All rivers meet at the ocean. Those beautifully clear ocean waters gently lulling at the edge of a sunny island are made up of thousands of rivers from across the world... amazing.

Back on land, there's business intelligence (BI) tools instead of oceans and hundreds of data sources instead of rivers. Daydreaming about business intelligence tools might not be as fun, but these tools certainly make the world your oyster (when it comes to growth and success, that is).

Being able to collect and analyze data is key to long-term success. But in this hyper-connected era, there are so many data sources to monitor at any given time. It can be tricky to gain real value from the mountains of data available to you, especially if you're working with different metrics or multiple forms of business data.

What's more, different departments may be using different data points that offer contradicting results. Marketing may be using social media platform reporting tools that show high customer engagement and interaction. Meanwhile, the sales data the finance team is using suggests otherwise. To make informed decisions about your business, you need a holistic view of your data. And that's where business intelligence tools come in.

But what exactly are business intelligence tools and how can your business reap the benefits from them? We've curated a list of the best business intelligence software solutions on the market and three marketing intelligence tools to use alongside them.