You're intelligent, right? So you've already figured out that Business Intelligence can be pretty valuable in making the right decisions about your business. But you’ve heard at least a dozen definitions of what it is, and heard of at least that many BI tools. Where do you start? Business Intelligence For Dummies makes BI understandable! It takes you step by step through the technologies and the alphabet soup, so you can choose the right technology and implement a successful BI environment. You'll see how the applications and technologies work together to access, analyze, and present data that you can use to make better decisions about your products, customers, competitors, and more. You’ll find out how to: Understand the principles and practical elements of BI Determine what your business needs Compare different approaches to BI Build a solid BI architecture and roadmap Design, develop, and deploy your BI plan Relate BI to data warehousing, ERP, CRM, and e-commerce Analyze emerging trends and developing BI tools to see what else may be useful Whether you’re the business owner or the person charged with developing and implementing a BI strategy, checking out Business Intelligence For Dummies is a good business decision.

Learn to create an effective business strategy using Microsoft's BI stack Microsoft Business Intelligence tools are among the most widely used applications for gathering, providing access to, and analyzing data to enable the enterprise to make sound business decisions. The tools include SharePoint Server, the Office Suite, PerformancePoint Server, and SQL Server, among others. With so much jargon and so many technologies involved, Microsoft Business Intelligence For Dummies provides a much-needed step-by-step explanation of what's involved and how to use this powerful package to improve your business. Microsoft Business Intelligence encompasses a broad collection of tools designed to help business owners and managers direct the enterprise effectively This guide provides an overview of SharePoint, PerformancePoint, the SQL Server suite, Microsoft Office, and the BI development technologies Explains how the various technologies work together to solve functional problems Translates the buzzwords and shows you how to create your business strategy Examines related technologies including data warehousing, data marts, Online Analytical Processing (OLAP), data mining, reporting, dashboards, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Simplifies this complex package to get you up and running quickly Microsoft Business Intelligence For Dummies demystifies these essential tools for enterprise managers, business analysts, and others who need to get up to speed.

Your go-to guide on business analysis Business analysis refers to the set of tasks and activities that help companies determine their objectives for meeting certain opportunities or addressing challenges and then help them define solutions to meet those objectives. Those engaged in business analysis are charged with identifying the activities that enable the company to define the business problem or opportunity, define what the solutions looks like, and define how it should behave in the end. As a BA, you lay out the plans for the process ahead. Business Analysis For Dummies is the go to reference on how to make the complex topic of business analysis easy to understand. Whether you are new or have experience with business analysis, this book gives you the tools, techniques, tips and tricks to set your project’s expectations and on the path to success. Offers guidance on how to make an impact in your organization by performing business analysis Shows you the tools and techniques to be an effective business analysis professional Provides a number of examples on how to perform business analysis regardless of your role If you're interested in learning about the tools and techniques used by successful business analysis professionals, Business Analysis For Dummies has you covered.

Make competitive intelligence part of your business practice—and be on the cutting edge Competitive intelligence is the art of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors, individuals, concepts, information, ideas, or data needed to support executives and managers in making strategic decisions for an organization. Competitive Intelligence For Dummies introduces you to this fascinating subject and gives you the tools you need to incorporate it into your business decision-making process. Conducted within an organization, competitive intelligence serves as a catalyst in planning and strategic growth. It is part of the value chain that converts gathered data to actionable information that results in strategic decisions. Competitive Intelligence For Dummies helps readers gather valuable information on the competition, the operational environment, and the target customer. It also explains how to carefully analyze and use this information in decision making processes to gain market share and stay on the cutting edge of an industry. Whether you are just starting a business, venturing into new areas with your existing company, or looking to gain ground on a key competitor, Competitive Intelligence For Dummies gives you insight on how to gather valuable information on not only your competitors, but on your market and key customer base. Gets you up to speed on how to locate, collect, and process competitive intelligence Shows you how to carefully analyze competitive intelligence and disseminate it throughout your organization Illustrates how competitive intelligence can help you gain market share If you're a business owner, analyst, manager, or researcher, Competitive Intelligence For Dummies gives you and your business an edge.

Learn to create an effective business strategy using Microsoft's BI stack Microsoft Business Intelligence tools are among the most widely used applications for gathering, providing access to, and analyzing data to enable the enterprise to make sound business decisions. The tools include SharePoint Server, the Office Suite, PerformancePoint Server, and SQL Server, among others. With so much jargon and so many technologies involved, Microsoft Business Intelligence For Dummies provides a much-needed step-by-step explanation of what's involved and how to use this powerful package to improve your business. Microsoft Business Intelligence encompasses a broad collection of tools designed to help business owners and managers direct the enterprise effectively This guide provides an overview of SharePoint, PerformancePoint, the SQL Server suite, Microsoft Office, and the BI development technologies Explains how the various technologies work together to solve functional problems Translates the buzzwords and shows you how to create your business strategy Examines related technologies including data warehousing, data marts, Online Analytical Processing (OLAP), data mining, reporting, dashboards, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Simplifies this complex package to get you up and running quickly Microsoft Business Intelligence For Dummies demystifies these essential tools for enterprise managers, business analysts, and others who need to get up to speed.

This book presents a comprehensive and systematic introduction to transforming process-oriented data into information about the underlying business process, which is essential for all kinds of decision-making. To that end, the authors develop step-by-step models and analytical tools for obtaining high-quality data structured in such a way that complex analytical tools can be applied. The main emphasis is on process mining and data mining techniques and the combination of these methods for process-oriented data. After a general introduction to the business intelligence (BI) process and its constituent tasks in chapter 1, chapter 2 discusses different approaches to modeling in BI applications. Chapter 3 is an overview and provides details of data provisioning, including a section on big data. Chapter 4 tackles data description, visualization, and reporting. Chapter 5 introduces data mining techniques for cross-sectional data. Different techniques for the analysis of temporal data are then detailed in Chapter 6. Subsequently, chapter 7 explains techniques for the analysis of process data, followed by the introduction of analysis techniques for multiple BI perspectives in chapter 8. The book closes with a summary and discussion in chapter 9. Throughout the book, (mostly open source) tools are recommended, described and applied; a more detailed survey on tools can be found in the appendix, and a detailed code for the solutions together with instructions on how to install the software used can be found on the accompanying website. Also, all concepts presented are illustrated and selected examples and exercises are provided. The book is suitable for graduate students in computer science, and the dedicated website with examples and solutions makes the book ideal as a textbook for a first course in business intelligence in computer science or business information systems. Additionally, practitioners and industrial developers who are interested in the concepts behind business intelligence will benefit from the clear explanations and many examples.

Clear your doubts about Business Intelligence and start your new journey KEY FEATURES ● Includes successful methods and innovative ideas to achieve success with BI. ● Vendor-neutral, unbiased, and based on experience. ● Highlights practical challenges in BI journeys. ● Covers financial aspects along with technical aspects. ● Showcases multiple BI organization models and the structure of BI teams. DESCRIPTION The book demystifies misconceptions and misinformation about BI. It provides clarity to almost everything related to BI in a simplified and unbiased way. It covers topics right from the definition of BI, terms used in the BI definition, coinage of BI, details of the different main uses of BI, processes that support the main uses, side benefits, and the level of importance of BI, various types of BI based on various parameters, main phases in the BI journey and the challenges faced in each of the phases in the BI journey. It clarifies myths about self-service BI and real-time BI. The book covers the structure of a typical internal BI team, BI organizational models, and the main roles in BI. It also clarifies the doubts around roles in BI. It explores the different components that add to the cost of BI and explains how to calculate the total cost of the ownership of BI and ROI for BI. It covers several ideas, including unconventional ideas to achieve BI success and also learn about IBI. It explains the different types of BI architectures, commonly used technologies, tools, and concepts in BI and provides clarity about the boundary of BI w.r.t technologies, tools, and concepts. The book helps you lay a very strong foundation and provides the right perspective about BI. It enables you to start or restart your journey with BI. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN ● Builds a strong conceptual foundation in BI. ● Gives the right perspective and clarity on BI uses, challenges, and architectures. ● Enables you to make the right decisions on the BI structure, organization model, and budget. ● Explains which type of BI solution is required for your business. ● Applies successful BI ideas. WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR This book is a must-read for business managers, BI aspirants, CxOs, and all those who want to drive the business value with data-driven insights. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. What is Business Intelligence? 2. Why do Businesses need BI? 3. Types of Business Intelligence 4. Challenges in Business Intelligence 5. Roles in Business Intelligence 6. Financials of Business Intelligence 7. Ideas for Success with BI 8. Introduction to IBI 9. BI Architectures 10. Demystify Tech, Tools, and Concepts in BI