It is a misconception that business intelligence and reporting tools are the same. The reality is that they are two different entities that are vital for running a business successfully. While business intelligence is the technology that has the potential to unlock the meaning of the data stored in your business database across all departments, a reporting tool is an application. It facilitates you to represent the data in charts and graphs so that you can make out some meaning from the same to gain valuable information. However, it is important to note that most reporting tools have a standardized format where there is only a little room for customization. Let’s consider the following scenario to develop more clarity about the existing difference between the two. Suppose you have a detailed sales report with all your products existing in your inventory, their item numbers, selling prices, and month-wise sales of each of the items. With so much data, it becomes tough for you to gain valuable insights from the report. If there are hundreds of products, the data in your report can become voluminous. You have to spend significant time to analyze the same to comprehend the meaning of the same which means delayed business decisions. Here, comes the business intelligence to your rescue. When you have a reporting tool powered by business intelligence, you can have your data represented in visually-appealing charts, gauges, graphs, and more. The tool with drag and drop functionalities, custom filters on multiple fields, and so on make it easier for you to discover new data relationships. You can quickly identify the lowest selling and highest selling products in different months of a year. This, in turn, gives you clear information about the change in demand for various products in various months or seasons. Armed with such valuable insights, you become able to devise a robust marketing strategy to boost your overall sales. No wonder, business needs both. The convergence of BI with reporting tools is now a reality. Boon of data visualization According to Daniel Keys Moran, an eminent computer programmer, “You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data.” Clearly, as an entrepreneur, you need a solution to have valuable business insights within no time which is possible by data visualization offered by a BI reporting tool. In a competitive environment, businesses with the capacity to collect and analyze their data are in a better position to make informed decisions. Speed has become the key to achieve success and data visualization helps businesses to achieve the same by proving valuable business insights. Data visualization expert Stephen Few was right when he said, “Numbers have an important story to tell. They rely on you to give them a clear and convincing voice.” To harness the power of data visualization, the convergence of reporting tools and BI was essential. With evolving technological advance, the convergence has finally become a reality. The convergence bridges the gap between the complex data and the end-user in an effortless manner.