DATA WAREHOUSING BASICS

Business Intelligence is a term introduced by Howard Dresner of Gartner Group in 1989. He described Business Intelligence as a set of concepts and methodologies to improve decision making in business through use of facts and fact based systems. Over time as use of Business Intelligence has become mainstream more definitions of Business Intelligence have emerged. Business intelligence (BI) is a broad category of application programs and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users make better business decisions. BI applications include the activities of decision support, query and reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), statistical analysis, forecasting, and data mining.


Business intelligence (BI) is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users make better business decisions. BI applications include the activities of decision support systems, query and reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), statistical analysis, forecasting, and data mining.

Business intelligence applications can be:

* Mission-critical and integral to an enterprise's operations or occasional to meet a special requirement
* Enterprise-wide or local to one division, department, or project
* Centrally initiated or driven by user demand