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A Business Intelligence System (BIS) is a software system that collects data about a business, interprets it and uses the generated information to make business decisions. A Business Intelligence System is composed by hardware, software, processes and the people that manages it. It combines data gathering, database management and analysis, data mining, decision support systems and online analytical processing (OLAP) to achieve its objectives.the goal of BI is to allow for the easy interpretation of large volumes of data, helping to identify new opportunities and implement an effective strategy based on insights, what can provide businesses with a competitive market advantage and long-term stability. Business Intelligence Systems are used, for example in communications, financial services, health and life sciences, manufacturing or distribution. 2
A Decision Support System (DSS) is an information system created to facilitate the decision making process in organizations. It may include other systems, such as expert systems or database systems. They are used in many different fields, for example you can find Decision Support Systems in road management, clinic diagnoses or bank operation approvals. 3
It gathers information from internal sources as company management systems and documents, company databases or info about their customers purchases and from external sources like data warehouses and data marts, sector databases, financial information, market reports, competence analysis or specific literature searches. 4
An expert system is a type of Decision Support System that uses stored knowledge of human experts from different fields to simulate human reasoning and make decisions about specific problems. 5
online analytical processing is a computer-based technique for analyzing business data that enables users to analyze multidimensional data interactively from multiple perspectives. It consists in organizing the consolidated data in a multidimensional cube known as an OLAP cube and using it to extract information. 6
In management information systems, a dashboard is "an easy to read, that is often single page, real-time user interface, showing a graphical presentation of the current status and historical trends of an organization s key performance indicators (KPI) to enable instantaneous and informed decisions to be made at a glance. 7
One type of high level managerial dashboards is the Balanced Scorecard. The characteristics of the balanced scorecard and its derivatives is the presentation of a mixture of financial and non-financial measures each compared to a 'target' value within a single concise report. The report is not meant to be a replacement for traditional financial or operational reports but a succinct summary that captures the information most relevant to those reading it. There are different versions of the tool depending on the method by which this 'most relevant' information is determined. The balanced scorecard indirectly also provides a useful insight into an organisation's strategy, by requiring general strategic statements as mission, vision and values to be precipitated into more specific parameters. 8
We can see here how a Business Intelligence System is organized, with data gathering from as many sources as possible in the base of the pyramid, and the incorporation of Decision Support systems and Managerial Dashboards to help managers make decisions at different levels. 9
Business Intelligence can be used to support a wide range of business decisions ranging from operational to strategic. Basic operating decisions include product positioning or pricing. Strategic business decisions include priorities, goals and directions at the broadest level. BI is most effective when it combines external data derived from the market in which a company operates with data from company sources such as financial and operations data. 10
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