Work smarter, not harder with Business

Intelligence.

What is business intelligence?

We can identify business intelligence (BI) is an umbrella term for the technology that enables data
preparation, data mining, data management, and data visualization. Business intelligence tools and
processes allow end users to identify actionable information from raw data.

Business intelligence enables business to make intelligence facts base decisions. This achieved by
analyzing the organizations historical and current data, so they can quickly uncover actionable insights
for making strategic decisions and facilitating data-driven decision-making within organizations across
various industries. The whole purpose of Business Intelligence is to support better business decision
making .
Why is BI important?
Company will get a ton of benefits from using business intelligence. Business Intelligence systems
provide historical, current, and predictive views of business operations. with this ability this will more
suitable or organizations to get insight view about their operations

Management effectively aided

Managers need to make decisions BI solutions provides the information that you need to take the
decisions. if managers can take proper decisions accurately the organizations can get a lot of advantages

Intellectual capital better deployed

Managers don’t have to be worry about collecting data putting them together going after information
and data if have a BI solution so they can be committing their time to picking decisions, thank s to the Bi
system in the organization

Business operation improved

BI solution can come up with dashboards and balanced score cards to show progress and insight view of
the organization. using those details management can see where “where are we now and where should
we go! “. Business intelligence can also help organize teams, keeping them aware of key performance
indicators (KPIs). Awareness of KPIs through dashboards and reports keeps teams aligned and focused
on their goals.

Customer service enhanced

Bi solution can integrate verities of data sources from text file to DB and social media data .in this way
can collect a lot of information about how customers are reacting to product and their interest etc.

New opportunities can identify

Ability of forecasting in BI solution can helps to identify new opportunities to the organization.
 Big Data & Analytics Among the Most Disruptive Forces in Enterprise Technology

When to Use BI in Your Business?

As we discussed above, business intelligence solution is so handy if we can use in the organization but
how do we know when to use it. To name a few, organization can get befit from BI solution if below
issues arises.

1. Workflow Issues
If you are in the production business, workflow issues can lead to missed deadlines. Keeping track of
your workflow will let you discover what you can do better to minimize production times and serve your
clients better.

2. Slow, Unexplained Growth

If your business doesn't grow and you can't pinpoint the exact reason why you need BI to document
financial and production data so you can dig deeper.

3. Financial Difficulties
If you are dealing with liquidity problems or are struggling to pay your workers and suppliers, you must
find the root problem before it is too late. BI can help you sort out your cash flow. It can also help you
determine if you have a low-profit margin or excessive waste in your production line that messes with
your budget.
 4. Tricky Operations
If your business has various complex processes that employees undertake daily, it could be difficult for
you to see where the problem lies. BI can break down each process and document information, so you
can easily identify bottlenecks or problematic departments and provide support.

5. Inventory Issues
Keeping track of your vendors and deliveries is a demanding task even with a BI system available.
However, BI still makes it easier thanks to data visualizations that allow you to actually see where
problems originate in your supply chains.

Inputs and outputs of the BI solution

Business Intelligence

Decisions

Data Information Knowledge

Only Explicit (but not Tacit)

Knowledge

BI solution utilize data which could be internal or external and be structured or unstructured. The key
output of BI solution is knowledge that enables decision making, with information and data as inputs

In Business intelligence process output is always knowledge the out put information can be quantitative
or qualitative
Key Features of BI solution
The most important types of business intelligence tool features and functionality are:

• Dashboards
• Visualizations
• Reporting
• Predictive Analytics
• Data Mining
• ETL (Extract Transform and Load)
• OLAP (Online Analytical Processing)
• Drill-Down

BI Tools and Technologies

Business intelligence solution consisted with Bi tools those tools used in collection, integration, analysis,
and presentation of business information. There are a number of BI tools in the marketplace, which aid
business users in analyzing performance metrics and extracting insights in real time.

Free and Open Source Business Intelligence Tools

BIRT
BIRT is open source BI software that can be used to create data visualizations and reports, which can all
be embedded into web applications. The main components are a visual report designer, a runtime
component for generating designs, and a charting engine.

Jaspersoft BI Tools

Jaspersoft's Business Intelligence (BI) Suite Enterprise Edition is a strong competitor in the open source
BI market, with its main rivals being Actuate BIRT, SpagoBI, and Pentaho Enterprise. But due to its wide
toolset, analysts also view Jaspersoft worth considering over commercial BI platforms from Microsoft,
IBM, Information Builders, Oracle, SAP and SAS.

Pentaho Community Edition

Pentaho Open Source BI Suite Community Edition (CE), includes ETL, OLAP analysis, metadata, data
mining, reporting, dashboards and a platform that allows to create complex solutions to business
problems

Commercial Business Intelligence Tools

MICROSOFT BI Stack

Microsoft provides a complete set of business intelligence tools The Microsoft BI stack provides all the
tools you need to build, manage and use a BI solution. SQL Server is the foundation of the stack as the
data platform hosting the data mart or data warehouse. They include SSIL (SQL Server Integration
Services), SSAS (SQL Server Analytical Services) and SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services).

MICROSOFT BI Stack (Cloud based)

Microsoft offers a wide technology stack for implementing cloud, on-premises, and hybrid analytics
solutions. The above portfolio includes tools for data ingestion, storage, integration, quality
management, processing, and building intuitive reporting.

MICROSOFT Power BI

Power BI is a business analytics service by Microsoft. It aims to provide interactive

visualizations and business intelligence capabilities with an interface simple enough for end users to
create their own reports and dashboards.

Conclusion
Business intelligence greatly enhances how a company approaches its decision-making by using data to
answer questions of the company’s past and present. It can be used by teams across an organization to
track key metrics and organize on goals. Modern business intelligence tools use self-service solutions to
make it easier for stakeholders to access their data and explore it for themselves.
When evaluating a BI tool, make sure it satisfies your company’s needs

Amila Thennakoon
Undergraduate MBA in IT (UOM)
BCS PGD U.K