| This generally refers to technologies that are used to | | | | up being much more complex than original estimates. |
| analyze and provide strategic intelligence about the | | | | Business intelligence is a relatively new technology. |
| operations of a business. Larger companies have vast | | | | Because of the dependence of BI technologies on |
| amounts of data available to them. And with | | | | databases, data warehouses and related computer |
| competitive pressures in today's markets, businesses | | | | technologies, BI has not been possible till recently. It |
| need to utilize company data to understand their | | | | was in 1989 that Howard Dresner of the Gartner |
| business and stay competitive. | | | | Group helped to popularize the term business |
| Production data, demographic information, sales figures | | | | intelligence. |
| and the like can be synthesized into a form useful for | | | | Creating a good business intelligence system often |
| making better strategic business decisions. For | | | | requires determining key performance indicators (KPI) |
| example, a business intelligence system could | | | | for a given business. KPIs are metrics, either financial |
| aggregate sales numbers by month and year and | | | | or non-financial, that are good indicators of the |
| compare current figures to historical values. These | | | | performance of a company. Domain or market |
| aggregated sales figures could then be displayed in a | | | | knowledge as well as an understanding of the |
| simple tabular format (Excel, PDF, or HTML) and/or | | | | particular company are usually required to determine |
| converted into graphical representations (charts, | | | | key performance indicators. |
| graphs, gauges, dial indicators, etc.). The synthesized | | | | The objective of a business intelligence report is to |
| data could then be displayed on a simple report in the | | | | present actionable information in as simple of a form |
| form of a dashboard (analogous to a dashboard on a | | | | as possible. Useful reports often aggregate an |
| car or airplane) that shows all of that data in an easy | | | | enormous amount of data into simple tables and |
| to read, intuitive format. | | | | charts. Before becoming a report (in a simplified |
| Business intelligence (BI) uses many data related | | | | example), systems have aggregated operational data |
| technologies. Data warehouses, document | | | | into a data warehouse using extract, transform, and |
| management, knowledge management, data mining, | | | | load (ETL) processes. Then BI software has analyzed |
| online analytical processing (OLAP), multidimensional | | | | data contained in the warehouse to build that report. |
| analysis (based on creating n-dimensional data cubes) | | | | Users of the reports are often clueless as to the |
| to name a few. Because today's companies have so | | | | processes and data crunching that was required to |
| many divergent computer systems and applications, it | | | | generate the report. That is an indicator of a good |
| is usually a complex task to aggregate data from so | | | | business intelligence system... reporting that is deceptive |
| many varying sources. Creating BI systems often ends | | | | simple. |