What is Business Intelligence?
From raw data to insights – how BI helps organizations make better decisions.
Business Intelligence (BI) refers to strategies, technologies and practices for collecting, integrating, analyzing and presenting business data. The goal: providing decision-makers with the right information at the right time.
The BI Process
Data Collection
Consolidating data from various sources: ERP, CRM, Excel, databases, external sources.
Data Integration
ETL processes (Extract, Transform, Load) prepare data and load it into the data warehouse.
Analysis
OLAP, data mining and statistical methods reveal patterns, trends and correlations.
Visualization
Dashboards and reports make complex data understandable and actionable.
Decision
Informed business decisions are made based on the insights gained.
Core Components of a BI System
Data Warehouse
Central data storage that consolidates information from various systems and stores it optimized for analysis.
ETL Tools
Software for extracting, transforming and loading data. Makes data from different sources compatible.
OLAP Engine
Online Analytical Processing enables multidimensional analysis and fast drill-down through large data volumes.
Reporting & Dashboards
Visualization tools like Qlik Sense, Power BI or Tableau present results in a user-friendly way.
BI vs. Data Analytics vs. Data Science
These terms are often confused. Here are the differences:
| Fokus | Methoden | Nutzer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Intelligence | What happened? What is happening now? | Reporting, dashboards, KPI monitoring | Managers, departments |
| Data Analytics | Why did it happen? | Statistical analysis, segmentation | Analysts, data engineers |
| Data Science | What will happen? | Machine learning, predictive models | Data scientists, ML engineers |
Brief History of BI
First Decision Support Systems (DSS)
Howard Dresner coins the term "Business Intelligence"
Data warehouses and OLAP become standard
Self-service BI: Tools like Qlik and Tableau
Cloud BI and in-memory technologies
AI-powered BI, augmented analytics, embedded BI
BI Trends 2025
Augmented Analytics
AI supports data preparation, analysis and insights. Natural language replaces SQL.
Embedded BI
Analytics integrated directly into business applications – where decisions are made.
Real-Time BI
Streaming analytics for real-time decisions. Batch processing gives way to continuous data flows.
Data Mesh
Decentralized data architecture: Departments take responsibility for their own data products.
Häufige Fragen zu Business Intelligence
Every company that wants to make data-driven decisions benefits from BI. The complexity of the solution should match the company size – from simple Excel dashboards to enterprise data warehouses.
Costs vary widely: From free tools like Metabase to enterprise solutions in the six-figure range. Implementation and maintenance costs are often more significant than license fees.
An initial dashboard can be ready in a few weeks. A complete data warehouse with clean data integration typically takes 6-12 months. The key: Start small and expand iteratively.
Reporting is part of BI. While reporting delivers static reports, BI enables interactive exploration, ad-hoc analysis and self-service for end users.