Business intelligence (BI) involves collecting, structuring, and analyzing data to provide useful information for making strategic, tactical, and operational decisions. The key components of BI include gathering data from various sources, storing the data in databases or data warehouses, analyzing the data, and providing access to the analyzed data through reports, dashboards, and other tools. Popular BI tools are provided by companies like SAP, IBM, SAS, Oracle, Microsoft, and MicroStrategy and are used for applications such as analyzing customer behavior, sales forecasting, financial planning, marketing campaign optimization, and supply chain management.

1. Business Intelligence
Hank Lin - Athabasca University

2. Introduction
Purpose
Basic Components
Top players

3. Introduction

4. About Business Intelligence
• Business Intelligence (BI) is also referred to as academic
analytics or institutional intelligence.
• BI is an IT term that refers to the collecting, structuring,
analyzing and leveraging of data to turn it into easy-to-
understand information.
• BI is a way of combining data in new ways that reveal
previously unforeseen efficiencies, enabling leaders to use
their expertise to make data-driven decisions.

5. What is Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence is a set of methods, processes,
architectures, applications, and technologies that transform
raw data into meaningful and useful information used to
enable more effective strategic, tactical, and operational
insights and decision-making.
- Forrester

6. Definition
Business intelligence can be defined as a collection of
approaches for gathering, storing, analysing and providing
access to data that transform raw data into meaningful and
useful information used to enable more effective strategic,
tactical, and operational insights and decision-making.

7. Purpose

8. Questions that BI can help
Do we know the type
of customers we
Can we forecast long- have? Are our products &
term buying habits of services priced
our customers? competitively?
Do we know why we
are losing market Do we know what
share? our best customers
have in common?

9. What is BI used for?
• Analysing customer behaviours, buying patterns and sales
trends.
• Measuring, tracking and predicting sales and financial
performance
• Budgeting and financial planning and forecasting
• Tracking the performance of marketing campaigns
• Optimising processes and operational performance

10. What is BI used for?(Cont.)
• Improving delivery and supply chain effectiveness
• Web and e-commerce analytics
• Customer relationship management
• Risk analysis
• Strategic value driver analysis

11. Basic Components

12. The Basics Components of BI

13. Gathering Data
Gathering data is concerned with collecting or
accessing data which can then be used to inform decision
making. Gathering data can come in many formats and
basically refers to the automated measurement and
collection of performance data.
A major challenge of gathering data is making sure that
the relevant data is collected in the right way at the right
time.

14. Storing Data
Storing Data is concerned with making sure the data is
filed and stored in appropriate ways to ensure it can be
found and used for analysis and reporting. When storing
data the same basic principles apply that you would use to
store physical goods.
The advantages of modern data warehouses is that
they allow multi-dimensional formats so you can store the
same data under different categories

15. Analysing Data
Taking the data that has been gathered and inspect,
transform or model it in order to gain new insights that will
support our business decision making.
Analysis techniques includes the use of statistical tools,
data mining approaches as well as visual analytics or even
analysis of unstructured data such as text or pictures.

16. Providing Access
Access is needed to perform analysis or to view the
results of the analysis. The former is provided by the latest
software tools that allow end-users to perform data analysis
while the latter is provided through reporting, dashboard and
scorecard applications.

17. Top players

18. Top Players

19. Popular Tools
Product Name Feature
SAP BusinessObjects Self-service access to fact-based, quality information regardless of where the data resides
A powerful business intelligence infrastructure, comprehensive planning and simulation
capabilities, and data-warehousing functionality, delivered through enterprise portal
SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence technology
Query and reporting, analysis, dashboarding and
IBM Cognos Business Intelligence scorecarding on a single, service-oriented architecture
A fully integrated and comprehensive suite of business intelligence software that addresses the
SAS Business Intelligence needs of IT management and business users.
Oracle Business Intelligence
Enterprise Edition 11g A full range of analytic and reporting capabilities
integrate strategic, financial and operational management processes while delivering a low cost
Oracle Hyperion System 9 of deployment/ownership
Microsoft Business Intelligence Tools .Self-service, Dashboards and scorecards, Reporting, Predictive analytics, Data mining
MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Transforms data into attractive, easy-to-understand dashboards and reports for greater insights