Open-Source Information – the Basis for Business Intelligence (BI)

Abstract

The paper discusses the relationship between business intelligence (BI) and intelligence discipline based on information from open sources, better known as OSINT (open-source intelligence). The importance of the intelligence methodology – the intelligence cycle – is emphasized, which presupposes planning, systematic collection of information, its processing and analysis, and dissemination to end users. The goal is, ultimately, to make a business decision based on the knowledge. The development of BI and OSINT is discussed as well as the ideas that emerged in the 1970s when the importance of intelligence logic in the sphere of economy, and in society in general, was pointed out. Given the lack of empirical examples, the paper points out at the normative level that successful business is possible by relying on business intelligence (BI) and open-source information (OSINT), assuming the possession of analytical capacities, above all human and technological, which are capable to extrapolate the information necessary for a quality business decision from the immeasurable amount of data.