Business Intelligence

1 Introduction

Business intelligence (BI) is a collection of various theories, methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data gathered via different medium and transform it into meaningful and useful information for business purposes and decision making. Business Intelligence (BI), or computer-based techniques used in identifying, extracting, and analysing business data―such as sales revenue by products and/or departments, or by associated costs and incomes―has come a long way since its inception (Harris, 2012).

Figure 1 : Concept of Business Intelligence (Source: (Leat, 2007))

The BI system enables a company to gather, store, access data via extract, transform and load (ETL) process and analyse quality corporate data to aid in decision making in a short time frame. BI is generally used in the areas of customer profiling, customer support, market research, market segmentation, product profitability, statistical analysis, and inventory and distribution analysis etc. so that mangers could have better analytical report that support in decision making.

1.1  How it works

A technical overview of the main BI stages are presented in figure 2.

Figure 2 : Main business intelligence stages (Source: (G.Geiger, 2010))

1. Assembling of analytical components.
2. Data normalization through ETL (Extract, Transform, Load).
3. Data source management.
4. Designing of the analytical solution.

1.2 Different type BI tools of available in market

Some of BI tools used in providing BI solutions are listed below:

1. Microsoft Dynamics
2. Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) Tools and Technology
3. Google analytics
4. IBM Cognos Suite
5. SQL Server Reporting Services
6. Informatica PowerCenter
7. SAP

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