Editing Business intelligence (section)

==Definition==

According to Solomon Negash and Paul Gray, business intelligence (BI) can be defined as systems that combine:
*[[Data collection|Data gathering]]
*[[Data storage]]
*[[Knowledge management]]

with analysis to evaluate complex corporate and competitive information for presentation to planners and decision makers, with the objective of improving the timeliness and the quality of the input to the decision process."<ref>{{cite book |title=Topic Overview: Business Intelligence |last=Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg |first=Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg |date=21 November 2008|doi=10.1007/978-3-540-48716-6 |isbn=978-3-540-48715-9 }}</ref>

According to [[Forrester Research]], business intelligence is "a set of methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information used to enable more effective strategic, tactical, and operational insights and decision-making."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.forrester.com/report/Topic+Overview+Business+Intelligence/-/E-RES39218 |title=Topic Overview: Business Intelligence |last=Evelson |first=Boris |date=21 November 2008}}</ref> Under this definition, business intelligence encompasses [[information management]] ([[data integration]], [[data quality]], data warehousing, master-data management, text- and content-analytics, et al.). Therefore, Forrester refers to ''data preparation'' and ''data usage'' as two separate but closely linked segments of the business-intelligence architectural stack.

Some elements of business intelligence are:{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

* Multidimensional [[Aggregate (data warehouse)|aggregation]] and allocation
* [[Denormalization]], tagging, and standardization
* Realtime reporting with analytical alert
* A method of interfacing with [[unstructured data]] sources
* Group consolidation, budgeting, and [[rolling forecast]]s
* [[Statistical inference]] and probabilistic simulation
* [[Key performance indicator]]s optimization
* [[Version control]] and process management
* Open item management

Forrester distinguishes this from the ''business-intelligence market'', which is "just the top layers of the BI architectural stack, such as [[Data reporting|reporting]], [[analytics]], and [[Dashboards (management information systems)|dashboards]]."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blogs.forrester.com/boris_evelson/10-04-29-want_know_what_forresters_lead_data_analysts_are_thinking_about_bi_and_data_domain |title=Want to know what Forrester's lead data analysts are thinking about BI and the data domain? |last=Evelson |first=Boris |date=29 April 2010 |access-date=4 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160806102752/http://blogs.forrester.com/boris_evelson/10-04-29-want_know_what_forresters_lead_data_analysts_are_thinking_about_bi_and_data_domain |archive-date=6 August 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Compared with competitive intelligence===
Though the term business intelligence is sometimes a synonym for [[competitive intelligence]] (because they both support [[decision making]]), BI uses technologies, processes, and applications to analyze mostly internal, structured data and business processes while competitive intelligence gathers, analyzes, and disseminates information with a topical focus on company competitors. If understood broadly, competitive intelligence can be considered as a subset of business intelligence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blogs.forrester.com/james_kobielus/10-04-30-what%E2%80%99s_not_bi_oh_don%E2%80%99t_get_me_startedoops_too_latehere_goes |title=What's Not BI? Oh, Don't Get Me Started... Oops Too Late... Here Goes... |last=Kobielus |first=James |date=30 April 2010 |quote="Business" intelligence is a non-domain-specific catchall for all the types of analytic data that can be delivered to users in reports, dashboards, and the like. When you specify the subject domain for this intelligence, then you can refer to "competitive intelligence", "market intelligence", "social intelligence", "financial intelligence", "HR intelligence", "supply chain intelligence", and the like. |access-date=4 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100507103207/http://blogs.forrester.com/james_kobielus/10-04-30-what%E2%80%99s_not_bi_oh_don%E2%80%99t_get_me_startedoops_too_latehere_goes |archive-date=7 May 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Compared with business analytics===
Business intelligence and [[business analytics]] are sometimes used interchangeably, but there are alternate definitions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://timoelliott.com/blog/2011/03/business-analytics-vs-business-intelligence.html |title=Business Analytics vs Business Intelligence? |publisher=timoelliott.com |date=2011-03-09 |access-date=2014-06-15}}</ref> [[Thomas H. Davenport|Thomas Davenport]], professor of information technology and management at [[Babson College]] argues that business intelligence should be divided into [[Information retrieval|querying]], [[Financial reporting|reporting]], [[Online analytical processing]] (OLAP), an "alerts" tool, and business analytics. In this definition, business analytics is the subset of BI focusing on statistics, prediction, and optimization, rather than the reporting functionality.<ref>{{Cite interview |url=http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/bi/222200096 |title=Analytics at Work: Q&A with Tom Davenport |last=Henschen |first=Doug |date=4 January 2010 |access-date=26 September 2011 |archive-date=3 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120403080949/http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/bi/222200096 |url-status=dead }}</ref>