I enjoy telling people I’ve just met that I am in “Business Intelligence.”   I watch their face as they try to decipher the term.    They know about the Central Intelligence Agency, they understand Military Intelligence, and of course they know James Bond, but they have never heard of “Business Intelligence.”  I think they envision me running around office buildings in stiletto heels flashing my BI badge and acting cool while I sniff out wrong doers. 

In reality, Business Intelligence is probably the most powerful tool a business can have.   It utilizes applications, technologies, practices and processes in order to provide the information necessary to make competent, fact-based decisions in a timely manner.  In short, it is the thumb on the company’s pulse.   The term Business Intelligence is an umbrella term that includes other umbrella terms; most notably:  Business Analytics, Data Mining, Decision Support, and Enterprise Reporting.  In my opinion this over arching definition can cause confusion.

Frequently, at the core of BI is a Data Warehouse or Data Mart.  These relational databases contain either multiple subject data (data warehouse) or single-subject data (data mart) optimized for data storage (as opposed to supporting a transactional application).  The subjects depend on the business and are typically Sales, Marketing or Production.  A reporting application gathers data from the data base and distributes it through reports, dashboards or scorecards.  Distribution can be any number of venues:  a Web or OLAP application to view and manipulate reports, via an email address, blackberry or printed and manually distributed.
  
A huge value of having a BI program is that the decision makers in the company are receiving the data they need in a timely manner.   I’ve helped companies with legacy systems where they don’t see fiscal year-end data until several months after the end of the fiscal year.  The BI program delivers fiscal year-end data and analysis the day after the year ends or closes.    Fraud prevention obviously benefits from receiving timely results.  By setting thresholds of a normal transaction, when those thresholds are exceeded then the information is delivered immediately and action can be taken. 

Everyone in your organization can benefit from a BI program.   It’s clear to see how Executives benefit by making business-wide decisions with a concise Dashboard, for example, but a very popular trend in the BI industry right now is what’s called Operational Business Intelligence.   This addresses daily operations and delivers reports in real-time or near real-time to all levels of employees to improve business performance.  Information Builders has a very good flash graphic that depicts who uses and benefits from BI. 

In a future blog, I will discuss the steps needed to implement a BI program.   I hope the information I provided here has helped you understand why you’d want to implement BI.  Please comment if you have any questions.