Business Intelligence (BI) stories - Page 176

The prevalence of computers in business (and everywhere) generates enormous quantities of data. Business Intelligence seeks to extract further value from this data (after it has served its immediate purpose, and is shunted off to storage) through analysis and contextualization. If data is described as the ‘new oil’, BI is the derricks tapping the well. BI generally requires uniform data before analysis can take place, with data extracted from source systems and loaded into secondary structures such as ‘data warehouses/lakes’. The analysis outputs are typically sent to managers and executives within the business in the form of reports (or managers are equipped with the tools to create their own reports) assessing performance, providing insights or identifying opportunities.