Business intelligence (BI) is a technology-driven process for analyzing data and presenting actionable information which helps executives, managers and other corporate end-users make informed business decisions. Inside the slide show at the end of this post, we look at examples of how companies are using business intelligence systems currently and insight into the process of building a BI solution.
Business intelligence systems were once the preserve of large companies. But thanks to extra competition and the advance of technologies like cloud computing and software as a service, more and more small firms are taking advantage of the affordable options on offer today. Business Intelligence is now a high priority, even for mid-sized firms to remain competitive, companies need additional insights into their data.
“Accelerated transformation from BI systems used primarily for measurement and reporting to those that also support analysis, prediction, forecasting and optimisation”
Gartner 2014
Evolution of Business Analytics
Descriptive “What’s going on”
Predictive “What will happen”
Prescriptive “What should we do about”
Business Intelligence Vision
To identify new opportunities and implementing an effective strategy based on insights and trends to administer advantage to business with a competitive edge in the market and to gain long-term stability. And improving organisations by providing business insights to all employees leading to better, faster, more relevant decisions.
- Advanced Analytics
- Self Service Reporting
- End-User Analysis
- Business Performance Management
- Operational Applications
- Embedded Analytics
Business Intelligence Goal
The goal of BI is to help decision-makers achieve highest benefit and being better informed in the decisions making process to meet and identify business goals. Business intelligence software and software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions accomplish this by making it simpler for new products and services, new markets and opportunities, investments in operations, sales, marketing and other systems to support growth. Building a business intelligence solution is to drive better decision making, there is no single solution scenario to describe what a BI Solution looks like.
Business Intelligence Dashboards
BI dashboards are fully functional dashboards delivered through a range of web browsers with rich, prebuilt content covering dashboards, reports, alerts, guided and conditional navigations, et al. They can act as the single source for BI information, allowing users to monitor key performance indicators, track efficiency / effectiveness measures, receive critical alerts, access an ad hoc environment for self-service analysis and much more.
Business Intelligence 5 Key Stages
More information inside our What is Business Intelligence BI Google slide show on screen 12 or click here to view the presentation.
- Data Sourcing
- Data Analysis
- Situation Awareness
- Risk Assessment
- Decision Support
Enables customers to present Business Intelligence information directly in line with other content that may be published via a portal allowing a full picture of critical business information so users get the right information to better perform their jobs.
Business Intelligence Users
Executives: Information is summarised and has been defined for them. Users have the ability to view static information online and/or print to a local printer.
Casual Users: Casual users require the next level of detail from the information that is provided to viewers. In addition to the privileges of a viewer, casual users have the ability to refresh report information and the ability to enter desired information parameters for the purposes of performing high-level research and analysis.
Functional Users: Functional users need to perform detailed research and analysis, which requires access to transactional data. In addition to the privileges of a casual user, functional users have the ability to develop their own ad hoc queries and perform OLAP analysis.
Super Users: Superusers have a strong understanding of both the business and technology to access and analyse transactional data. They have full privileges to explore and analyse the data with the BI applications available to them.
Business Intelligence Data Mining
The process of extracting patterns from data. Data mining is becoming an increasingly important tool to transform this data into information. It is commonly used in a wide range of profiling practices, such as marketing, surveillance, fraud detection and scientific discovery.
Business Intelligence Conclusion
Business Intelligence solutions make it possible for groups within organisations to gain actionable insight from business data, and to leverage these insights to meet critical goals.
Business intelligence solutions offer business-focused analysis at a scale, complexity, and speed that is not achievable with basic operational systems reporting or spreadsheet analysis, thereby delivering significant value.