Introduction
The right Business Intelligence (BI) system can help provide a company with a competitive edge in some instances. In this report I will discuss how BI software will help our business. I will also address the following questions: 1) How will BI software help our business? 2) What sort of in formation and analysis capabilities does it perform? 3) What hardware and system software are required to run the application? Finally I will list some of the major vendors (i.e., IBM, Microsoft, SAP and Oracle) and an evaluation of their products.
How Will BI Software Help Our Business?
The right BI software can help improve the decision-making process within businesses by providing quality information to employees throughout the company. This information is processed from large amounts of data within businesses and BI systems deliver this information quickly, efficiently and in an actionable form. It can help increase profit-margins, improve efficiency, enhance management, cut costs, and stay ahead of the competition.
What Sort of Information and Analysis Capabilities Does it Provide?
The optimum BI system delivers complete, accurate information in a manner that allows for rapid and decisive action. Data and information are scattered throughout businesses in a variety of places: computer programs, various departments, and other elements of the company.
The data warehouse within the BI system will quickly organize all of this data and information and put it into a useable format that can then be acted upon. Reports, ad-hoc capability, dashboards and scorecards are some of the ways information is delivered by BI to support company goals and requirements.
The right BI system should also provide top-notch analysis capability. It transforms data into information and knowledge that produces results, providing data to managers in ways easy to analyze so they can quickly act upon knowledge gained from the analysis.
The authors in Data to Knowledge to...