Much more than a specific "thing," business intelligence is more of a general term that covers the processes and methods of collecting, storing, and analyzing data from business operations or activities to optimize performance. All these things come together to create a holistic view of a business in order to help people make better and more viable decisions. In recent years, business intelligence has evolved to include more processes and activities to help improve performance. These processes include the following:
Data mining: Using databases, statistics, and machine learning to discover trends in large data sets.
Reporting: Share data analysis with stakeholders so they can draw conclusions and make decisions.
Benchmarks and performance and metrics: Compare current performance data with historical data to track performance against goals, typically using custom dashboards.
Descriptive analysis: Using preliminary data analysis to find out what happened.
Query generation: To extract answers from data sets, BI asks specific questions about the data.
Statistical analysis: Taking the results of descriptive analysis and further exploring the data using statistics to determine how this trend happened and why.
Data visualization: Convert data analysis into visual representations such as charts, graphs, and histograms to more easily consume data.
Visual Analytics: Explore data through visual storytelling to communicate insights on the fly and stay within the flow of analysis.
Data preparation: Compile multiple data sources, identifying dimensions and measures, preparing them for data analysis.
