7 Best Data Analysis Software for Business Success

Businesses are increasingly leaning on analytics and deep data to gain a competitive edge, improve market share and boost profits. That’s why choosing the best data analysis software is such an important decision.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the best analysis software you can choose from and uncover why data analysis tools are so crucial for business success!

Coming Up

What Are Data Analysis Tools?

What Is the Best Data Analysis Tool?

How to Choose the Best Data Analytics Software

Closing Thoughts

What Are Data Analysis Tools?

Data analysis tools are software that help companies harvest data from business operations, store that data and then analyze it through automated functions. Using these tools, CFO’s and financial analysts can process the data their company generates to gain insight on critical decision making and forecast future business conditions.

While it’s possible for companies to collect this information without using tools for data analysis, doing so is a time consuming process where collecting, collating and storing the data becomes such a large task. In this manual setup, the actual analysis often takes a back seat to the data management itself.

By contrast, companies running the best data analytics software get easy, transparent access to the data they need while also being able to automate the analysis process. This frees up the company’s braintrust to focus on planning how to react to the data instead of simply collecting it.

What Is the Best Data Analysis Tool?

The best data analysis tool for your company depends on several factors, most of which will be unique to your business and how you plan to use the data. That’s why there is such a wide range of analysis software for data analytics on the market. Below is a list of seven data analysis tools and their best functions.

1. Best for Financial Automation: SolveXia

SolveXia is comprehensive financial automation software with data analysis functions. The tool provides strong information gathering capabilities and a diverse range of options for automated analysis and reporting.

SolveXia is an intuitive, easy to use, no-code software that is not only plug and play right out of the box, but also functions with your company’s pre-existing software and legacy systems that you’ve already been using.

SolveXia is able to map, cleanse, transform, and store your data securely on the cloud, so you can access it whenever you need it, wherever you are!

With SolveXia, CFOs, finance directors, analysts and accounting staff can easily automate the functions of gathering and storing data specific to that company’s industry. It can also be used to automate the process of creating reports and data required by regulatory authorities.

By removing the need for manual processes, your staff has more time to focus on providing detailed insights and strategy to help propel the business forward.

In the event of a regulatory audit or quarterly reporting cycle, SolveXia users can access the necessary data and forward it to the proper recipients with the push of a button and have detailed audit trails.

More importantly, they can access this information without having to pull various staff members away from their everyday duties.

Whether it’s tax forms for investors, account reconciliations for regulators or annual reports, SolveXia offers simple, effective solutions with cloud storage and high quality encryption that CFOs can use to create and maintain an efficient flow of information through automation.

Looking for more solutions? SolveXia also handles rebate management, expense management, APRA reporting, regulatory reporting, and much more.

2. Best for Spreadsheet Applications: Excel

Microsoft Excel offers users the ability to create highly intricate spreadsheets and track data across an extended period of time, which is why it’s historically one of the most respected tools for data analysis on the market.

Its compatibility with PCs and windows operating systems means it’s usable almost anywhere in the world and almost everyone can read and understand its spreadsheets. With that said, the Excel software does have some potential drawbacks for users.

First, the technology that powers Excel was created at a time when user-friendliness was not as big a priority as it is for today’s modern data analysis tools. Although it’s certainly capable of creating impressive spreadsheets, Excel is not the most intuitive program and mastering it can take several years.

Another issue is the potential for lack of uniformity in data among users. For example, once one person opens an Excel and changes it, those changes are saved to that person’s computer file or desk without automatically being updated for other users. This creates the possibility that one or more people could be operating off different data.

3. Best for Programming Language: Python, R

Python and “R” are both open-source programming codes that allow analysts to choose from a suite of pre-loaded reports and data automation capabilities or create their own custom-made data analytics and financial automation tools.

Python offers its own data collection and analysis suite through its PANDAS (Python Data Analysis Library), which users can access and feed their own data into, while advanced Python users can even use it to create their own custom analytics tools.

“R”, which is sponsored by “Project R,” has similarities to Python in that it allows users to collect industry-specific data or analytics based on a company’s individual needs. R’s open source technology means it’s compatible with many existing software platforms such as Sisense. Although R is incredibly powerful and flexible, it also requires a very experienced user to maximize its finance automation and analytic capabilities.  

4. Best for Business Intelligence: Tableau

Tableau is an industry leader in graphics and its ability to create visual datasets that are easy to understand. It is compatible with coding techniques and has very powerful data gathering potential.

On the other side of the equation, Tableau’s automation capabilities are somewhat lacking, as it doesn’t have the ability to create reports automatically or merge previous data into continuous spreadsheets with new information.

This means companies will have a “before” Tableau dataset and one that they created after switching to Tableau. That could be problematic in industries where regulatory reporting requires companies to maintain data for extended periods of time.

Tableau users may also need to make out of app purchases to properly sort and scrub that data necessary to maximize its graphics capabilities.

5. Best for Data Processing Framework: Apache Spark

Apache Spark is an incredibly fast data analytics tool that can gather and process large amounts of information in a short time span.

It is currently one of the world’s largest open source data processing engines and has been used by tech-titans like Yahoo, Ebay and Netflix for both data collection and analysis.

In spite of the fact that many people regard Apache Spark as the “future” of big data platforms, it does have some drawbacks. First, Apache Spark doesn’t have a method of automating its processes, meaning your company will always need someone to turn it on and off.

It is also not suited to companies where there will be multiple people who need to access the program and it has less built-in algorithms than some other competing tools for data analysis.

6. Best for Statistical Software Suite: SAS

SAS is another programming language that can be used to create automated data collection and analysis functions. It is easy to learn, can handle very large amounts of data, and offers very strong client support.

That means it can be easily adapted to even the biggest jobs, especially in light of its strong data security and industry proven algorithms.

On the minus side of the equation, SAS is not open source software, and it is very expensive to use. In order to access all the functions of SAS, you will need to purchase a license but there is no way to just purchase a license for a limited capability.

This means you will have to be “in for a penny and in for a pound” with SAS. Finally, SAS is more difficult to learn than R and its graphics capabilities are not as strong as other competing analysis software.

7. Best for Data Visualization: Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft’s Power BI offers users very powerful visual capabilities and lets them create reports, graphs and other information using its advanced data science.

Users also have the option of backing all their data up to a cloud server, which means it can be easily accessed by more than one person in multiple locations and updates automatically after users make changes to the stored information.

However, it does not have as wide a selection of formulas as competing automation software and there may be some compatibility issues vis a vis the coding in your legacy data analysis systems.

How to Choose the Best Data Analytics Software

This is really where the rubber meets the road for CFOs and financial analysts. Choosing the best data analytics software requires a great deal of collaboration, planning and most of all, a complete understanding of what functions are most important to you. For example, a small company that doesn’t have a large financial staff may be perfectly fine with Excel spreadsheets.

By the same token, a medium or large company with multiple users and heavy regulatory reporting requirements may require software with more robust graphics capabilities and operational flexibility.

With that said, a system that offers the best combination of powerful analytics, data collection and user flexibility could be ideal for the long-term, because this isn’t a decision you want to make twice.

Given that a finance automation and analysis tool like SolveXia is user-friendly, no-code solution, and can be up-and-running in under 30 minutes, it’s worthwhile to request a demo.

Closing Thoughts

Regardless of what business you’re in, the competition for customers is guaranteed to become more intense every single day. In an environment so fierce, every advantage counts, which is why data analysis software is a tool more and more businesses are using to gain a competitive edge.

When you are looking for a data analytics tool that is cost effective, powerful enough to suit your needs, and flexible enough to grow with your company, an analysis tool like SolveXia is certainly an option worthy of consideration.