What is business intelligence (BI)? | SAP Insights

There are many different tools used in a business intelligence system. Here are some of the most common:

BI reporting

BI reporting – presenting data and insights to end users in a way that is easy to understand and act on – is fundamental to every business. Reports use summaries and visual elements like charts and graphs to show users’ trends over time, relationships between variables, and much more. They are also interactive, so users can slice and dice tables or drill deeper into data as needed. Reports can be automated and sent out on a regular, predetermined schedule – or ad hoc and generated on the fly.

Querying

Querying tools allow users to ask business questions and get answers through intuitive interfaces. With modern querying tools, submitting a query can be as simple as asking Google (or even Siri) a question – like “Where are shipping delays happening?”, “Did quarterly sales meet their targets?”, or “How many widgets were sold yesterday?”

BI dashboards

Dashboards are one of the most popular BI tools. They use continually updated charts, graphs, tables, and other types of data visualization to track pre-defined KPIs and other business metrics – and provide an at-a-glance overview of performance in near-real time. Managers and employees can use interactive features to customize which information they want to view, drill into data for further analysis, and share results with other stakeholders.