People have always been intrigued by what the future holds. But while seers use crystal balls and tarot cards to get a glimpse of what’s to come, business leaders shouldn’t have to base their business forecasts on pseudoscience. Instead, they should use a scientific tool that collects and analyzes data to do reliable predictive forecasting, such as Microsoft’s Power BI.

Power BI is a separate Microsoft product on its own, but if you have a Microsoft 365 Enterprise E5 subscription, then you can avail of Power BI for Microsoft 365. Both versions use a variety of statistical techniques, such as modeling and data mining, to analyze current and previous information to make accurate predictions.

Businesses use Microsoft Excel for many purposes, including creating formulas, planning budgets, recording expenditures, and more. A spreadsheet can handle limitless amounts of information, making it an extremely useful tool for storing and analyzing data such as text and numbers.

Microsoft 365 Groups is a cross-application service that lets users choose the people with whom they want to collaborate and share resources, such as a document library or a Microsoft Outlook inbox. And with its connectors feature, anyone can send information — even those from third-party apps — to the rest of the group right in their shared inbox.