Business intelligence (BI) tools allow you to analyze data for patterns, insights—and competitive advantage. At one time, dedicated BI business technology was mostly restricted to large companies who could afford the expensive, complex software required. Today, BI tools exist that are well within the reach of small and mid-size businesses. However, it’s important to choose the right one, because if it’s too complex or lacks the right features, it will go unused. When choosing a business data visualization solution, here’s a checklist of features to consider.

1. Data types: Chances are, you have data in multiple places. For example, you might have product data in Excel files, customer data in online applications such as Salesforce, and application data in databases such as SQL Server. Make sure your small and mid-size business analytics solution can handle any data source you might need to access, now and in the future.
2. Data locations: Today, many companies use a mix of on-premises technology (such as a physical server) with cloud solutions (such as Microsoft Azure). Your BI solution should be able to connect to data sources on-site, online, and from the public domain.
3. Data prep: Once you know what data you’re going to use, you might need to shape it before analyzing it. Shaping data means transforming it, performing tasks such as renaming columns or specifying headers. If your BI software doesn’t make data preparation easy, you could invest more energy getting started than getting smarter.
4. Ease of use: Many BI solutions are designed to be managed and used by experts and are not very well-suited to a self-service environment. Choose a BI data visualization solution that is designed to make the power of data insights accessible to anyone in your organization. When more people in your business can use BI tools, you can create a more data-driven culture.
5. Ease of sharing: A data visualization or data dashboard is much more powerful when you can easily share it with others. When selecting a BI tool, look for two things: can you quickly create interactive business data visualizations so users can explore the data on their own, and are the outputs easy to view across a wide range of devices including tablets and smartphones?

If you’re ready to experience a BI solution that can be easy enough for anyone to use, yet with the ability to meet advanced analytics needs, try Microsoft Power BI. It’s available as a standalone solution or as part of Office 365. Best of all, the basic version of Power BI is free. Give it a try and see if it meets your needs for small and mid-size business analytics and data visualization.