You may have heard the term business intelligence or BI.

But what does that really

mean? Business intelligence (BI) is a data analysis process that organizations use to gain
insights into business performance and improve operational decision-making. Business
intelligence comprises the strategies and technologies used by enterprises for the data
analysis of business information. BI technologies provide historical, current, and predictive
views of business operations. To do this BI requires methods and programs to collect
unstructured data convert it into information and present it to improve business decisions.
BI takes the vast amount of data generated by businesses and presents it in a meaningful
actionable way while these are simple concepts. BI is actually a large and complex field
including performance management analytics predictive modeling data and text mining and
a lot more. Imagine business intelligence functioning like a grocery store, when you enter a
grocery store and are looking for specific items say eggs milk and bananas you do not need
to find an employee to ask them where to look. Instead, grocery stores are organized into
aisles and signs that make the store relatively simple to navigate. Now imagine the items in
the store are like your business's data and you need to collect information on production
billable hours and sales goals. You are likely to go to three different experts and ask them
where you can find this information, then you will go to someone else and have them
compile it for you. BI is all about taking your messy information and turning it into a tidy and
accessible grocery store. This enables you to navigate your data on your own and find what
you need without relying on other’s organizations. No longer have to dig through complex
webs of linked spreadsheets analyzing the data manually and mashing together reports.
Instead, employees can use BI systems to request the information which is using in the
system.
Using BI offers significant advantage when trying to make strategic. Having any time access
to organized data means that you can discover inefficient business processes and hidden
patterns identify areas of strength and weakness and discover new opportunities. All of
which contribute to a better understanding of your company's operations and challenges.
Let's look at a retail example. You're the manager of a retail chain that has both stores and
online shops. You offer your customers a loyalty card which they can swipe in the stores or
enter into their online account. The card associates everything the customer buys in-store
and online with their unique account number into your organization's databases. Through
the use of business intelligence methods and software you are empowered by having the
ability to run analytical reports on massive amounts of customer information which can
enable you to understand how loyal they are to your brand, what products they buy and how
frequently and if they have a preference for visiting the store or buying from the online store.
What does this give you? The ability to understand or even predict an individual customer or
segments needs preferences and habits anticipate new opportunities to sell, deliver better
service or even provide targeted marketing campaigns such as instant delivery of coupons
at point of sale for products related to their interests as indicated by past behavior. In short
you are able to understand your customers very well based on their historical transactions
and behavior and use that information to increase your sales or differentiate your brand by
providing better or unique services. So, in closing the term business intelligence refers to a
group of tools and techniques that collects and organizes your data and presents it in a way
that is useful and makes sense if you want to have efficient access to accurate
understandable and actionable information on demand then business intelligence might be
right for your organization.