Business Intelligence Assignment

INTRODUCTION

This paper is for the course CMPT: 641 IT for Managers, and is submitted to Dr Marcelo Machado. The objective of this course is to make the students aware of the information technology in the business world. These days we know that the businesses are getting more advanced and all that is possible due to the high involvement of informatics that has eased the lives of everyone. Being an MBA student, it is important to understand all the aspects of the business world, understanding the environment, managing the processes and all that makes it possible is IT to organise the processes properly and get the relevant data if required.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Business intelligence is a system that has a variety of software applications which is used to analyse the raw data of an organisation. It is made up of various interlinked activities, for example, data mining, reporting, online analytical processing, and querying. Organisation uses business intelligence to improve its decision-making process, as well as it helps in cutting cost and identifying the new opportunities for the organisation. It is more than any corporate reporting, or a set of data of the business system. The CIO od the company uses business intelligence to analyse the improper business processes that are ripe for re-engineering.

An organisation has various information stored in different databases, for example, the inventory records, customer information, sales numbers, past promotional entries, etc. Since these data are scattered across various systems, business intelligence software brings it all together and helps the company/employees to find the important pieces of this information and relations between them. All the data is delivered to the data warehouse where the tables are linked, and the data cubes are formed. Some of the data warehouses have a dynamic link to it, and some of them are static. After this, a deep analysis is carried by preparing the multilayer queries. Moreover, once the organisation has answers, it shares the numbers with the managers of the stores and the promotion is planned so that they can have a look at the data that would drive their sales. The method of delivering the report can vary, it could be electronically through the internet or possibly through an intranet. Some business intelligence report would have static view having charts while some might be the original data in which can be manipulated with the numbers for future analysis.

Business intelligence has become a tool for the organisations to gain the competitive advantage in the market. The Internet has become the primary source of their market data, and it analyses the customer and market behaviour in alternative ways so that it can deliver the real insight as quick as possible. It helps the organisation to do the research faster and make the adjustments to the features and