Business

Intelligence
(BI)
By Dr Tendani Chimboza
Learning Objectives

• Define BI and BI analytics

• What is BI, it’s benefits and drivers and impacts on organisations
• What is Data, Information and Knowledge in the context of BI
• Discuss the Impacts of Business Intelligence on Organisations
• Obstacles of using BI
• Privacy and Security concerns in BI
• Demonstrate through use of case studies the use and impact of BI in organisations.
 What is Business Intelligence

• Business Intelligence (BI) refers to the

technology-driven process of
collecting, analyzing, and presenting
data and information to support
business decision-making.
• BI involves providing decision-makers
with valuable information and
knowledge by leveraging a variety of
sources of data as well as structured
and unstructured information.
Impacts of Business Intelligence on
Organisations

Improvement in Operational BI solutions also provide real-time information on how the

organization is performing while adopting an end-to-end view of
Performance processes, thereby helping managers to identify aspects that
need improvement.

BI solutions also help improve customer service by identifying

Improvement in customer service frequent problems with each product and identifying potential
solutions, so that when one of these problems occurs, the
appropriate solution can be more quickly identified.

Identification of new opportunities BI facilitates new insights and knowledge through the discovery
in contemporary organizations of previously unknown patterns, correlations, and trends.
Importance of Data, Information & Knowledge in BI

• Data comprise facts, observations, or

perceptions, which may or may not be correct.
For example, the number of Nokia Phones
bought from Makro
• Information processed data that produce
meaning and insights. With the Makro case, it
means people are still interested in
Nokia phones despite slow pace of innovation f
rom Nokia company
.
• Knowledge refers to the understanding and
insights gained from the analysis of data and
information. Sales of Nokia phones rest on
customer loyalty and the nostalgia – especially
for senior populations
BI Solutions and BI Tools
BI Solutions
BI Tools
• BI solutions, encompass a more • BI tools refer to the individual software
comprehensive approach (strategy and applications or software components that
technology) to addressing an serve specific functions within the BI
organization's business intelligence needs. process.
• A BI solution may consist of multiple BI • BI tools can also directly help in obtaining
tools, data storage and integration data and information (such as through
components, analytics engines, reporting extraction, transformation, and loading of
and dashboarding capabilities, and more data)
• For example, a BI solution may include a • For example, UCT choosing a solution to
data warehouse, data visualization, analyse and visualize student progression
reporting engine or data modelling. rate data. For example, Microsoft Power BI
BI Product, Process, Solution, and Tools
 Other BI Related Technologies &
Practices

Transaction processing Data warehouse Data mining Knowledge management Decision support systems
systems systems
Create, update and store data from A single logical repository for an The process of discovering hidden Uses information and existing tacit Use data as input along with prior
day-to-day business operation organizations data patterns from data stored and explicit knowledge to create, knowledge to create rules that
electronically (ex. in a data store and share new knowledge guide decisions
warehouse)
Knowledge
Management (KM)

• Refers to doing what is needed to

get the most out of knowledge
resources.
• BI starts with data and information
as inputs, whereas KM begins
with information and knowledge
as inputs
Extract, Transform, and
Load (ETL)

• The process of combining

data from multiple sources
into a large, central
repository called a data
warehouse
Decision Support Systems
(DSS)

• Decision support systems and more

recently, automated decision systems,
focus on support or automation of
decision making in organizations.
• They use data (from a data warehouse or
operational systems) as input along with
prior knowledge (used to create rules
that guide the decisions).
Distinctions
Between BI
and Other
Related
Technologies
Obstacles of BI
Technological Obstacles
BI tools are difficult to BI training is BI requires large initial
use; expensive; investment;

BI return-on- BI needs of business

BI requires substantial
investment is difficult users are difficult to
ongoing costs;
to justify; identify;

BI tools are difficult to

Managers are too
customize for specific
busy to use BI;
types of users
Organisational Obstacles

Business events are not BI makes business

consistently defined information too
throughout the enterprise transparent

BI solution for all the BI

Users don't recognize the
needs of the organization
power of BI
is difficult to find
Privacy and Security
concerns in BI
Privacy and Security
concerns in BI
• Data breaches
• Data breaches are a serious threat to any
organization that uses business intelligence
(BI) tools to collect, analyze, and share data.
• BI tools can expose sensitive information such
as customer data, financial records, or
intellectual property to unauthorized access,
theft, or misuse.
• Unethical use of data
• Organization may capture data from a specific
audience from a specific stated purpose, then
reuses that same personal data for a separate
task in the future.
• Organisations may fail to explicitly disclose
how user data is collected and what that data
will be used for in a concise and accessible
manner
Case studies the use and impact of BI in organisations

• Solution>Retail Sales summary data: Power BI by

• Solution>Patient fall prediction: by

• Solution>Crop farming analysis:

• Solution>Integrated Emergency Reporting:

The end 