Howard Dresner originated the term business intelligence. In the early 1990s, he defined businenss intelligence (BI) as "a set of concepts and methodologies to improve decision making in business through use of facts and fact-based systems." While many of us focused on data integration and believed that data warehousing was leading-edge, Dresner created the vision that shaped what we know as business intelligence today. The business intelligence that was once visionary is now commonplace, but sometimes disappointing. Tomorrow's business intelligence must become something very different. Too much of today's business analytics has little connection with real business analysis. At times I am tempted to declare that "the emperor has no clothes."
But I believe that a significant BI shift is about to occur. Conditions are aligned to drive change. Economic factors demand smart business. New expectations for corporate and executive accountability raise the stakes. Consolidation of the BI tools market opens the door to new and innovative vendors. The next evolution of BI will happen soon, it will happen quickly, and it will expose and overcome the self-delusion that is part of business analytics today.
In recent years, we have strayed from Dresner's early vision. Current definitions describe business intelligence largely as tools and technology. Some fail to mention business and others include it almost as an afterthought. The next evolution of BI must return to the vision, enrich that vision and expand upon it to create opportunity for truly intelligent business. The next developments in business intelligence will occur in five significant areas:
- Compelling definition
- Focus on business analytics
- Closing the gap between analytics and analysis
- Focus on business analysts
- Focus on business
The evolution of business intelligence begins with a definitional shift. Perhaps the most widely quoted BI definition today is David Loshin's "the processes, technologies and tools needed to turn data into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into plans that drive profitable business actions." Larissa Moss describes BI as "an architecture and a collection of integrated operational as well as decision-support applications and databases that provide the business community easy access to business data." And Steve Dine defines it as "the process, architecture, technologies and tools that help companies transform their data into accurate, actionable and timely information and disseminate that information across the organization."
While all of the definitions are technically correct, it feels like something is missing. The troubling thing is that all of the definitions are IT-centric. They describe processes, tools, technologies, data, databases and applications. In each of the few instances where the word "business" appears, it is used as an adjective that qualifies seemingly more important nouns: action, community and data. So what is compelling about these definitions? What do they offer as motivation for a business to spend time, money and energy on business intelligence? What do they provide to a BI program as purpose, direction, and the basis for goals and measures of success? I think that they fall short on all counts.
I define business intelligence as "the ability of an organization or business to reason, plan, predict, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend, innovate and learn in ways that increase organizational knowledge, inform decision processes, enable effective actions, and help to establish and achieve business goals." This definition, I believe, is compelling. It describes the qualities of an intelligent business and is sufficiently specific to serve as the basis for purpose, direction, goals and measures. Equally important, it reflects and builds upon Dresner's BI vision. To further understand the origin and the implications of this definition, see my April 2008 BeyeNETWORK article Business Analytics — Getting the Point.
This article was originally published on the BeyeNETWORK on November 18, 2008. Reprinted with permission.
Dave Wells
Dave Wells is a consultant, mentor and teacher in the field of business intelligence (BI). He brings to every consulting endeavor a unique and balanced perspective about the relationships of business and technology. This perspective — refined through a career of more than 35 years that encompassed both business and technical roles — helps to align business and information technology in the most effective ways. More articles, resources, news and events are available in Dave Wells' BeyeNETWORK.com expert channel.
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