"What is Business Intelligence?"

Business Intelligence is a generalized term applied to a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing and providing access to data to help enterprise users make better business decisions. Amongst others, Business Intelligence applications include the activities of decision support systems, query and reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), statistical analysis, forecasting, and data mining.

An alternative way of describing BI is: the technology required to turn raw data into information to support decision-making within corporations and business processes.

This term was used as early as September, 1996, in a Gartner Group report:

By 2000, Information Democracy will emerge in forward-thinking enterprises, with Business Intelligence information and applications available broadly to employees, consultants, customers, suppliers, and the public. The key to thriving in a competitive marketplace is staying ahead of the competition. Making sound business decisions based on accurate and current information takes more than intuition. Data analysis, reporting and query tools can help business users wade through a sea of data to synthesize valuable information from it - today these tools collectively fall into a category called "Business Intelligence".

The term Business Intelligence is generally accepted de facto world-wide and used in most languages.

Typical example of a business intelligence application: Corporate Financial Reporting system built by all-BI Business Intelligence Solutions for a major international chemical company. Millions of data records are summarized for the Board of Directors within seconds in a web browser.

"Why Business Intelligence?"

By definition, the moment any given business is operating, it begins generating data. Some obvious examples are sales, bookkeeping, production data, warehouse information, transportation and logistics, personnel, etc.

In addition there also exists large volumes of data which are important to the business but not directly generated by business operations. Examples are market data, competitive data, tenders and proposal, legal information, raw material prices, etc.

As such, none of the above described information can be used in its raw form by corporate management to make decisions although the information is critical in helping make those business decisions.

Therein lies the necessity for Business Intelligence. BI technologies help bring decision-makers the data in a form they can quickly digest and apply to their decision making. BI turns data into information for managers and executives and in general, people making decisions in a company.

Another case in point: this is the launch pad for a series of cost center expense reports for one of the largest pharmaceutical company world-wide. Here as well, millions and millions of records are summarized for cost center managers at various hierarchy levels to allow the company to complete their budgeting process and make final decisions on next year's expenses and capital expenditures.

Business Intelligence References

Below we have put together a list of excellent books on the topic of Business Intelligence for our visitors that wish to get a more in-depth view of what Business Intelligence can do for a company.