Today’s business environment is brutal and uncompromising. Globalization has
spawned bigger, more powerful competitors. Customers are more sophisticated
and selective, demanding higher levels of service, quality, and customization.
Business Intelligence is the enabling technology that allows customers to make
intelligent and timely decisions in this ever changing environment. Data Warehouse and
Business Intelligence technology based solutions go beyond traditional transactional
query and reporting tools for providing customers deep insight into historical and
emerging trends and thereby fosters a flexible, holistic and agile environment.
Many large companies have been using Business Intelligence (BI) software for some
years to help them gain competitive advantage. With the introduction of cheaper
and more generalized products to the market place BI is now in the reach of smaller
and medium sized companies. The following sections describe how to recognize
and evaluate the feasibility of a BI software solution in an organization.
