The term Business Intelligence carries many meanings and encompasses an extraordinarily broad spectrum of modern subjects. It combines practices, methodologies, tools and IT technologies related to data analysis. It is most commonly associated with so-called Data Warehouses and analytical-reporting systems, however these represent only a fraction of the actual BI structure.
In the context of BI, a number of different terms are used: business intelligence, economic intelligence or business analytics. One definition presents BI as a set of practices, methodologies, tools and IT technologies used to collect and integrate data in order to deliver information and knowledge to the right people, in the right place and at the right time.
Business Intelligence can also be viewed as the transformation of data into information, and information into knowledge, with the aim of optimising business processes and the organisation as a whole. It is important to remember that the widely repeated claim that BI is merely an IT toolset is a misconception.
Business Intelligence is, to a very large extent, an organisational culture oriented towards conscious decision-making based on collections of facts and information established from gathered data. Business Intelligence (BI) solutions allow a company to be viewed from any perspective and to extract the information needed at any given moment.
What is the foundation of BI tools?
The core element of BI solutions is the Data Warehouse (DW) — a specially adapted external database oriented towards the most efficient handling of advanced analytical queries. Data is transferred to the Warehouse from a variety of source systems (such as ERP or CRM) through ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes, which cleanse and integrate data into a single coherent multidimensional model (OLAP, MOLAP, ROLAP) containing high-quality data (Data Quality).
Data is typically retrieved from the Warehouse into “engines” whose primary purpose is the efficient processing of multidimensional analytical queries (OLAP, On-Line Analytical Processing). These enable rapid analysis across multiple dimensions and at various levels of abstraction (e.g. generating annual, quarterly and monthly reports).
Benefits of implementing BI in companies
- Understanding and interpretation of the phenomena being examined.
- More effective analytical work.
- Easier data exchange between employees / knowledge transfer.
- Optimisation of operations.
- Monitoring of the company’s goal fulfilment.
- Reduction of costs arising from potentially incorrect decisions.
BI-class analytical environments gather and integrate data from a variety of operational sources, process it into a business-comprehensible model and make it available to business users in the form of clear, reliable information. As a result, companies operate more efficiently thanks to — among other things — the optimal use of resources combined with knowledge transfer.
