Business intelligence

With the rapid advancement of both business techniques and technologies in recent years, knowledge has become an important and strategic asset that determines the success or failure of an organisation. Analyses showed that a competitive advantage in the business environment depends on the accessibility to adequate and reliable information in shortest time possible and the high selectivity in the creation and utilisation of information. An effective instrument to create, aggregate and share knowledge in an organisation has therefore become a key target of management. As organisations today can no longer spend money on excessive infrastructure and technology that does not provide a quick impact on the business' bottom-line, Business Intelligence (BI) is becoming indispensable to an organisation's success in the emerging global economy. BI is the process of using advanced applications and technologies to gather, store, analyse and transform overloaded business information into knowledge that provides significant business value. The concept of BI has been introduced into the marketplace in order to enhance an organisation's response in making better and more efficient business decisions