So, What Is Bi Anyway?

So, what is Business Intelligence anyway?

Many of you may have heard about business intelligence by now but what exactly is
that, what are we expected to do? Those are some of themost common questions we
have heard and so, what is business intelligence or BI?
The fact of the matter is that BI is such a massive term, that most experts would
probably disagreeor their answers would vary from person to person . BI is not just
about decision support, not just about methodology, data warehousing or data mart , not
just about reports andanalysis services. It is really a whole system that an organization
has to put in place in order to run their everyday business and make educated
decisions.
One definition that I like isprovided by Scott Whigham from Learnit first.com that goes
like this: “BI is getting the right information into the right people’s hands in a format that
allows them to quicklyunderstand the data”
Cashiers, receipts, scanners, SMI reports, dashboards are all forms of business
intelligence gathering systems that companies have used for so long and as thiscompanies have gone global it is important to also be responsive to the changes in
trade regulations around the world where they have presence, be alert to competitors’
strategies and beaware of economic factors and labor cost that may impact their
businesses.
Therefore, implementing a BI Project/Initiative by forming teams to concentrate in areas
of focus such as LaborCost – Currency, trade regulations, economic factors &
competitor’s strategies is imperative in today’s world to stay in business.
These teams would be gathering information thatthey may find interesting and or think
that could impact their company in some way or another to support their business
intelligence project.

By David Alvarez,
NICARAGUA.