Business Intelligence Is All About Decision Making With A Data Driven Approach

This report is an analysis of business intelligence systems currently available to our business. As an introduction, I will address in general terms why we need to purchase a business intelligence system and how it will aid our business. Then I will discuss several applications in detail, paying particular attention to the information and analysis capabilities of each, and the hardware and software required for each. Finally, I will conclude with a short evaluation of the products discussed and offer a recommendation as to the best application for our business. I will pay particular attention to IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and Oracle.

As we discuss the possibility of emerging into business intelligence software we must keep in mind the overall purpose of using any type of software is to reach strategic goals in order to increase market shares. I will discuss how business intelligence software will allow us to meet those strategic goals. We will establish what type of information and analysis capabilities will be available once this business intelligence software is implemented. We will discuss hardware and system software that will be required to run specific business intelligence software. Lastly, I will give a brief synopsis on three vendors (IBM, Microsoft Microsoft and Oracle) that are dominating the business information software industry today.

Business analytics on the other hand, as defined on Wikipedia (2012, Aug 06) "refers to the skills, technologies, applications and practices for continuous iterative exploration and investigation of past business performance to gain insight and drive business planning." It goes on to state that, "Business analytics focuses on developing new insights and understanding of business performance based on data and statistical methods." This is in contrast to business intelligence and stated above. Business intelligence answers questions such as what happened, , how often, how many, where the problem is, and what needs to happen next. Business analytics answers questions like why is this happening, what if these trends continue, what might

What is Business Intelligence (BI)? BI is the way that using modern data warehouse technology, online analytical processing, and data mining to analysis the data then achieve business value. As a tool, BI is used to deal with the existing data in the enterprise, and convert it into knowledge, analysis and conclusions, and then help the decision-maker to make a right and wise decision.

Business Intelligence is gaining popularity in many organizations and companies. Business Intelligence solutions are developed to help the organizations understand their customers, activities and performance. BI solutions act as measurements units for a business or an organization. Deficient intelligence leads to weak decision making. BI has

Business Analytics is a comprehensive method used by businesses deploying sophisticated tools to access past, vast and complex information and then use the acquired data and information to better analyse the organisation and equip its managers with the ability to make a well informed business decision. (http://sydney.edu.au/business/business_analytics Name: Business Analytics Website Name: University of Sydney Year 2015)

Business Intelligence can be defined as the combined form of developing and learning the data that has been collected from various sources and then analyzing it. Business Intelligence is also used to provide the data in an interactive access to the data which enables the business analysts to process out certain analysis by making necessary manipulations in the data. The data that gets manipulated and analyzed includes the historical data along with the current data along with the performance levels and the situations through which the analysts are able to make precious insights that can be used to provide solutions that can result in benefitting the organization. Thus, Business Intelligence is basically taking actions based on the decisions that are taken by considering the transformed or the manipulated data (Turban, Sharda, Delen, King, & Aronson, 2011, p. 08)

Business analytics is different to Business intelligence which also uses statistical methods. Business analytics uses statistical methods and data to arrive at fresh understanding and illumination of a situation, whereas business intelligence uses statical data to serve as querying, reporting or alerts. Business analytics, therefore, is, one may say, the detective side of business using the statistics to develop and progress the business or direct it in new directions rather than revamping it with existent and supportive data. Business intelligence, in other words, uses the data to inform stakeholders and others what is occurring with the business, what the action is, and what steps are being taken.

In the current business world, enterprises have developed strategies and technologies which are useful for data analysis of the associated business information. This information obtained is essential in making prudent business decisions. This developed strategies and technologies used for data analysis are known as business intelligence which is abbreviated as BI. Business Intelligence is associated with businesses issues which go around its history, current situation and a future analysis of the trend of business operation. In business intelligence technologies which are key to business survival include; reporting, online analytical processing, data mining, process mining, benchmarking, predictive analysis among others. This essay discusses issues associated with business intelligence, showing an historical background, its software applications, advantages and disadvantages of business intelligence as well as describing the competition that is witnessed between Google and IBM.

In the last few decades, because of availability of vast amount of data in the electronic forms, and the increase in requirements associated with its conversion into desired information, for its use in analysis of market, business management and to aid in decision process. There are many systems and technologies developed, that helped managers to make better decisions and avoid failures that are commonly associated with relying upon intuitions. Business Intelligence Systems are information systems, that are designed to allow managers to capitalize upon organization data, for the purpose of improving their decision making. They do not support the real time activities but operational ones like order processing, recording etc. The real time activities are supported by transaction processing systems. BI systems helps in managerial assessment, planning and control.

“Technology creates visibility across the business, and enterprise-wide operational practices are essential to optimal efficiency and effectiveness. The strategic implementation of business intelligence tools and analytics, along with cross-departmental alignment, can transform data into meaningful, useful information for critical analysis. Proactive and investigative BI reporting techniques can help recognize new business opportunities and provide firms with a competitive industry advantage.” - Scott Lundstrom, group vice president and general manager of IDC Financial, Government and Health Insights (Sungard, 2014a).

Business Intelligence is the gathering and analysis of large amounts of information so as to gain insights that propagate strategic and tactical business decisions. Business Intelligence is the conglomeration of the processes and technologies which change data into information. It encompasses a wide category of technologies, including data warehousing, multidimensional analysis or online analytical processing, data mining and visualization, as well as basic queries and multiple types of analytical tools for reporting. These technologies allow business stakeholders to collect, store, access, and do the analysis of data to improve the business decision-making capabilities (Khan, 2005).

Business intelligence and analytics (BIA), a term coined in 1989, has gained much reaction in the IT practitioner community and academia over the past two decades. BIA refers to: (1) the technologies, systems, practices, and applications that (2) analyze critical business data to (3) help an enterprise better understand its business and market (research paper).

These main uses are then broken down more into more categories and sub-categories of capabilities. Some of the more interesting categories are mobile, analytic dashboards and content, collaboration and social integration, free-form interactive exploration, and cloud deployment (Gartner). These specific functions and capabilities of BI are partly responsible for shifting the market of BI from IT-centric to user friendly for anyone.

Of all business intelligence tools, dashboards are being paid most attention to, these days. Even though a few