07:14
Faizan
The idea of "business intelligence," or "BI," emerged in the business world in the 1960's, and reporting solutions for businesses have been growing and evolving ever since. Some believe the origins of business intelligence can be traced back to a specific article written in 1958 by IBM researcher Hans Peter Luhn. In this article Luhn described "intelligence" as an ability to find relationships among the facts presented in a way that would guide action toward a specific goal.
This ethos began to spread and take hold in the business world, but it wasn't until the late 1980's that the term "business intelligence" was coined and began to be used more widely in the marketplace. It was in 1989 that soon-to-be Gartner Group analyst Howard Dresner proposed the term in order to describe the process of using existing facts about a business to improve business decision making. The ultimate goal was better business performance and better results. By the 1990's, the term "business intelligence" was being used in a widespread way.
Business intelligence can be used in a broad and general way, but ad hoc reporting can also be quite powerful and useful. Ad hoc reporting allows the user to hone in on a specific, more pressing business performance issue. Finding targeted answers and solutions can improve business performance dramatically.
Today, companies can't afford to not stay on top of the current critical statistical data about their businesses in order to succeed. However, sometimes the idea of gathering and sorting through this data in-house can seem somewhat overwhelming. There are automated systems from companies businesses can connect to through the net to assist in collecting data and to help analyze business intelligence in a much more manageable manner.
What should you look for in a business intelligence management solution? Ease of use should be high on the list. If you are employing an outside company to do this work for you, there should be as small of a "learning curve" as possible on your end. You should be able to get the bottom-line statistics you want quickly and efficiently, even from mountains of raw data. You should be able to easily generate the format you need on the spot, whether it's a graph, pie-chart or spreadsheet. Having real time 24/7 access to your data is essential as well.
This ethos began to spread and take hold in the business world, but it wasn't until the late 1980's that the term "business intelligence" was coined and began to be used more widely in the marketplace. It was in 1989 that soon-to-be Gartner Group analyst Howard Dresner proposed the term in order to describe the process of using existing facts about a business to improve business decision making. The ultimate goal was better business performance and better results. By the 1990's, the term "business intelligence" was being used in a widespread way.
Business intelligence can be used in a broad and general way, but ad hoc reporting can also be quite powerful and useful. Ad hoc reporting allows the user to hone in on a specific, more pressing business performance issue. Finding targeted answers and solutions can improve business performance dramatically.
Today, companies can't afford to not stay on top of the current critical statistical data about their businesses in order to succeed. However, sometimes the idea of gathering and sorting through this data in-house can seem somewhat overwhelming. There are automated systems from companies businesses can connect to through the net to assist in collecting data and to help analyze business intelligence in a much more manageable manner.
What should you look for in a business intelligence management solution? Ease of use should be high on the list. If you are employing an outside company to do this work for you, there should be as small of a "learning curve" as possible on your end. You should be able to get the bottom-line statistics you want quickly and efficiently, even from mountains of raw data. You should be able to easily generate the format you need on the spot, whether it's a graph, pie-chart or spreadsheet. Having real time 24/7 access to your data is essential as well.
Posted in: business
