Business Intelligence (BI) is all about getting things right first time. In financial terms this makes sound business sense. If there is nothing to fix then costs are lower and profits rise. So what is business intelligence and how can the average business person implement BI and make it work for them?
Let us start with a brief definition of Business Intelligence: In its broadest sense, business intelligence is a wide range of applications and technologies which gather, store, analyse and provide access to information that will help decision makers make better business choices. BI applications can include the activities of decision support systems, query and reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), statistical analysis, forecasting, and data mining.
Let us start with basic data gathering and analysis. These days most businesses have websites that enables users to complete an online enquiry form if they want more information about products or services. The data gathered by this process (often simply the enquirer’s name and email address) can be stored in a database and used for marketing purposes or market research.
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