Chapter 1: Introduction to Business Intelligence

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Overview

'Study the past if you would divine the future.'-Confucius 

Business intelligence is a way of exploring data to improve business performance, whether to drive profitability or to manage costs. It is not a technology you implement and then put in maintenance mode; it is an approach that evolves, morphs, and starts over again as the business climate changes, the users discover new opportunities to leverage information, and technology changes. When you implement business intelligence tools, the focus of the project is not to finish, but rather, to deliver a certain amount of value and functionality within a predefined period.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide some insight as to how business intelligence evolved and is still evolving, so that you can assess where your company is in the implementation cycle, where your users are today, and where they are heading. You'll see how Business Objects, the company and the product, have evolved with their customers and the industry, bringing the dream of business intelligence to more users and beyond traditional corporate boundaries. In many cases, Business Object's innovations have shaped and re-defined the market.

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