An Introduction to Business Intelligence

Abstract

The quality of managerial decisions impacts the performance of any business, and this decision mainly depends on the reliability, inclusiveness, correctness, and trustworthiness of the data used for this purpose. Nowadays, business intelligence (BI) has become a key buzzword. BI supports better business decision-making by transforming data into actionable insights. The digitalization or digitization of business is accommodating and embracing the new BI to endure and stand for consistency and competitiveness for business development toward technological or digital transformation. In this digital or computer era, only those businesses will be profitable and successful that are well furnished to digitally (or binary) shift their practices in the technological or information age. In the new technological age, high powered by data analytics capabilities, meaningful and systematic data assimilation has become a new challenge for an organization to transfer data into BI. BI is a technology-driven process for analyzing data into information; information into knowledge; and knowledge into plans that manage and regulate the organization. BI presents actionable information to help corporate executives; business managers, and other end-users and makes more informed business decisions. BI software systems provide historical, current, and predictive views of business operations. Dashboards; Forecasting; Graphical Reporting; Graphical Online Analytical Processing (OLAP); and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the modules of BI. BI helps in organizing teams, keeping them mindful and aware of KPIs. The awareness of KPIs through dashboards and reports keeps teams aligned and more focused on their goals. The optimal aim of BI is to enable a business to make informed decisions. BI helps business managers or leaders utilize data in a way that is coherent and dynamic. The key elements of BI involved are Advanced Analytics or Corporate Performance Management; BI; Data Sources; Data Warehousing and OLAP. With the latest technology and innovations, there are countless BI applications available for varied types of data analysis. BI software or technologies can deal with multiple structured and unstructured data to identify, develop, and create new strategies business opportunities. Its purpose is to enable clear and accessible interpretation of the huge data, to identify new opportunities and execute effective strategies. Strategic BI (SBI) is always associated with reporting from an analytical data source or data warehouse. Essentially, SBI improves the business process by analyzing a predetermined set of data pertinent to that process and provides the historical background of that data. SBI assembles on four crucial and necessary criteria or frameworks, namely collection and storage of data; Optimization of data for analysis; Identification of important business drivers through past data records; and seeking answers to key business questions. Hence, BI provides procedures and technologies, and tools for current business leaders to alter and modify dynamically and effectively lead their companies with correct data decisions. This research paper is qualitative and based on secondary data. This chapter aims to provide insights into BI and highlights the recent innovations and future of BI.