Data / BI

What is business intelligence?

Business intelligence is a technological term that overlooks data, computing, and analytics within business operations. Much more than a specific “thing,” business intelligence is rather an umbrella term that covers the processes and methods of collecting, storing, and analyzing data from business operations or activities to optimize performance. All of these things come together to create a comprehensive view of a business to help people make better, actionable decisions.

Examples of business intelligence:

• Data mining
• Reporting
• Performance metrics and benchmarking
• Descriptive analytics
• Querying
• Statistical analysis
• Data visualization
• Data preparation

Why is business intelligence important?

Simply put, business intelligence helps people make better business decisions by showing present and historical data within its business context. It offers performance benchmarks to make the business run smoother and more efficiently. It helps people spot market trends to increase sales or revenue. Used effectively, it can even help with compliance and hiring efforts. Just about any aspect of business can be improved through business intelligence.

Digital transformation has created a massive influx of information and it’s not slowing down. Data is everywhere, all the time—and it is now deeply entrenched into business processes for organizations of all sizes. Now everybody expects to be able to access and use new information to inform day-to-day decisions and quench their business curiosity about new avenues to pursue.

How business intelligence works

Businesses have questions and goals. To answer these questions and track how they’re performing against these goals, they gather the necessary data, analyze it, and determine the actions they need to take to move the business forward.