As information technology evolved over the years, enterprises computerized more and more of their operations. A great deal of very helpful data resided underutilized in these systems. Data found in various systems could yield significant information to provide historical, current and predictive view of business operations. Hence, Business intelligence was introduced into the business world. In the past few years, business intelligence has grown a lot. It is being discussed and looked into by everyone from the executive level all the way to the casual users. However in order to understand why business intelligence is so vastly discussed, the question lies in defining Business Intelligence. Many experts have provided their own definition on business intelligence. According to Gravic, Inc, Business intelligence is the use of an organization’s disparate data to provide meaningful information and analyses to employees, customers, suppliers, and partners for more efficient and effective decision-making. It transforms business data into information that are used as actionable strategies and tactics to improve the efficiency of the enterprise to reduce costs, to improve sales, and to provide many other significant benefits. Furthermore, with business intelligence tools today, enterprises and business people no longer have to depend on IT to run complex reports, instead they can independently analyse the data by themselves. Adding on, according to IBM researcher Hans Peter Luhn in the year 1958, Business intelligence is the ability to apprehend the interrelationships of presented facts in such a way as to guide action towards a desired goal.

“Business intelligence is the ability to apprehend the interrelationships of presented facts in such a way as to guide action towards a desired goal.” (Hans Peter Luhn 1958)

Therefore, Business Intelligence is all about providing people with the information they need to do their jobs more effectively.

Now that we’re in the era of big data, business facts are all over the place - often to the point of being overwhelming. Making sense of big data requires extracting appropriate data, understanding how that data relates to other data, and using these insights to move the business toward its goals. Business intelligence is indeed alive and well over a half century after the term was born. However, many companies use BI without a strategy, making it less effective than it can be. Experts states that:

"A Business Intelligence Strategy is a roadmap that enables businesses to measure their performance and seek out competitive advantages and truly 'listen to their customers' using data mining and statistics."- Guy Garrett, Achieve Intelligence Limited, Brighton, East Sussex, United Kingdom (SAS Global Forum 2012)

Hence, when there is the use of Business Intelligence in business organizations with strategy are in a better position to make and measure progress to their goals. One of the strategies needed is an organization’s BI scope. Questions like “What is the scope of your business intelligence plane? What will it cover? What won’t it cover? How does it align with your business and operational goals?” When an organization defines its BI scope, it will help the organization to maintain focus and stay on track. When the organization identifies its BI scope, they can start managing its stakeholders. Stakeholders are important as they are the ones that will be making different decisions each day. In creating a suitable and successful roadmap, structures and training are needed to be taken into consideration. Organization needs to decide on how the business intelligence system will be

structured. When this is decided, updates are needed to be make so that the existing infrastructure to support business intelligence and information delivery. As upgrades are made in terms of the infrastructure, training is also needed for employees so that skills are obtained to deploy, manage and use the BI solution.

As Business Intelligence have grown to be a discussion topic in the business world. There are benefits a company will obtain when BI solution is introduced into the organization. A business intelligence solution collates and analyses vast stores of operational as well as transactional data, organizing all the information into more understandable, consumable and actionable reports. Business Intelligence also allows people from across a plethora of business areas to access and utilize up-to-date information and analysis to underpin timely fact-based decision making. It is easier to notice unparalleled visibility throughout the enterprise by analysing the breadth organizational data just through a single application and portal. Adding on, business intelligence software arms us with the fact that us need to respond to events in real or near real-time. In a competitive business environment, tracking of business operations is important, however getting constant updates about competitors, customer trends and potential markets is equally important. Business intelligence helps in understanding customer’s behaviour. Companies can identify, track and monitor customer’s purchase habit to segment the current the future customer base effectively. Resources and labour costs used for the collation, analysis and distribution of vital business data can be reduced. Companies can eliminate time and resources previously spend on correcting data errors and manually compiling spread sheet-based reports. Besides that, a Business Intelligence tool helps predict future behaviour of prospects, customers and the micro economy with greater accuracy and timeliness. It also helps to effectively measure, the key performance indicator (KPI) which in turn helps in effective decision making. Resources and labour costs used for the collation, analysis and distribution of vital business data can be reduced. Companies can eliminate time and resources previously spend on correcting data errors and manually compiling spread sheet-based reports.

Besides having benefits, there are also risks when a business intelligence solution is being used. One example of risk is when the selected BI tool does not live up to the hype. Many project managers

In conclusion, I will choose to stand on the advantages of business intelligence. By looking at the positive or the bright side of it, business intelligence does helps a lot in all the daily jobs of companies or organisations. Although there are risks, companies should always come out with a solution to overcome the all the risks faced in business intelligence. When the risks are overcome, business intelligence will be safe and even give many benefits to the company.

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References

http://www.cio.com/article/40296/Business_Intelligence_Definition_and_Solutions

http://www.gravic.com/shadowbase/uses/whatisbusinessintelligence.html

http://www.businesscomputingworld.co.uk/the-history-of-business-intelligence-infographic/

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc811595%28v=office.12%29.aspx

http://www.examiner.com/article/building-a-business-intelligence-strategy-for-your-company

http://smartdatacollective.com/yellowfin/42423/yellowfin-top-14-benefits-business-intelligence-part-one