On business intelligence systems

Abstract

Business enterprises today face unprecedented competitive pressures, as the pace of advances in computer and information technologies has become maddeningly fast and the standard of living and life styles of consumers have undergone significant changes. Enterprises can gain competitive edges if they can set their business strategies for winning new customers, retaining existing customers, and reducing the cost of doing business better. One promising way is for enterprises to base these strategies on business intelligence that can be analyzed and deduced from the vast amounts of data at their disposal. Today, advances in information technology have made available such technologies as data mining, online analytical processing, and data warehousing. It is now possible to construct business intelligence systems using these technologies. In this paper, we will describe what business intelligence systems are, examine the enabling technologies, and outline several key issues that need to be given serious considerations in successfully building and using business intelligence systems.