What is Business Intelligence?

I often find myself going to networking meetings and getting questions about what I do. I would answer "I am a Business Intelligence Consultant". Most people look at me with a inquisitive look and reply "What is Business Intelligence?". I quickly realize I am too techie. Which is a good thing.

Today, I figure I will try to answer this common question "What is Business Intelligence?".

Business Intelligence is the term used to describe the process of extracting insight from data. Now you might ask "What do you mean by extracting insight from data?" Data is nothing more than just an accumulation of information gathered in its purest form. For example: When you fill out a marketing survey the answers captured is considered data. This data is not useful unless there is something or someone smart enough to make some sense of it. This attempt to extract knowledge from data is called Business Intelligence or (BI) for short. Now I hope this explains at a high level what BI is.

Business Intelligence is an accumulation of technology, data processing, statistics and analysis. This is why we techies simply call it Business Intelligence. I am sure you are now interested in the entire process of squeezing information out of data.

The process of extracting Information from data starts with a good scope. We have to first decide what we want to learn from the data. This sounds easy but many times this is the biggest stumbling block for people. You have to step back and just simply ask yourself a few key questions such as:

• What problem am I trying to solve?

• What information would help me make a better business decision?

• If I had answers to my questions can I make better decisions?

This is the starting point of your Business Intelligence project. Without understanding your objectives it's hard to scope out the work. There are many steps after these question have been answered which I will cover in my other postings. I don't want to over whelm you on my first attempt to clarify what Business Intelligence really is.

Please feel free to let me know if this posting is helpful. I can away explain and improve going forward.

If you are interested in contacting me or learning how I can help with your business Intelligence needs please contact me.

RapidMetrix, Inc. | p: 888.287.7802 x168 | f: 888.533.4886
11500 W. Olympic Blvd. Suite 400 | Los Angeles, CA 90064 USA
Sales@RapidMetrix.com | http://www.RapidMetrix.com
RapidMetrix provides low cost, fast ROI and scalable on-demand analytics