Business Intelligence

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What is Business Intelligence? Definition

Business Intelligence (BI) aims at making better business decisions through the use of a broad category of Management Information Systems, applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data. BI uses timely and accurate information to make decisions.

Typical BI activities

Typically, BI activities include decision support, query and reporting, online analytical processing, statistical analysis, forecasting, and data mining. BI represents those systems that help companies understand what makes the corporation successful, and to help predict the future impact of current decisions. These systems play a key role in strategic planning process of the corporation.

Business Analytics versus Business Intelligence

What is the difference between business analytics (BA) and business intelligence (BI)?

Both processes involve data as their main component. And both are aimed to improve "decision-making". However the decisions being supported are different:

• BI is used to run the current business smoothly on a strategic/tactical level, like perhaps by what % did our market share increase in market X? Or should we invest in country A or B. While BA is used to create ongoing improvements to certain operational processes of firms, like perhaps optimizing online suggestions to clients for cross selling purposes.
• BI has a strategic focus on making use of available data to take managerial decisions, whereas BA focuses on operational/tactical improvements typically automating them using predicitive analytics.
• BI focuses on the present (what should we do now). BA focuses on future improvements of some process.
• BI is typically used for things like reporting, KPI monitoring, scorecards, performance management. BA is typically used for statistical, quantitive, and predictive analytics.

Typical Business Intelligence Applications

Typical BI systems are: customer profiling, market basket analysis, anti money laundering, anti fraud, customer contact analysis, market segmentation, credit scoring, product profitability, inventory movement as well as certain risk related applications.

Business Intelligence software

BI software provides better steering information to managers, enabling them to make better business decisions, ultimately leading to increased shareholder and stakeholder value creation. BI systems play a key role in strategic planning process of the corporation.

Forum Start a new topic about Business Intelligence Write here. Ask a question or explain something. Current forum discussions about Business Intelligence: Business Intelligence History Wikipedia says In 1989 Howard Dresner, a Research Fellow at Gartner Group popularized "BI" as an umbrella term to describe a set of concepts and methods to improve business decision-making by using fa... 26   1 comments Decision-centric BI (DCBI) I recently read a new term: "Decison-centric BI" in an article by Dan Vesset from IDC in SASCOM. DCBI is the move from information delivery (historic reporting) to a collaborative, hypothesizing, mode... 14   Business Intelligence Tools for SMEs For the last two years I have been working giving some advice on processes improvement to local companies from small to medium size and I have found that the level of business controls (reporting/dash... 12   5 comments Creating Decision Making Dashboards Companies must make common dashboards available, integrating all relevant information to support the decision-making process and performance valuation. This means that all managerial roles will see th... 8   1 comments Business Intelligence Definitions Business Intelligence (BI) is the process of gathering, maintaining and analysing a vast amount of data for taking fact-based business decisions and not gut-based.... 5   1 comments Business Intelligence Software What is the actual role business intelligence (BI) software is playing in the actual strategy process of an organization?... 5   2 comments

Courses about Business Intelligence. Beginners Course Advanced Course Course for Experts

Expert Tips Advanced insights about Business Intelligence. Here you will find professional advices by experts. Consultancy Tips Teaching Tips Practical Implementation Tips Business Analytics Best Practices / Business Intelligence Best Practices Business Intelligence, Business Analytics, Evidence-based Decision Making, Big Data Babson-Professor Thomas H. Davenport in the Harvard BR of January 06 provides 10 best practices on BI: 1. Apply sophist... Competitive Intelligence Best Practices CI, BI, Business Analytics, Compettive Advantage According to Liam Fahey in the article “The Future Directions of Competitive Intelligence: Some Reflections” (Competitiv... Using BI for Competitive Advantage - Best Practices Business Intelligence, Competitive Advantage, Best Practices In a recent report from the Economist Intelligence Unit titled "Levelling the Playing Field - How Companies Use Data for... Common Business Intelligence Pitfalls Investing in BI, Avoiding Pitfalls, Getting Full Value out of Business Analytics In a recent white paper by QlikView titled "BI for the people", it is argued that following 10 common pitfalls might pre... Limitations of Real-time Business Intelligence Decision-making, Business Analytics, Decision Support - Cost - The costs of real-time BI are very high. A simple system could easily cost a company millions of dollars, but r...

Information Sources Various sources of information regarding Business Intelligence. Here you will find powerpoints, videos, news, etc. to use in your own lectures and workshops. Performance Management with Business Intelligence Business Intelligence, Corporate Performance Management, Key Performance Indicators, ERP, Predictive Analysis Paper by Luminita Hurbean. In today’s highly competitive business, the quality and timeliness of business information fo... Implementation of a Business Intelligence Strategy. Steps Business Intelligence, BI Strategy, BI Process, BI Steps This presentation is about BI and the steps that need to be taken in order to be successful. The presentation includes t... BI Overview: the Concept and Main Trends Business Intelligence Presentation that provides an overview of Business Intelligence and describes the main trends in it. The presentation in... How DSS, AI and IT can aid the Transformation Process of Knowledge External Knowledge Sharing Paper by Saadat Alhashmi. Competitive organisations must be able to locate, capture, store, share and leverage not only ...

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