made in Heaven?

Business intelligence and Help Desk Software – A Match Made in Heaven? image paper files 600x399


You’ve heard of the the acronym FOMO, or fear of missing out, right? When people in your company or social circles start using the terms “big data”, “warehousing“, “business intelligence” and “data mining“, and you don’t really know what they are talking about, it might just be enough to provoke an acute case of, you guessed it, FOMO.


First things first. Business intelligence (BI) is just the process of taking large amounts of data and rendering them useful for business process improvement. Data warehousing is the act of gathering these chunks of (big) data, and data mining is simply looking at the warehouses to get information out of them. With the right software, none is especially difficult in itself, and is accessible to all.


Once these processes and methodologies have been used to extract data, businesses can them examine this data and use the conclusions they draw to help their business, for example, identifying problems, taking decisions, and planning (or even predicting) for the future. This is the complicated bit!


Does business intelligence have a role to play in CRM and help desks?


If you’re responsible for your organization’s help desk, you might be wondering if business intelligence is something you should pay more attention to. The answer is a resounding “yes”, but it doesn’t have to be as alarming as it might seem. Depending on the size of your organization, a business intelligence tool might already be in use. If this is the case, then you’ll need to have a chat with the person in charge of it (usually a business analyst or systems analyst, or some variation!) and see if and how you can leverage it in the area of customer relationship management and service.


If your organization does not have any business intelligence systems yet in place, then congratulations. You’re on the road to becoming an intelligence pioneer in your organization! By implementing some degree of business intelligence in the area of help desks, you will undoubtedly see significant benefits. You might even light the way for other departments to take similar steps.


Customer intelligence vs. business intelligence


When researching the intersection between BI and CRM, you might see mention of “customer intelligence”. Customer intelligence and business intelligence are closely related, but customer intelligence mines its data exclusively from information gleaned from the CRM or other methods of collecting customer data, like satisfaction surveys and feedback. Generally, business intelligence has access to a broader data subset, from across the whole company’s actions, and so has more visibility of the business as a whole. Ultimately, however, when we’re speaking in broad terms, both come under the umbrella of business intelligence.


How to integrate BI into the scope of the help desk


If business intelligence falls to you, what can you do? You’ve really got two options – you can purchase a stand-alone BI app, or examine the data analysis powers of your existing help desk software. This option is a great choice for various reasons. For a start, it’s cheaper, since no extra software is being purchased. Secondly, it uses a tool that you are already familiar with. Finally, it gives you the chance to dip your toes in business analysis without getting bogged down in unnecessary and extraneous technology and data. If, after experimentation, you discover that you need more tools or to pull data from a larger dataset, you can think about looking into something more powerful or proprietary business analysis software. The apps below are a great place to start.




Desk.comBusiness intelligence and Help Desk Software – A Match Made in Heaven? image desk.com


Desk.com’s BI feature is called Business Insights. It’s divided into specific areas, which make it very easy for beginners to get started, but these areas can be customized, which means you have the perfect balance between simple, and personal.




ZendeskBusiness intelligence and Help Desk Software – A Match Made in Heaven? image zendesk1


Zendesk’s business intelligence module is called Insights. It gets great results from industry benchmarks, but is only available on Plus and Enterprise Plans.




Zoho CRMBusiness intelligence and Help Desk Software – A Match Made in Heaven? image twitter crm 400x4001


Zoho took business intelligence directly by the horns when it integrated Zoho Reports into Zoho CRM. Zoho Reports was – and is – a fully-fledged business intelligence app, so when you use it as part of Zoho CRM, you really do have the power of a purpose-built app, right at your fingertips.




Surprisingly, some help desk applications can be pretty cagey about whether or not they have business intelligence capabilities. After taking a look in the GetApp help desk listing to see if they mention it upfront, it might be best to shoot them an email and get straight to the point.






Business intelligence and Help Desk Software – A Match Made in Heaven?

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