Definition: Business Intelligence (BI) is the ways in which we store and use business information. It encompasses the technologies, applications, and means for collecting, integrating, analyzing, and presentating bsuienss data. Using data that has been stored in a data warehouse, software applications are able to use this data to report past business information as well as predict future business information, including trends, threats, opportunities and patterns. Popular BI applications are very complex and experts in this field are in high demand. Some of the currently popular enterprise level systems, which can manage information about all of the business functions and systems, are sold and implemented by Oracle, SAP, IBM, and Hewlett Packard (HP). Companies often need in-house experts in these systems to assist with the implementation and the on-going use of these systmes, which are quite complex!
Also Known As: BI, Data Mining, Decision Support Systems, Business Performance Management, knowledge management, management information systems, MIS