Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence is a methodology which uses data collection and analysis to produce informed business decisions. It is an example of data-driven decision-making which seeks to increase revenue, improve efficiency, and provide businesses with a competitive advantage. The standard data pipeline is typically used: data is collected from both internal (sales, performance, reach) and external sources (market share, economic indicators), cleaned and prepared, then visualized or queried for insights. Visualization is often in the form of interactive dashboards which allow decision-makers to easily explore the data. Business Intelligence software can provide tooling which assists with each step in this pipeline.

Business Intelligence is typically a descriptive technique, as opposed to a predictive one, since it provides transparency and insights into the current state of a business and its market. When paired with modeling and simulation techniques, Business Intelligence methodologies can provide input data to make predictions more accurate and powerful.