Business Intelligence Definition

BI is neither a product nor a system. It is an architecture and a collection of integrated operational as well as decision-support applications and databases that provide the business community easy access to business data. Business Intelligence Roadmap specifically addresses decision-support applications and databases.

BI decision-support applications facilitate many activities, including those listed below:

• Multidimensional analysis, for example, online analytical processing (OLAP)

• Click-stream analysis

• Data mining

• Forecasting

• Business analysis

• Balanced scorecard preparation

• Visualization

• Querying, reporting, and charting (including just-in-time and agent-based alerts)

• Geospatial analysis

• Knowledge management

• Enterprise portal implementation

• Mining for text, content, and voice

• Digital dashboard access

• Other cross-functional activities

  Examples of BI decision-support databases include the following:

• Enterprise-wide data warehouses

• Data marts (functional and departmental)

• Exploration warehouses (statistical)

• Data mining databases

• Web warehouses (for click-stream data)

• Operational data stores (ODSs)

• Operational marts (oper marts)

• Other cross-functional decision-support databases

Business Intelligence Roadmap is primarily a project lifecycle guide for developing BI decision-support applications using structured data. For BI applications with specialized requirements, such as using unstructured data (e.g., mining for text, content, and voice), building an enterprise portal, or incorporating XML-enabled features and services, you will need to expand the activities and roles in the relevant development steps. Consult the topic-specific references listed at the end of each chapter.