4 Tips To Become More Professional In The Workplace

Being a professional and well-respected member of the workplace is something we all strive to achieve. More often than not though, one can easily name someone in their team who they would consider to be unprofessional at times. Professionalism is something which applies in every single workplace; whether you’re a business executive or in hospitality – key factors such as being punctual and well presented will never be overlooked. If you are wondering how you can become more professional in your workplace, look to regularly reflect on the following four tips.

1. Punctuality is key

Whether it’s a team meeting, your arrival time at work or a project deadline – ensuring you are on time and punctual is key to becoming more professional. Working towards a deadline is common and therefore considered a basic component of professionalism. If punctuality isn’t your best skill, you must make it a priority and work towards bettering your time management. No matter what career path you are in, no one likes having their time wasted, therefore you must always arrive slightly before, or directly on time in order to uphold your professional reputation.

2. Uphold your integrity

In every workplace, there is the token employee who will say exactly what the boss wants to hear, but will not fulfill the commitments. Alternatively, they will tell the boss lies in order to look good, when really they haven’t completed their work. Integrity is a crucial part of professionalism – it includes telling the truth and being accountable for your actions. It is also important to uphold integrity when communicating with others outside of your own workplace. If you are known to badmouth competitors or criticise their work, your reputation will definitely suffer over time.

3. Consider your appearance at all times

Whilst many workplaces have ‘casual Friday’, this does not mean you can wear shorts and thongs in place of your suit or tailored skirt. When given the opportunity, some people drop their standards when it comes to professionally dressing and presenting themselves. Even if you have a slightly less formal meeting or day at work, make sure you still consider the importance of upholding your appearance. A professional appearance encompasses the way you dress, do your hair, and groom yourself. If your appearance has been a topic of conversation with your manager in the past, ensure you pay particular attention to it and demonstrate that you truly are more professional than they thought. 

4. Strive for consistency in your work ethic

There is nothing worse than someone who brings their moods and personal life into the workplace. If you are happy and bubbly one day, then snappy and unpleasant the next, this will be considered very unprofessional. Whilst it is difficult to be happy all of the time, the more professional people will not display their stress in front of the team, and will keep to themselves in more challenging times. One of the keys of professionalism is how you handle yourself under pressure, so if you feel that you are going to be rude or unprofessional to someone, remove yourself from the situation and allow yourself to calm down before returning.

9 Tips To Be More Professional in The Office

Being more professional in the office can help you in many ways. You can gain respect from others, and it can help with being promoted. Read nine of my biggest tips on being more professional at work.

Consider The Dress Code

There’s usually a dress code set for a workplace. This is different for men and women, and can be different for each company. To remain professional in the office, I would suggest dressing above the dress code. Let me explain what I mean by this.

If a company has a dress code that states employees must at least wear pants and a collared shirt in the office, then I would suggest wearing suit pants and a dress shirt. It meets the criteria, but it’s a little more professional. You could add to this by even wearing a suit jacket. If the standard is suit pants and a dress shirt, add a tie or a suit jacket. This will make you stand out in a good way, as someone who is professional and respects the company they work for.

Work More Than The Minimum Hours

Most offices usually have a minimum working time period. This is the time that you should arrive to work by, and leave work after, at the end of the day. One way to improve your professionalism is to work longer than those hours.

The ability to do this will depend on your commitments outside of work. I’m not suggesting we need to work ten or twelve hour days. Adding an extra thirty or sixty minutes to your day will make others perceive you as more professional and passionate about your job, which is a good thing. Arriving before the required start time, and leaving after the required end time, will make it seem like you’re not watching the clock and are actually trying to improve at your job.

Maintain a Professional Attitude

Being professional at work is not just about arriving on time and dressing appropriately. It’s also about how you act. The things you say and actions you take can define how professional you seem at the office. You can act however you like outside the office, but to remain professional at work, it’s a good idea to keep a professional attitude.

This means what you think about and what you say should be considerate of your work environment. Try to refrain from offensive jokes and stories about drinking and partying on the weekend. Keep your focus on work while you’re there, and you’ll be perceived as being more professional.

Arrive On Time to Meetings

Meetings at work are common. While they can sometimes not be very useful, they still exist and can be helpful for team discussions. Meetings are scheduled for a certain time, and depending on the subject, they can be quite important. Nobody likes to have their time wasted, and one of the biggest time wasters is not being able to start a meeting because people haven’t arrived yet.

When you go to meetings, make an effort to arrive by the scheduled start time. This is to show respect to people you’re meeting with, and not to waste time. Take into account any travel time you need, and any time you need to set up in the meeting such as with phone conferences.

Separate Personal Time and Work Time

We’ve all got things happening outside of work. It’s part of keeping a healthy work/life balance. However, we should try to limit the impact that they have on our workplace. Whether this is organising an event, speaking to friends, or dealing with problems, it’s good to try and keep it separate from your work. It’s not something that other people need to see or hear you doing.

Step away from your desk if you need to make or receive a personal call. Try to limit your personal Internet browsing to lunch times, or leave it until you get home if you can. If you need to print documents for home, try to do it at home or somewhere else if possible. It looks better if you’re not wasting company time to do your own things, even if it is only short. Sometimes it can’t be helped, which is fine, but try to minimise it.

Consider Your Personal Grooming

A good way to improve your professionalism at work is to be considerate of your personal grooming, and how it’s perceived at the office. Regardless of your feelings and thoughts towards grooming, other people may not feel the same way, and there is a generalisation or perception about some of these things.

Men should aim to be clean shaven or have a maintained beard. Messy stubble or an untrimmed beard can look unprofessional and lazy. Keeping short hair is a good suggestion as long hair can also look lazy to other people. For women, some basic make-up and neat hair is usually OK.

Have A Professional Phone Greeting

How you answer your phone says a lot about your attitude to work. Your greeting is the first thing that people hear when they call you, and you want to send a good impression to them. There are better ways to answer your phone than “Yeah?” or “Hello.” Try adding your name in there as well as a greeting. Something like “Hello, Rob speaking.” or “Good afternoon, this is Sally.” is appropriate, professional, and not too long.

Your outgoing phone greeting should also send a good image. When you call someone, they will greet you, and you should have some kind of greeting back to start the conversation. Starting with a “Hello” and adding a reason for the call is good.

Use An Appropriate Email Signature

We all use email as part of our jobs. It’s an effective form of communication if used correctly. At the bottom of any email you send is your email signature. Setting one up that is effective and professional is a good suggestion.

You should have your name, position, company, and contact details such as email and phone numbers. This is quite common and standard for a signature. There are other things you might see on signatures that don’t really belong there, and you shouldn’t use them either. Memorable or funny quotes, images, links to other sites or advice aren’t really necessary, and you don’t need to put anything like that on your signature.

Put Your Mobile Phone On Silent

Our mobile phones are with us for most of the day, either in our pockets or on our desk. A good way to be seen as more professional is to have your phone on silent or vibrate mode at work. You might have what you think is the greatest ringtone in the world, but others may disagree. Ringtones, especially loud ones, can be distracting and even annoying to others. Keeping it on silent or vibrate can make you look more considerate and professional at the office.

If the phone is next to you, or in your pocket, turning off the ringtone will still mean you know when the phone is ringing. You can see the screen light up, or hear the vibration on the desk. Having a ringtone go off in the office is just another distraction people don’t really need.

I hope these tips have helped. If you’re interested in being more professional at work, try a couple of these tips and see what your results are!

4 Tips for Professional Growth

Almost every individual desires to advance in their professional career. However, it is easier said than done.

Career growth means higher levels of dedication, patience and confidence. If someone lacks in these areas, the first thing to do is overcome them.

Some people believe that switching to a different job may help them with their career growth. Though it might be true for some, for many it is certainly not.

Truth be told, if you have the right kind of attitude and commitment, it’s possible you’ll be able to advance your career in your current job as well.

Nonetheless, your career development process starts with realizing your weaknesses or limitations. Unless you identify where you lack, you won’t be able to come up with the ways to overcome them and achieve the success and job satisfaction you desire.

You’ll also need to determine your skills set and ensure that it matches well with your job. Continue to learn new skills and improve weak areas.

The proper skills and the ability to recognize limitations and correct them are key. Once you have taken care of those, the following guidelines can help ensure successful career growth.

1. Demonstrate Proper Attitude

Having a positive attitude influences not only your career but also your relationships with others, like your colleagues, friends, etc.

Keep in mind recommendations play a big role in increasing your chances of getting appraisal or even promotion. If your attitude toward others isn’t good, then you can forget about getting any recommendations.

Attitude also means your willingness or reluctance to carry out a task or responsibility. If you flaunt a positive, can-do attitude, your employer will like you. If your attitude is negative, or can’t-do, then your employer won’t consider you an asset to the company.

2. Take Initiative

If you want success in your current job or one you’ve just started, you’d better start taking initiative. This means being the first one to accept a responsibility or a job role that others show reluctance to take.

People who demonstrate this quality are more likely get noticed by their employer than those who don’t.

If you want to become the most in-demand employee at your company, this quality will definitely help you with that.

3. Personal Growth

Personal development plays a significant role in boosting your career opportunities. There are dozens of ways this can be accomplished. For instance, you can search for an online course or a diploma that may add new skills to your arsenal.

You may also look for the in-demand skills in your niche that would help you propel your career. Read industry publications. Be up-to-date with the regulations that are influencing your industry.

Consider enrolling in a graduate program to complete your masters if you think your undergraduate degree may be holding you back.

4. Join Professional Communities

Expanding contacts in your niche is another great way to influence your career and experience ceaseless growth. Networks like LinkedIn may greatly help you in this area since it is the most popular community that brings professional together.

Remember that network expansion allows you to reach out to more people that are working in your industry. This way you can share your expertise and learn new things that you may surprise you.

Career growth isn’t always easy. But if you display the right attitude and mindset, then job satisfaction and success won’t always remain a dream.

3 Tips for Encouraging Professional Growth on Your Team

When you encourage professional growth in your organization, everyone benefits. Your employees develop personally and professionally, you retain your staff longer, and you save time and money on your hiring process. Here are three ways you can help your staff grow professionally so everyone wins.

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Implement Cross-Departmental Training

 Training your employees to work in different departments helps them learn more about how your company operates and stands out in the marketplace. Employees may job shadow or share work roles as a method of becoming skilled in other areas of your organization. Your workers will learn new skills, gain more experience, and be more engaged in their tasks. Productivity will increase as a result of having more than one expert filling a role. Staff will remain loyal to your company longer because they’re constantly learning and being challenged. You’ll gain flexibility in managing your workforce in case a worker is sick or decides to move on. Cross-training may even result in innovations that save your organization time and money by trying something new.   

Begin an Office Mentoring Program

 Implementing a mentoring program will help your staff learn job-related skills while developing as leaders. Workers will be more engaged in their tasks and want to increase their output because of their one-on-one training. They’ll appreciate having someone to go to with questions or issues and, as a result, will feel greater job satisfaction. Co-workers learn to work well together, and your company benefits from continued growth and innovation, which improves your bottom line.  

Recognize Employees’ Accomplishments

 Studies show employees are happier, more engaged in their work and more productive when their accomplishments are recognized. By rewarding desired behavior and results, your staff know what actions should be repeated and which ones need improvement. Workers enjoy being appreciated for their contributions to your organization, which empowers them to continue learning and innovating. Staff are more inclined to increase their output when their efforts are acknowledged. Your company continues growing as you retain more employees longer.

9 Things All Entry-Level Job Seekers Need To Know

Trying to land a new job can be intimidating no matter where you are in your career, but being entry-level makes the process especially confusing. Learning from your mistakes is a valuable (and inevitable) part of the process, but every little bit of advice that can help you avoid a slip-up is a plus. Here, career experts explain nine ways to get ahead of the game even if this is your first step into the work world.

1. Make the hiring manager's job easier.

Hiring managers have to sort through tons of résumés and cover letters, meaning yours can fade into the background unless they immediately catch the right person's eye. Certified career coach Hallie Crawford suggests making your résumé easily scannable by using a simple format with bullet points and bolding, and peppering both your résumé and cover letter with keywords from the job description. Not only will they be more likely to jump off the page as a recruiter reads over your materials, they'll help ensure any résumé-reading software doesn't preemptively take you out of the running because you don't seem like a good match.

2. Identify your soft skills.

As opposed to something like using company technology, your employer can't teach soft skills like leadership. "Look on LinkedIn to research your peers and see how you can stand out from others in your field based on your unique set of strengths, classwork, and personality type," Crawford tells SELF. Better yet, don't just say you've got those skills during interviews—come up with stories that show you've got them, like the time you took charge of a team project during your internship.

3. Network in more than one way.

Get your foot in the door of a certain field or company in multiple ways instead of just one. "Don't be afraid to attend industry networking events to make new connections at companies you want to work for," says Crawford. You can also set up informational interviews with people who can loop you in, or ask around to see if anyone in your family or friend group has a connection.

4. Always ask about the hiring timeline during an interview.

The interview process can drag on for what feels like centuries. "Sometimes you don't hear back when you expect to, so you're left hanging," Vicki Salemi, career expert for Monster, tells SELF. To avoid future freak-outs, during the interview ask when you can expect to hear about next steps. You can even take it further by saying you'd love to follow up and verifying that it's OK if you do so every week or every other week. If that's too much, they'll likely tell you. But if they're OK with you following up, you've lessened the likelihood of worrying your great interview was all a fever dream because you're hearing crickets. (Although sometimes hiring managers still seem to fall off the face of the earth for months. It's an unavoidable job-searching hazard, and if you get no response after a few follow-ups, consider spending that time looking for other opportunities instead.)

5. Send both virtual and physical thank you notes.

Slipping a post-interview thank you card into the mail has practically gone the way of dinosaurs, so you'll stand out in a great way if you make it a habit. "You'd be surprised by how few people send hard-copy thank you notes," says Salemi. Using email to say a prompt thanks isn't a bad thing, because expediency is key when you're trying to make an impression after an interview. Plus, since most other candidates will likely default to virtual thank yous, it might look strange if you don't.

The solution: send both. The email can go out right after the interview and mention that although a formal thank you is in the mail, you quickly want to express gratitude for your interviewer's time. It helps to add a detail or two about how the interview further solidified your interest in the position. Then send a more fleshed-out version via snail mail. "When I was a recruiter, cards tended to sit on my desk a little longer than an email would last in my inbox," says Salemi. "Each time I saw a card, it would serve as a reminder about the candidate."

6. Once you get the job, show up early.

This isn't a mandate to arrive two hours before anyone else in the hopes that your boss will notice. Instead, Salemi suggests making a habit out of getting to work 15 to 30 minutes early. "Let's say you get into the office at 9:00 because your job hours are 9:00-5:00," says Salemi. "By the time you get a cup of coffee and check out the headlines, it's around 9:20, so you don't have breathing room before your day begins." There are two extra benefits to padding the start of your workdays, namely that you look diligent (but not overly so), and if you're running late one day, you'll probably still be on time!

7. Dress for a level one step up from your current role.

If you start your first job—or an entry-level one in a new industry after a career change—it's time to upgrade your wardrobe. "Even if the dress code is pretty casual, look at what the higher-ups are wearing," says Salemi. "You want to get to that next level, and dressing for the part can help." That doesn't mean you have to break the bank! Here, 11 ways to dress like you don't have student loans.

8. Look toward the future.

Even if you're fresh on the job, it helps to have six-month goal and one-year goals. "People can get settled into a routine, and then two or three years go by in the blink of an eye," says Salemi. Thinking ahead will make sure you're doing whatever necessary to make the ideal next steps, like signing up for a class to learn special skills. "Taking a proactive approach by having a lot of coals in the fire helps prevent panic when the time arrives to make some changes," says Salemi.

9. Keep your résumé updated.

You might think you can forget about your résumé for a few years after you start a new position, but Salemi recommends staying on top of it. "If you get into the habit of updating your résumé as you go along, it won't need a massive overhaul when you're ready to look for a new job," she says. Instead, copy and paste the job description into your résumé while you still have it, and spruce it up as you progress in the role. Then when you're ready to make a move, you'll have all the evidence of why you're ready to take the leap laid out right in front of you.

EY blockchain hackathon part of growing digital solutions

Global consultancy firm EY (formerly Ernst & Young) is pushing its digital initiative further with a week-long blockchain hackathon in Mumbai aimed at generating solutions for different sectors like banking, telecom, manufacturing, insurance, governance, power and utilities. According to the PwC Global Fintech Report (2017), 90 per cent of payment companies will adopt blockchain in their production systems by 2020.

Hackathons provide organisations a platform to generate creative solutions and publicity while reducing research overheads within the organisation. The ongoing hackathon has leveraged technology support from IBM and Microsoft with their cloud and blockchain solutions available for the participants to explore. Six winners stand a chance to further develop their projects on these cloud platforms apart from an array of gadgets.

“All the solutions developed during the hackathon will be available on Github repository as EY intellectual property,” said Sachin Seth, partner, digital advisory services, EY. The participants will be mentored and judged by senior EY associates who will bring domain expertise into the solutions. Github is a website that allows programmers across the globe to store and share programs and project files.

EY has ramped up digital initiatives over the past year, which includes 30 partners and executive directors hired in digital, analytical and cyber security services, while scaling up the overall team size in India to over 1100. Milan Sheth, advisory partner and technology sector leader at EY, observed Indian talent was at a particular advantage in automation services due to the massive process knowledge available in the Indian IT industry. 

Digital projects range from three month-long proof of concepts to year-long large scale deployments. Platforms like user experience and digital marketing are horizontal offerings across clients whereas, for regulated industries like telecom or real estate, which require specific digital solutions, EY is working towards digital solutions as a vertical.

EY established a blockchain lab in New York in April this year to push research in financial services. EY innovation labs in 15 cities across the world are dedicated to meeting specific technological challenges like artificial intelligence, robotics process automation, cyber security and customer experience. The company is also helping clients adopt digital services by setting up their in-house centre of excellence to drive automation.

“For blockchain we are looking at individual conglomerates as well as industrial associations among clients because it makes sense for blockchain to be used across a supply chain. Overall, we are looking at clients who are already successful in the brick and mortar business and are under pressure to reinvent themselves digitally, apart from companies that want to leverage the end-to-end digital proposition,” added Seth.  

How business intelligence can transform the insurance industry

The business world is rapidly discovering the power and potential of big data. Today’s organisations have unprecedented access to information on business performance and consumer behaviour that can help them refine their products and services in near limitless ways. 

Big data is typically categorised as structured (sales and website performance data) or unstructured (customer feedback data). Either way, data is often stored in departmental silos across an organisation. As businesses embark on their own digital transformation journeys, decisions on technological investments (including analytics) must be based on what will provide the greatest benefits to both employees and customers. For the greatest effects, information and insights must be available to users across departments and levels, empowering everyone in a business, from the sales team to the C-Suite.

The insurance industry provides a great example of this progress in action. The industry is both people-centric and data-rich, meaning that insurance companies are in an ideal position to refine their business practices by utilising sophisticated data analytics. As insurance is based largely on understanding risk, data plays the critical role in helping organisations make better, more-informed business decisions. Specifically, there are key operations within an insurance company that can be transformed using enterprise analytics.  

Shorter claims cycle through improved fraud detection

Fraud detection is a high priority for insurance companies when processing claims. The ability to spot inconsistencies can help insurers prevent large pay outs for fraudulent claims. However, fraud perpetrators are becoming more sophisticated and are able to manipulate most rules-based fraud solutions on the market today. 

By using predictive analytics, which combines artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, data mining, and modelling to create useful forecasts, insurers can detect fraud more effectively at each stage of the claims cycle. The powerful combination of rules, modelling, database searches, and exception reporting allow organisations that embrace this type of advanced, predictive analytics to stay one step ahead of perpetrators.

Agile and responsive sales and distribution teams

Insurance sales representatives need fast, accurate access to information to make the most of on-site visits with brokers or clients. Traditional sales solutions are just not equipped to handle the complex needs of modern sales teams. These legacy systems fall short because they fail to provide in-depth insights into individual customers or prospects when they are needed most. As a result, many organisations are looking to mobile BI apps for their sales enablement needs. 

Mobile access to resources, provided by modern BI tools, empowers sales representatives with the insights they need when they are in the field — helping boost productivity and delivering a competitive edge. These applications can arm salespeople with context-aware maps, multimedia content including sales presentations and training videos, and real-time access to quote analysis, buying patterns, and demographics.

Improved customer insight and management

Given the limited opportunities for face time with customers, and the competitive nature of the insurance market, it is critical that insurers maximise every customer interaction. Insurers that fall behind in the field of customer management risk losing out on market share and seeing lower overall profitability. 

By analysing data, businesses gain greater insight into the preferences and behaviour of their customers. Aggregating data into a comprehensive customer profile provides a better understanding of customers’ preferences, lifestyles, call centre interactions, and other key characteristics. Insurers can then use this data to forge deeper connections and deliver highly relevant and personalised offers and services.

Intelligent underwriting and claims processes

The claims process is typically the single largest expense for an insurer, which is why it is important to make it as efficient and effective as possible. Processors and underwriters have to sort through an incredible amount of data on a daily basis, including: adjusters’ hand-written notes, data from fraud lists, and information stored in claims management databases. The accuracy of underwriter calculations is instrumental to the success of the insurance company; if the calculations aren’t precise, the company runs the risk of being overpriced in comparison to the market, or it could even suffer significant losses from unexpected claims payments. 

Powerful analytics reinforce the underwriters’ ability to confidently act upon data related to customer credit history, risk, and market information. It allows claims adjusters to easily assess critical data related to policy information, police reports, loss, frequency, and severity. And by mobilising applications, adjusters can access claims information from any location and directly input critical assets related to a claim, such as photos or notes from accident scenes, repair estimates, or other relevant information.

For example, social media provides a particularly rich and personalised source of data, with information that is accessible in near real time, directly from the customer. This enables insurers to create smarter marketing campaigns, quickly respond to direct consumer feedback, and create new products based on consumer preferences.

Conclusion

Analytics and big data are poised to have a big impact on the insurance industry for years to come. How new analytical methods are used can inform and supplement a company’s digital strategy and greatly aid in decision-making, particularly where predictive analytics is put into practice. Institutions that embrace data and new analytics technology will likely see returns in increased efficiency, visibility, and streamlined management processes in addition to the benefits outlined above. However, a strict data governance strategy must be implemented to ensure adherence to processes. Data can be organised, controlled, and shared with business users so they can extract their own insights without the risk of corrupting the data for other departments. With the right strategy, technology, and governance, data analytics can provide a significant competitive advantage. 

The best business intelligence tool: Tableau vs Microsoft Power BI

Data is the new currency, but if your organisation wants to take advantage of the big data revolution, you're going to need a business intelligence platform that can make the most of it. BI software is crucial for interpreting and examining data, whether you're putting together some simple reports or performing a full battery of data analyses.

Two of the biggest players in the business intelligence software market are Tableau and Microsoft's Power BI. We've compared the two offerings to see which is best-suited to your business use case.

Data visualisation

Tableau has an excellent reputation as a data visualisation platform, and with very good reason. The user interface makes it easy to create visual representations of datasets, and the wide range of visualisation types and exploration options means that you can quickly access meaningful insights.

Power BI, by comparison, still trails somewhat behind in this regard. It's not quite as flexible in terms of creating in-depth visualisations, and the tools used to do so aren't as intuitive as Tableau's.

On the other hand, Power BI is excellent at producing basic reports very quickly. If you're just looking for something that will let you throw together simple KPI dashboards, rather than aiming for in-depth data analysis, Tableau may end up being way more than you need. PowerBI also has the advantage that, because it was developed on top of Excel, it shares many of the same controls.

Data is critical to your business's success, but it can be overwhelming. Business intelligence software is the tool that turns that data into insights. But how do you choose the right BI tool, and how can you make sure everyone in your organisation benefits from it? Download our whitepaper, Shine a Light on Your Data, published in association with SAP, to find out. 

Data sources

The beating heart of any business intelligence platform is data, so it's crucial that you can import and analyse your data in the configuration that's right for you. Thankfully, both products support a huge array of data sources that users can import from.

The most popular enterprise data sources are all present and correct, including MySQL, SAP HANA, JSON, and more. There are literally hundreds of possible data sources, so if you're using any of the major contenders, chances are it's supported by both Power BI and Tableau.

There are some differences, however. Tableau features better support for connecting to a separate data warehouse, whereas Power BI is heavily integrated with the rest of Microsoft's portfolio, including its Azure cloud services and the Office 365 suite.

Advanced analytics

Both products feature support for advanced analytics capabilities, something that is becoming more and more important in the world of data science and BI. Power BI includes support for the R scripting language, commonly used to create data forecasting and analytics models, while Tableau includes support for both R and Python, as well as including a host of native tools for dealing with these kinds of operations.

Pricing and deployment

Tableau may be regarded as the best in the business by many, but you're paying for all that pedigree. A professional license for Tableau Desktop is charged at $70 per user, per month (billed annually). On top of that, if you want to manage Tableau centrally across your organisation, you'll need to fork over an extra $35 per user, per month for Tableau Server.

By comparison, Power BI costs very little. The standalone Desktop version is free to use, while Power BI Pro is just £6.20 per user, per month. It's also included for free with the highest tier of Office 365 Enterprise subscription.

Final Verdict: Power BI

Tableau may be the more technically-capable of the two business intelligence suites, but Microsoft's Power BI software isn't too far behind it. It might not be suitable for data analysts, but for the majority of businesses that need to do some basic number-crunching and reporting, Power BI will be more than sufficient.

Add to that the fact that Power BI is substantially cheaper than Tableau's offering, and Microsoft's suite comes out on top in all but a few use cases. If you're looking for a general purpose business intelligence platform, Power BI is almost certainly your best bet.

The Real BI Trends in 2017

The IT industry and the world at large have always been subject to technology and business trends, sometimes undergoing major changes, such as the development of the personal computer, client/server computing and the evolution of the Internet.

Over the last few years, new trends have emerged that have had an enormous influence on how organizations work, interact, communicate, collaborate and protect themselves. Eight IT ‘meta-trends’influence organizations’ strategies, operations and investments in a wide variety of ways:

• Digitalization
• Consumerization
• Agility
• Security
• Analytics
• Cloud
• Mobile
• Artificial Intelligence

These meta-trends can be considered as the main drivers behind a number of important trends either related to the usage of software and technologies for business intelligence/analytics (BI) and data management or to the way BI is organized. They generally shape the future of business intelligence and – more specifically – the BI and data management trends we analyzed.

BARC’s BI Trend Monitor 2017 reflects on the business intelligence and data management trends currently driving the BI market from a user perspective.

In order to obtain useful data for the BI Trend Monitor, we asked almost 2,800 users, consultants and vendors for their views on the most important BI trends. Their responses reveal a comprehensive picture of the future of BI as well as regional, company and industry-specific differences, delivering an up-to-date, objective perspective on the business intelligence market.

The Most (and Least) Important BI Trends in 2017

Data discovery/visualization, self-service BI and data quality/master data management are the three topics BI practitioners identify as the most important trends in their work.

At the other end of the spectrum, data labs/data science, cloud BI and data as a product were voted as the least important of the twenty-one trends covered in BARC’s survey.

This shows that ‘hyped’ topics or initiatives in early-moving companies cannot win a greater mindshare as important business intelligence trends than more mainstream topics like data discovery and self-service BI, or fundamentally important topics that have been around for a while like data quality and master data management.

7 business intelligence predictions for 2017

The last couple of years have seen major changes in the growth of data and how it is managed and utilised. In 2015, IBM estimated that 2.5 quintillion new bytes of data were generated each day, and throughout 2016, this data proliferation showed no sign of slowing down as more businesses undergo digital transformation to better respond to the rapidly changing industry demands. 

Many companies have started to appoint a chief data officer to exclusively control, manage and govern this surge in data volume. How this data and content was stored is also a growing concern, causing more businesses to migrate to the cloud or hybrid solutions, as these provided numerous advantages in terms of facilitating collaboration, ease of access and unparalleled cost savings compared to on-premise storage.    

Managing, curating and storing data will continue to be on the agenda, but as we look towards 2017, organisations that understand the growing potential of big data and the need to analyse it efficiently will be the ones that see the greatest success. Here are seven Business Intelligence strategies that will define the year ahead.    

1. make adoption pervasive

You’ve likely thought of the impact BI software has on the data scientists at your company, but what about everyone else? It’s time we make the most of our BI investments by distributing them to every single person in an organisation and apply invisible governance to control access. 

Your sales, marketing and human resources departments can all do their jobs better with the right analytics tools at their fingertips, whether they’re sharing competitor information in the cloud, collaborating on sales forecast dashboards to make the most of every potential deal or accessing employment data on their phone in between interviews.    

2. Simplify systems and reduce costs  

2017 is a great year to assess infrastructure and do some “spring cleaning” to reduce unnecessary costs and complexity while still properly maintaining systems. Businesses will desire all-in-one solutions which offer multiple capabilities. 

According to the research firm IDC, organisations will spend $187 billion on big data and analytics technology by 2019, an increase of 50 per cent from the $122 billion invested in 2015. New, enterprise-ready technologies make it possible to pay less and do more with improved uptime and the flexibility to scale up and down as business needs change.    

3. Say goodbye to limits on data discovery 

Over the past few years, we’ve witnessed the consumerisation of IT, with many departments choosing to roll out their own point solutions for data discovery. The goal is a smart one: build compelling visualisations and reports to show managers what that department has achieved. 

But many organisations don’t have the proper pieces in place for a consistent view of their data. Others have been so successful with data discovery, they’ve realised their current solution has limits to how widely that data can be shared. This is the year to roll out a data discovery solution primed for success in the enterprise, not just for the short-term, but for decades to come.    

4. Choose a tool that does it all 

I’ve heard many organisations say that they use “all” tools for business intelligence and analytics. But that isn’t efficient for cost, training, maintenance or cross-team collaboration. I believe 2017 will be the first year in a long time that organisations prioritise tool consolidation. 

They’ll take the one tool they use for mobile apps or data discovery and wrangling or in-memory analytics and implement a single, cohesive platform that meets all of their needs and decreases development and maintenance time.    

5. Anticipate the future of big data 

It’s no secret that big data continues to be an extremely fluid and dynamic space. Back in 2014 and 2015, companies were focused on having a plan to extract information from big data. But in 2017 and beyond, organisations need any analytics investments they make to be extremely flexible. 

That’s because what you’re building today will likely change in six to 12 months as new forms of big data reveal themselves. Today’s organisations need the ability to rewire thousands of dashboards and reports without losing hours of existing investments. 

The value of big data and flexible analytics will be especially relevant for the retail industry, as businesses can use the insights to customise marketing activities, manage stock levels and customer service in order to build consumer loyalty and increase revenue.   

6. Position analytics at the core of your organisation 

Today, analytics solutions touch every aspect of an organisation and are being accessed by more people in more departments across more industries than ever before. In 2017, analytics will become even more pervasive. More and more companies will be empowered to build custom-branded mobile and desktop applications and take their analytics tools from a reporting solution to a core piece of the company’s ecosystem.    

7. Gain a bird’s eye view of operations 

In 2017, companies will prioritise getting a better handle on assets across the entire organisation—understanding how employees interact with the business and its buildings, who is using what technology, when they’re using it and how.

Armed with this information, organisations can better understand and take action on everything from work attendance to the communication tools employees prefer in real-time, making it far easier to determine where to consolidate and reduce costs. 

On the customer side, companies can use monitoring tools to identify top customers and how much revenue they’re bringing in. And in many cases, these implementations can be built in less than a day.   

More businesses will be undergoing digital transformation in the New Year and The Fourth Industrial Revolution, which has forced businesses to adapt and change their own processes in 2016, will see them take this a step further. 

Companies will search for ways to gain even more value from their analytics and empower every member of the business to utilise key learnings to not only inform their decisions, but help improve staff retention, customer satisfaction and service.