Business Intelligence Systems

Touro University International

ITM501 - Management Information Systems and Business Strategy

Module 2 Case Assignment: Business Intelligence Systems

04 June 2010

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Business intelligence: Definition

Business Intelligence (BI) is defined by IBM as, "the discipline that combines services, applications and technologies to gather, manage and analyze data, transforming it into usable information to develop insight and understanding needed to make informed decisions." (IBM.com, 2006) In its most basic form, BI is an umbrella principle that synergizes the core understanding of your business, including all of its facets, and acting on what that foundation is made up of.

The quality of your BI traditionally depended on the experience of your people. However, recently it has become a "stand-alone" discipline in the realm of Information Technology management. With the advent of computing and computers, the amount of useful and usable data in business has skyrocketed.

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Microsoft SharePoint

Complex analyses have become common-place and the turn around for information products are expected in far shorter time than even the most capable human analyst could provide. These two factors have led to building up the branch of IT focused on storing vast amounts of data and more importantly, making it usable to businesses.

Information and Analyses Provided

BI software is available in as many colors of the rainbow. Some software is very problem specific and some generic and adaptable. The common thread that ties all this BI software together is data storage and extraction. Most important to the software's usefulness is how the presentation / representation to the end user; the analysis of data, modeling, and finally how that data can be visualized.

The most basic analysis will provide trend indications, such as an increase of profits for retail activities toward the Christmas holidays.