Business intelligence is a set of concepts, methods and processes to improve business decisions using information from multiple sources and applying experience and assumptions to develop an accurate understanding of business dynamics. It is the gathering, management and analysis of data to produce information that is distributed to people throughout the organization to improve strategic and tactical decisions.

Business intelligence involves the integration of core information with relevant contextual information to detect significant events and illuminate cloudy issues. It includes the ability to monitor business trends, to evolve and adapt quickly as situations change and to make intelligent business decisions on uncertain judgements and contradictory information. It relies on exploration and analysis of unrelated information to provide relevant insights, identify trends and discover opportunities.

Business intelligence requires high-quality information which can only be derived from a high-quality data resource. If organizations are moving into business intelligence scenarios as a major initiative, they must understand the need for and value of a high-quality data resource. There is little doubt that the technology will support business intelligence. The real issue is how to clean up disparate data and produce a high-quality data resource that truly supports business intelligence.