Abstract
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.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Data Warehouse: A central repository for all the data selectively collected from various sources by an enterprise’s business systems into a single database for useful analysis and access by end-users.
Business Intelligence: The process of using advanced applications and technologies to gather, store, analyse and transform overloaded business information into knowledge that provides significant business value in improving the effectiveness of managerial decision making.
Competitive advantage: Refers to a firm’s ability to create economic values over its rivals by providing similar benefits at a lower cost or delivering benefits that exceed the competitive products.
OLAP: Is an interactive computer processing that enables users to gain rapid insight into data through multi-dimensional analysis of data from different points of view.
Data Mining: The process of analysing and sorting through large volume of data to identify patterns to discover new business information and establish relationships in data.
Customer Relationship Management: A term applied to processes implemented by an organisation in tracking customer information and segmenting its existing customer base and prospects to enhance the relationship between the organisation and its customers.
Corporate Governance: The framework of rules and practices used to direct and manage business towards enhancing corporate accountability to all its stakeholders.