What is Business Intelligence?
Technology has inundated our homes, schools, businesses, markets and our world. The advent of the microprocessor brought about significant changes in the way we do business and the way we communicate. Cell phones, computers, music devices, personal assistants and of course, the World Wide Web all influence our patterns of behavior today. Businesses across the globe have harnessed the power of technology to improve their processes, communications and financials by implementing something called business intelligence, or BI. Using technology can help a business to streamline their data into reports that group data, making it easier to read and work with. Our business intelligence takes this idea a few steps further.
Your Data and Its Cycles
BIF Products and Services are unique in that we work with the entire life cycle of data. Think of your data as a person. As humans, we go through five general stages: conception, gestation, birth, life and legacy. The conception stage of your data involves database and table analysis, and maps out a rough idea of how your data will be organized. In gestation, your data organization and planning is growing, changing. This is where your data goes through the ETL process (Extraction, Transformation and Loading). The birth of your data takes place when it is actually entered and new transactions and usages are recorded. Your data is now in use. The life of your data is generally rather short (this is where the analogy slightly deviates) because this stage involves only what you use the data for, such as a daily transaction. The legacy is what most business intelligence firms strictly deal with, and this is where we look at trends in your data. The legacy is what eventually helps you look at your bottom line in an efficient way.
