Business intelligence is an umbrella term used to describe a set of concepts and methods to improve business decision-making by using specific tools to provide facts to support decisions. These tools can be spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel is the most widely used), reporting and querying software that extracts, sorts, and reports data (Crystal Reports is a widely used product), dashboards, which gives the user the ability to glance at trends and drill down further into data, and many very technical models which are mostly used by large corporations.

In setting up a business intelligence program, the first step a company will need to take is determining what the short to medium term purpose of the program will be. What goal(s) does the organization want to address by the program? How will it relate to the overall success of the company? Will access to the data eventually improve results and/or performance?

Next is determining if the company has the tools for information gathering in the area to be assessed. Is there the capability to monitor the important sources of information? How much data is needed and how will it be stored and analyzed?

The financial outlay of a new business initiative should be estimated and the cost of present operations assessed to determine value. What is the risk if the initiative fails? What is the gain for succeeding? How will the data be collected and the benefits measured? Is there a team in place to act as the control? At what point can a determination be made as to if the initiative is successful? Is there a plan in place if the project does not produce the desired results?

A business intelligence initiative can be as simple as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to track sales, visits, or other basic data, or it can be so complex that companies purchase entire servers to provide tools for tracking, analyzing, reporting, storing, drilling, and disbursing, to name only a few functions available.

Whatever your business size, all companies can benefit from some form of business intelligence. The most successful business decisions are made on the most accurate data.