Quantitative analysis of noisy electron spectrum images requires a robust estimation of the underlying background signal. We demonstrate how modern data compression methods can be used as a tool for achieving an analysis result less affected by statistical errors or to speed up the background estimation. In particular, we demonstrate how a multilinear singular value decomposition (MLSVD) can be used to enhance elemental maps obtained from a complex sample measured with energy electron loss spectroscopy. Furthermore, the usage of vertex component analysis (VCA) for a basis vector centered estimation of the background is demonstrated. Arising computational benefits in terms of model accuracy and computational costs are studied.