GLOSSARY: What is business intelligence?

Business Intelligence, or BI for short, is the process of collecting, analyzing, and visualizing data with the goal of providing organizations with valuable insights and knowledge. Access to relevant and up-to-date data supports strategic decision-making and leads to improved performance. The BI concept encompasses various methods, technologies, and tools for collecting, managing, analyzing, and presenting data to help organizations better understand their business operations and processes.

When it comes to data collection itself, it typically involves gathering information from multiple internal and external sources such as databases, websites, social networks, CRM systems, and more. The data can be structured (e.g., numerical values) or unstructured (e.g., text documents).

The essence lies in comprehensive analysis

Business intelligence platforms then clean the data, remove duplicates, and transform it into a usable format for analysis. And this is where the core of BI lies. Data analysis is the key element of business intelligence. Through analytical techniques and tools, organizations can identify patterns, trends, and key insights within the collected data. This includes generating reports, dashboards, and visualizations that make data easier to understand.

What is the goal of business intelligence?

The goal of business intelligence is to provide management with relevant and up-to-date information to support decision-making. BI helps identify areas where performance and productivity can be improved. Based on insights and data-driven analysis, organizations can implement changes and optimize processes.

Microsoft Power BI is an innovative business intelligence platform that enables real-time data monitoring. It allows you to react instantly to events and changes within your organization. Business intelligence plays — or should play — a crucial role in every organization, whether it’s a business, government agency, nonprofit, or other institution. It helps understand data more deeply, leading to smarter management and a stronger competitive advantage. We’ll be happy to introduce you to Microsoft Power BI and discuss how it can benefit your business. Contact us.