Basic BI Concepts

What is Business Intelligence (BI)?

Business Intelligence (BI) refers to a collection of processes, technologies, and tools that enable organizations to collect, process, analyze, and visualize data to support timely and informed decision-making.

BI empowers organizations to:

• Review historical performance

• Understand the current business situation

• Forecast future trends using data-driven insights

Objective: Deliver the right information to the right users at the right time, transforming raw data into actionable insights that support business strategies.

Key Components of a BI System

Data Sources	Origin of data such as CRM, ERP, databases, APIs, spreadsheets, etc.
ETL/ELT Processes	Methods for Extracting, Transforming, and Loading data into a central repository
Data Warehouse	A centralized, structured storage optimized for querying and analysis
Analytics Tools	Tools to visualize data through charts, tables, dashboards, etc.
Reports & Dashboards	Interfaces that present data in a user-friendly and interactive manner

Standard BI Workflow

The typical flow of data in a BI system includes:

1. Data Collection – Gather data from multiple sources

2. Data Transformation – Cleanse, standardize, and convert data

3. Data Storage – Save in a structured data warehouse

4. Data Analysis & Visualization – Create visual reports and dashboards

5. Decision Making – Use insights for operational or strategic decisions

📌 In FPT Data Suite, this workflow is implemented through:

• Data Connector → Data Pipeline → Data Visualization

Benefits of BI for Organizations

Business Intelligence (BI) offers powerful tools to help organizations analyze and make informed decisions through six core functions:

• Decision Support Identify business issues and support strategy planning using real-time data.

• Querying & Reporting Automatically generate structured, meaningful reports from large data sets.

• Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) Rapid multi-dimensional analysis, supporting trend evaluation and financial reporting.

• Statistical Analysis Interpret data patterns to uncover underlying trends and business behaviors.

• Forecasting Predict future performance and industry trends to proactively plan ahead.

• Data Mining Extract meaningful information from large data sets to solve specific business challenges.