What is Business Intelligence?
The term Business Intelligence (BI) represents the tools and systems that play a key role in the strategic planning process of organisations and institutions. These systems allow an organisation to gather, store, access and analyse institutional data to aid in decision-making.
BI provides a shared understanding of key data across the whole business so you can monitor and improve the performance of your institution. A BI software solution brings together key BI capabilities to measure and monitor performance, such as dashboards, analysis, reports and scorecards.
Dashboards
Business Intelligence dashboards are a collection of graphical elements that give you a quick snapshot of how your organisation is performing and its future. BI dashboards include charts, graphs, gauges and tables so you can easily make sense of complex data from your business systems at a glance. Many Deans run their business from an executive dashboard that shows key performance indicators and scorecards across the entire business.
Scorecards
Business Intelligence scorecards are a collection of metrics such as revenue and cash flow that are used to measure an organisation’s performance against target. They help executives turn their business strategy into specific goals that can be communicated, measured and monitored throughout the organisation. Performance scorecards keep a business accountable and focused on achieving set results. Business scorecards show you at a glance how the business is doing and where you need to focus. They highlight what you had aimed to achieve, and what the difference is between objectives and results. Scorecards measure each key performance indicator (KPI) against target, with the results compared with the previous time period.
Analysis
Business Intelligence analysis is used for instant analysis of large amounts of data, regardless of which business system it comes from. Business analysis is often used to reveal trends that might not be discovered easily by viewing standard reports – to identify trends, problems and opportunities. Often known as “slice and dice” or OLAP (online analytical processing), analysis lets you quickly investigate multiple dimensions, such as revenue per product or service, per region, per year. Sometimes business analysts want to analyse their data in Microsoft Excel, so you may need to ensure your BI solution has this capability.
Reports
Business Intelligence reporting allows employees at all levels to pull information from an organisation’s business systems for day-to-day operations and decision-making. The production of structured, formal reports such as board reports and profit and loss (P&L) reports enables information to be delivered in a standard format. This type of reporting is focused on producing reports, and is referred to as relational reporting.