Business Intelligence Overview

Business intelligence is the information needed to manage a business effectively. Very often this information is held across different operational systems and is can be inconsistant and difficult to obtain. Business intelligence solutions provide the means of turning data into corporate information to give the following benefits:

• Providing an holistic view of a business
• Providing information to make timely decisions
• Competitive advantage through faster, more informed decisions
• Empowering staff by giving them the information to do their job without asking for help
• Increasing productivity
• Making better use of IT assets

Components of business intelligence solutions

• Data warehouse, aggregating silos of data
• Data transformation tools
• Data cubes for multi-dimensional analysis
• Reporting
• Queries (by end users)
• Integration with desktop applications