3. Definition: The structured exploration or mining of business data in search of meaningful patterns in order to improve decision making, cut costs, and identify new business opportunities.
We have already learned the hierarchy of wisdom. Business intelligence is the “wisdom” of data used to improve decision making, cut costs, and/or identify new business opportunities. http://www.ruthmalan.com/Journal/2008/2008JournalMay.htm
With today’s BI tools, businesses can jump in and start analyzing data themselves, rather than wait for IT to run complex reports. This access to information helps users back up – with hard numbers – business decisions that would otherwise be based only on gut feelings and anecdotes. Credits:http://www.cio.com/article/40296/Business_Intelligence_Definition_and_Solutions
Why is Business Intelligence Important? Business Intelligence is important because it is about more than decision support. Due to improvements in technology and the way firm’s are implementing it, BI now has the potential to transform organizations. Firm’s who successfully use BI to improve business processes contribute to their organizations in more far-reaching ways than by implementing basic reporting tools.Photo Credits: http://trendsupdates.com/enterprise-resource-planning-systems-erp/
Business Intelligence is composed of many complex items.
“There” refers to reporting, ad-havoc reporting, and OLAP analysis.Reports should make it easy for the reader to quickly find answers to their questions. Reports can contain any number of report objects – charts, cross tabs, and lists, as well as non-BI components such as images, logos, and live embedded applications that can be linked to the information. Ad hoc is a latin phrase meaning “for this”. It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and non intended to be adapted to other purposes. Examples of this would refer to a military unit created under special circumstances, a tailor made suit, a handcrafted network protocol, or a purpose-specific equation.OLAP analysis or ‘On-Line Analytical Processing’ should be a fast analysis of shared multidimensional information.Fast means that the system is targeted to deliver most responses to users within about five seconds, with the simplest analysis taking no more than one second and very few taking more than 20 seconds. Analysis means that the system can cope with any business logic and statistical analysis that is relevant for the application and the user, and keep it easy enough for the target user. Shared means that the system implements all the security requirements for confidentiality and, if multiple write access is needed, concurrent update locking at an appropriate level. Multidimentional is a key requirement for OLAP analysis. The system must provide a multidimentional conceptual view of the data, including full support for hierarchies and multiple hierarchies, as this is the most logical way to analyze businesses and organizations. Lastly, information is all of the data and derived information needed, whereever it is and however much is relevant for the application.Credits:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hochttp://spotfire.tibco.com/SEO/business-intelligence-reporting.aspxhttp://www.dashboardinsight.com/sponsored-articles/cognos-reporting-and-dashboards.aspxhttp://www.mart-solutions.com/index.php?id=12&tag=Productshttp://www.socalbi.com/Pages/Business-Intelligence.aspxhttp://www.bi-verdict.com/fileadmin/FreeAnalyses/fasmi.htm
Business Intelligence begins with Enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, data base and files.Enterprise resource planning (ERP) integrates internal and external management information across an entire organization, embracing finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service, etc. Its purpose is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the connections to outside stakeholders.Customer Resource Planning (CRM) is a strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes – principally sales activities activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support with overall goals to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service.A relational database matches data by using common characteristics found within the data set. The resulting groups of data are organized and are much easier for people to understand.A flat file is a plain text or mixed text and binary file which usually contains one record per line or physical record (example on disc or tape).Credits:http://www.datacraftrockford.com/blog/bid/32273/What-is-an-ERP-system-software-and-do-I-need-onehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planninghttp://www.thaicrmsoftware.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_managementhttp://kfleb.asu.edu/Analytical/gIRMS/Instrumentandanalysis/Analytical/Methods/Carbonates.htmlhttp://www.sdtimes.com/blog/post/2010/12/07/Database-as-a-service.aspxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_databasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_file_database
The first part of an ETL process involves extracting the data from the source systems with the most common source formats being relational databases and flat files. The goal of the extraction phase is to convert the data into a single format which is appropriate for transformation processing.The transformation stage applies a series of rules or functions to the extracted data from the source to derive the data for loading into the end target. Some data sources will require very little or even no manipulation of data and others will require one or more transformation types used to meet the business and technical needs of the target database.The load phase loads the data into the end target, usually the data warehouse. Some data warehouses may overwrite existing information with cumulative information, frequently updating extract data is done on daily, weekly, or monthly bases. Other datawarehouses may add new data in a hirtoricized form, for example, hourly.http://trianzblog.com/wordpress/?p=203http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extract,_transform,_load
A data warehouse is essentially a data vault. It provides the users with the tools to stock up the summarized information from multiple, varies databases in a single storehouse.A data mart is the access layer of the data warehouse environment that is used to get data out to the users. The data mart is a subset of the data warehouse, usually oriented to a specific business line or team.In general, a data warehouse tends to be a strategic but somewhat unfinished concept; a data mart tends to be tactical and aimed at meeting an immediate need.Credits:http://www.businessihub.com/data-warehousing/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_mart
Within the walls of an enterprise, there are plenty of opportunities to save money by optimizing business processes and focusing decisions. Business intelligence has been used to identify cost-cutting ideas, uncover business opportunities, roll enterprise resource management (erp) data into accessible reports, react quickly to retail demand and optimize prices. It also gives companies more leverage during negotiations by making it easier to quantify the value of relationships with suppliers and customers.Credits:http://www.flickr.com/photos/intvgene/370973576/
