Business Intelligence

Business intelligence, or BI, is an umbrella term that refers to a variety of software applications used to analyze an organization’s raw data. BI as a discipline is made up of several related activities, including data mining, online analytical processing, querying and reporting. Companies use BI to improve decision making, cut costs and identify new business opportunities. BI is more than just corporate reporting and more than a set of tools to extract data out of enterprise systems. It reveals performance, operational (in)efficiencies, and untapped opportunities. The management team of any successful enterprise uses BI to identify inefficient business processes that are ripe for re-engineering.

As mentioned earlier, BI is a set of tools rather than a consolidated standalone vendor-specific framework. Nonetheless, every BI infrastructure must include elements of the following functionality:

Pre-Designed Reports

Also referred to as pixel-perfect reports, these are a set of predefined reports and queries that are considered fundamental for the bulk of decision making in an enterprise. These reports are carefully designed (by the IT department) and published online for the relevant teams to access and incorporate in their decision making process. Such reports are created and developed once and generated periodically either on demand or by pre-defined execution schedules (report bursting).

Ad Hoc Reports

Ad hoc reports, also known as user-defined reports, are reports created by business users to cater to a specific aspect of information and utilized by a smaller group of decision makers. With the ability to create and distribute simple ad hoc reports, business users can handle their reporting requirements without relying on the development capabilities of the IT department.

Business Dashboards

BI Dashboards are an indispensible part of an organization’s Executive Information System (EIS). Business dashboards communicate complex information quickly. They translate information from your various corporate systems and data into visually rich presentations using gauges, maps, charts, and other graphical elements to show multiple results together.

Analytic Reports

Analysis enables the guided exploration of information that pertains to all dimensions of a business, regardless of where the data is stored. BI users can analyze (drill down) and report against online analytical processing (OLAP) and dimensionally aware relational sources.

Data Mining

The term data mining today is characterized as the technology which incorporates the application of statistical techniques in conjunction with mathematical formulas that attempt to identify significant relationships between variables in historical business data, which can then be used to forecast, perform sensitivity analysis, (e.g., what happens to my target/dependent variable when I change one or more of my explanatory/independent variables) or just identify significant relationships that exist in the data at hand.

Apart from the above pillar stone features, every BI infrastructure must support fringe characteristics such as role based security, portal integration, and application integration via programmable APIs. To summarize, BI is a set of technologies and processes at all levels of an organization to access and analyze data. However, without competent people to interpret the information and act on it, business intelligence achieves nothing. Thus, business intelligence is less about technology than about creativity, culture, and whether people view information as a critical asset. Too great a focus on BI technology can easily sabotage BI initiatives in any organization.