Business Intelligence

Knowledge Center

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 New Topic Forum about Business Intelligence. 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 (...) 12   5 comments Creating Decision Making Dashboards Companies must make common dashboards available, integrating all relevant information to support the decision-making pro (...) 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- (...) 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 Evaluation of Business Intelligence Systems. Metrics I am looking for metrics to evaluate BI systems. Someone has a clue? Is there a standard available for this? (...) 4   3 comments 🔥 NEW Sense Making in Decision Making Support Hi, I'm currently writing my master’s thesis. It's title is: "Sense Making in Decision Making Support". According to (...) 3   0 comments Setting up a BI Unit What are the steps required to create a Business Intelligence section in my department to facilitate business planning, (...) 3   3 comments Combining GIS and BI Sometimes we can combine a GIS with BI to provide a better way to make a decision. (...) 3   0 comments Business Intelligence Quotes Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted - Sun Tzu, 4th century B.C. (...) 3   0 comments Self-servicing Business Intelligence Bill Hostmann from Gartner Research in a SAS magazine expects that information will be increasingly self-servicing. Gett (...) 3   1 comments Business and Strategic Intelligence Is strategic intelligence the same concept as that of business intelligence? The only difference I picked up was that st (...) 1   5 comments

Best Practices Sign up The top-rated topics about Business Intelligence. Here you will find the most valuable ideas and practical suggestions. Business Intelligence History Wikipedia says In 1989 Howard Dresner, a Research Fellow at Gartner Group popularized "BI" as an umbrella term to descri (...) 23   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 i (...) 15   0 comments

Expert Tips Sign up Advanced insights about Business Intelligence. Here you will find professional advices by experts. 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 (...) Generic Benefits of Real-time BI Decision-making, Business Analytics, Decision Support - Real-time BI dramatically reduces the latency of making decisions and reacting to events. There are generally four lat (...) What are the Main Categories of BI Tools? BI Types, BI Categories It is essential that any organization understands its own business processes and appreciates the fact that BI tools are (...) Preparing for Implementation of BI systems Generic Steps to Consider, Checklist According to Tad Leahy in the article “The right BI tools for the job” (Business Finance, October 2002) seven steps have (...) 3 Steps in Solving Problems with Data Credibility Improving Data Reliablility, IT, Business Intelligence The problem of data credibility Data credibility problems have been existed for many years. Due to this credibility pro (...) Internet of Things and Marketing Marketing, Supply Chain Management, Internet Strategy Billions of physical devices around the world today are connected to the internet, all collecting and sharing data. This (...) Using BI for Competitive Advantage - Focus Areas IT Strategy, Competitive Advantage According to the report "Levelling the Playing Field - How Companies Use Data for Competitive Advantage" by the Economis (...) Relevance of BI to Strategy and Decision-making BI, Decision-making, Business Analytics A research study conducted by Business Week Research Services and Business Objects shows that more than half of the crit (...) Defining Real-time Business Intelligence Decision-making, Business Analytics Real-time Business Intelligence, in contrast to business intelligence, is defined as the use of, or the capacity to use, (...)

Information Sources Sign up 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 (...) Using Big Data for Competitive Advantage Customer Analysis, Data Management Presentation about unstructured consumer information, or Big Data. Big Data – if processed correctly - can give companie (...) KPIs and KPI Management Understanding KPIs, Introduction Introduction by expert Joe Panebianco gives a first understanding of what Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) are and the (...) Business Intelligence Diagram Business Intelligence Download and edit this 12manage PowerPoint graphic for limited personal, educational and business use. Republishing in (...)

Research Links Sign up Automatically jump to further useful sources regarding Business Intelligence. News Videos Presentations Books More

Compare with BI: Business Analytics  |  Activity Based Costing  |  CSFs and KPIs  |  Balanced Scorecard  |  Performance Management  |  Beyond Budgeting

Return to Management Hub: Change & Organization  |  Decision-making & Valuation  |  Knowledge & Intangibles  |  Strategy

More Management Methods, Models and Theory