Overview

What is Business Intelligence?

Business Intelligence is a process for increasing the competitive advantage of a business by intelligent use of available data in decision making.

This results in an information flood, from which it is hard to find the relevant information to support decision-making. Therefore a systematic approach is needed for analyzing customers, competitors and suppliers and for foreseeing changes.  Business Intelligence involves query and reporting and is used only for the power user. It is a broad range of software and solutions aimed at collection, consolidation, analysis and providing access to information that allows users across the business to make better decisions. The technology is applied across disciplines and includes software for database query and analysis, multidimensional databases or OLAP tools, data warehousing and data mining, and nowadays web enabled reporting capabilities.

The five key stages of Business Intelligence

  • Data sourcing
  • Data Analysis
  • Situation Awareness
  • Risk Assessment
  • Decision Support

Business Intelligence has many distinct advantages:

  • Fosters quicker decision making processes
  • Gives better foresight of probable changes that can occur business-wise.
  • Increased sharing of information within the organization
  • Avoiding overlapping work processes in information
  • Enables better quality of strategic and operative decision-making

Rationale for using Business Intelligence
Business intelligence applications and technologies can enable organizations to make more informed business decisions, and they may give a company a competitive advantage. For example, a company could use business intelligence applications or technologies to extrapolate information from indicators in the external environment and forecast the future trends in their sector. Business intelligence is used to improve the timeliness and quality of information and enable managers to better understand the position of their firm in comparison to its competitors.

Business intelligence applications and technologies can help companies analyze the following: changing trends in market share, changes in customer behavior and spending patterns, customers' preferences, company capabilities and market conditions. Business intelligence can be used to help analysts and managers determine which adjustments are most likely to affect trends.  BI systems can help companies develop consistent and "data-based" business decisions--producing better results than basing decisions on "guesswork." In addition, business intelligence applications can enhance communication among departments, coordinate activities, and enable companies to respond more quickly to changes (e.g., in financial conditions, customer preferences, supply chain operations, etc.). When a BI system is well-designed and properly integrated into a company's processes and decision-making process, it may be able to improve a company's performance. Having access to timely and accurate information is an important resource for a company, which can expedite decision-making and improve customers' experience.

In the competitive customer-service sector, companies need to have accurate, up-to-date information on customer preferences, so that the company can quickly adapt to their changing demands. Business Intelligence enables companies to gather information on the trends in the marketplace and come up with innovative products or services in anticipation of customer's changing demands. Business Intelligence applications can also help managers to be better informed about actions that a company's competitors are taking. As well, BI can help companies share selected strategic information with business partners. For example, some businesses use BI systems to share information with their suppliers (e.g., inventory levels, performance metrics, and other supply chain data).

BI systems can also be designed to provide managers with information on the state of economic trends or marketplace factors, or to provide managers with in depth knowledge about the internal operations of a business. etc etc

What is a Data Warehouse?

UW-Stout's Data Warehouse project is a collaborative effort with UW-System and other UW-campuses. FASTAR and INFOACCESS are the hardware systems in Madison where UW-Stout's Data Warehouse system is hosted.

UW-Stout's Data Warehouse is accessed using UW-Stout's network and a software package called BRIO. Recently, a new version of Brio has been made available. This version contains Insight, which allows users to create and run queries through a web browser with the almost the same functionality as the client version called Explorer. Eliminating the need to have software installed on your PC.

Kay Schnur, Enterprise Information Systems department, is the Project Manager and Data Warehouse Administrator. UW-Stout's I-Team and Business Manager's Group are the development committee.

More information on all these areas is available at the links provided on this web page.

Kay Schnur
Project Manager
Data Warehouse Admin

Send comments to datawarehousing@uwstout.edu