| Business intelligence refers to the process of collecting | | | | in charge of monitoring the business intelligence |
| meaningful information databases; analyzing this | | | | system. Finally, but perhaps most importantly, they |
| information and generating reports that will help | | | | have to be sure the company can afford building a |
| companies make informed decisions. Business | | | | business intelligence system. |
| intelligence systems help organizes all data generated | | | | Things to Consider When Building a Business |
| by the enterprise to make it available whenever it's | | | | Intelligence System: |
| needed. The system also analyzes the data and | | | | The system should be designed in such a |
| creates reports that help guide the company towards | | | | way that it can integrate various platforms. |
| success. | | | | It should provide accurate, reliable results. |
| Since business intelligence system needs differ from | | | | It should be scalable, secure and reliable to |
| one company to another, they can be custom built. | | | | provide users with an uninterrupted supply of data that |
| The dashboards can be built to suit the company's | | | | they need. |
| measurement and performance indicators, which can | | | | Its analytical capabilities should be |
| help to determine if the company's performance | | | | enterprise-wide. |
| matches the strategy and plan used. In this way, | | | | The system should be capable of |
| business intelligence systems can make clear a | | | | transforming data from multiple sources into a format |
| company's current position and forecast where it will | | | | suitable for the users. |
| be in a few years time. | | | | There should be key performance indicators |
| Until a few years ago, business intelligence systems | | | | to help make necessary corrections where required. |
| needed ad hoc query, reporting tools, portals, analytic | | | | It should have the capacity to create, |
| engines, data warehousing and mining tools. | | | | embedded and manage reports that can be helpful in |
| Assembling them made it very difficult for the average | | | | making decisions. |
| worker to understand and use the systems | | | | The system must be user-friendly and not |
| effectively. | | | | too complicated. |
| Today, business intelligence systems can be much | | | | It should have the tools necessary for |
| easier to use, but they must be well designed in order | | | | building complex business analytics. |
| to provide accurate and meaningful results. Certain | | | | It should easily integrate with the main |
| questions must be answered before building a | | | | operating system used by the company. |
| business intelligence system. The company has to | | | | It should be able to analyze sales data, |
| determine what its goals are and how the system is | | | | effectively review market research and take into |
| going to help them. They have to be clear about the | | | | account demographic statistics. |
| kind of data collected and the way this data is going to | | | | The system should be able to handle |
| be stored. They must know the statistical parameters | | | | structured as well as unstructured data. |
| of this data and how to measure it. They have to | | | | Hiring a professional with experience in implementing |
| determine what metrics to track, what system to use | | | | systems for other companies can help the company in |
| to track them and make sure the metrics are | | | | building a business intelligence system. There are firms |
| standardized so they can be benchmarked against the | | | | that offer both product and services to help you run a |
| competition. There should be a person in-house who is | | | | successful business. |