Business intelligence (BI) is a powerful tool that can help businesses make informed decisions by collecting, analyzing, and presenting data in an easy-to-understand format. BI tools allow users to access different types of internal and external data, such as semi-structured and unstructured data from social networks. This data can be used to gain insights into the company's performance and help managers improve business processes. The term business intelligence also usually refers to a series of tools that provide quick access to information about the current state of an organization.
The concept of using technology to gather business intelligence was first explored by IBM computer scientist Hans Peter Luhn in 1958. An example of this is AMARO, an online fashion retailer that wanted to develop intelligence to better understand customers. They found that simplifying ingestion and carefully integrating data sources were key steps in developing their BI infrastructure. Real-time BI applications analyze data as it is created, collected, and processed to provide users with an up-to-date view of business operations, customer behavior, financial markets, and other areas of interest. Integrated business intelligence tools place BI and data visualization functionality directly into business applications.
By providing an accurate picture of the business at a specific time, BI provides the organization with the means to design a business strategy based on factual data. This allows companies to use BI functions more quickly and refine or modify development plans as business needs change or new requirements emerge. Business intelligence teams typically include a combination of BI architects, BI developers, BI analysts, and BI specialists who work closely with data architects, data engineers, and other data management professionals. Some newer business intelligence solutions can extract and ingest raw data directly using technology such as Hadoop, but data warehouses are still the preferred data source in many cases. Self-service business intelligence environments allow business users to query BI data, create data visualizations, and design dashboards on their own.
In addition, BI, data management and IT teams themselves benefit from business intelligence and use it to analyze various aspects of technological and analytical operations. Businesses need the right tools to add business information from anywhere, analyze it, discover patterns and find solutions. With the right BI tools in place, businesses can make better decisions faster and more efficiently. Business intelligence is a powerful tool that can help businesses gain insights into their performance and make informed decisions. It can be used to analyze customer behavior, financial markets, technological operations, and more. Self-service BI environments allow users to query data, create visualizations, and design dashboards on their own.
With the right tools in place, businesses can unlock the power of business intelligence for their organization.
