BI Glossary - OLAP

Business Intelligence BI Glossary - OLAP

Online Analytical Processing. OLAP is a category of database software which provides an interface such that users can quickly and interactively examine the results in various dimensions of the data. OLAP primarily involves aggregating large amounts of diverse data. OLAP can involve millions of data items with complex relationships. Its objective is to analyze these relationships and look for patterns, trends, and exceptions. A cube is an OLAP tool.

Topics: OLAP, Online Analytical Processing, Business Intelligence Glossary, BI Term, BI Software Business Application

BI Glossary - Data Mart - Data Warehouse - Database

Data Mart - BI Glossary
BI Term - Data Mart - A data mart, Business Intelligence Glossary, is a logical subset of related information, usually built around one or a few business processes, or a specific subject area. An example is the Student Income Data Mart, which holds student and income details for UofT Graduate and Undergraduate Students.

Data Warehouse - BI Glossary
BI Terms - Data Warehouse - A repository of corporate or institutional data that is organized in a way that is meaningful for Business Analysis and Reporting. It may also store historical information. A data warehouse is a collection of data marts.

Database - BI Glossary
BI Term - Database - A collection of data arranged for ease and speed of search and retrieval. A database is organized in such a way that a computer program can quickly select desired pieces of data. You can think of a database as an electronic filing system.

Topics: Data Mart, Data Warehouse, Database, Business Intelligence Glossary, BI Term, BI Software Application

BI Glossary - Business Intelligence and Business Measure

Business Intelligence Glossary - Business Intelligence (BI)

Business Intelligence (BI), BI Term, is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help clients make better business decisions.

Business Measure
A business metric, BI Glossary, is any type of measurement used to gauge some quantifiable component of a company's performance, such as return on investment, employee and student counts, revenues and expenses, etc.

Topics: Business Intelligence Glossary, BI Terms, Business Measure, Business Metric, BI Software Application

BI Glossary - Sarbanes-Oxley

Business Intelligence BI Glossary - Sarbanes-Oxley

The purpose of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act - signed into law on July 30 2002 - is to review legislative audit requirements and to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures. Sarbanes-Oxley covers issues such as establishing a public company accounting oversight board, auditor independence, corporate responsibility and enhanced financial disclosure. It also significantly tightens accountability standards for directors and officers, auditors, securities analysts and legal counsel. The law is named after Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael G. Oxley.

Topics: Business Intelligence Glossary, BI Terms, BI Software Application, Sarbanes-Oxley information

BI Glossary - Query Analysis Reporting

Business Intelligence BI Software Glossary - Query and analysis

Tools that allow end users to interact with business information and answer ad hoc questions without advanced knowledge of the underlying data sources. These tools support query generation and basic report authoring, as well as integrated analysis. Learn more about query and analysis

BI Glossary - Reporting

Reporting (or enterprise reporting) tools facilitate accessing data, formatting it, and delivering it as information inside and outside the organization. Reporting serves as the foundation of a broader BI strategy by providing the most-requested pieces of information reliably and securely - via the Web or embedded in enterprise applications.

Topoics: Business Intelligence Software Glossary, BI Terms, BI Query and Analysis, BI Reporting information

BI Glossary - Online analytical processing (OLAP)

Business Intelligence BI Glossary - Online analytical processing (OLAP)

Online analytical processing. Popular term coined by E.F. Codd in 1993 to describe the multidimensional analysis of data. The term OLAP itself is somewhat confusing and was popularized simply to highlight the difference between databases designed for analysis (OLAP) and databases designed for updates and transaction processing (OLTP).

Source: Business Intelligence Terms, BI Glossary, OLAP, Online Analytical Processing, BI Software, Business Intelligence Application

BI Glossary - Multidimensional analysis

Business Intelligence BI Glossary - Multidimensional analysis

Also known as dimensional analysis. The analysis of business indicators by examining them from different points of view. One can examine revenue by product, or revenue by geography, or revenue by time period. In this example, revenue is the business indicator under examination, while product, geography, and time period are the points of view or dimensions.

Source: Business Intelligence Terms, BI Glossary, Multidimensional Analysis, BI Solutions, BI Software, Business Intelligence Application.

BI Glossary - Key performance indicators (KPI)

Business Intelligence BI Glossary - Key performance indicators (KPI)

Quantifiable performance measurements of performance of an activity that is critical to the success of an organization. KPIs differ depending on the objective of an organization.

Source: Business Intelligence Terms, BI Glossary, KPI, BI Software, Business Intelligence Application

BI Glossary - Information discovery and delivery (IDD)

Business Intelligence BI Glossary - Information discovery and delivery (IDD)

IDD help simplify the way that business decisions makers use information, allowing users to access, format, analyze, navigate, and share information across the organization. IDD comprises (enterprise) reporting, query and analysis, dashboards and scorecards, and the BI platform (including search capabilities).

Topics : Business Intelligence Terms, BI Glossary, Information Discovery and Delivery (IDD), BI Software, Business Intelligence Application

BI Glossary - Executive information systems (EIS)

Business Intelligence BI Glossary - Executive information systems (EIS)

A precursor to business intelligence systems. Before the democratization of information, customized views of business data was accessible only by a limited elite of senior executives via EIS systems. EIS systems were typically expensive to build and difficult to modify, hence slow to adapt to the rapidly changing needs of modern corporations.

BI Glossary - Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

Business Intelligence BI Glossary - Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

Enterprise resource planning system. Popular acronym for a broader category of enterprise software systems (a.k.a. enterprise business applications). An enterprise system enables a company to integrate data used throughout the organization in functions such as finance, operations and logistics, human resources, and sales and marketing.

BI Glossary - Enterprise performance management (EPM)

Business Intelligence BI Glossary - Enterprise performance management (EPM)

Applications and services that help users align with strategy by streamlining the planning process, setting targets, and tracking key business metrics via management dashboards, scorecards, analytics, and alerting.

BI Glossary - Enterprise information management (EIM)

Business Intelligence BI Glossary - Enterprise information management (EIM)

Products and services that deliver physical and virtual data integration, data quality, and metadata management capabilities that ensure BI information is timely, accurate, and trustworthy.

BI Glossary - Dashboard

Business Intelligence BI Glossary - Dashboard

A user interface that organizes and presents information in an easy-to-read format and help organizations align people's actions with strategy by tracking and analyzing key business metrics and goals. Dashboards and scoreboards enable proactive management via "what-if" analysis, customer segmentation, forecasting, and analyzing business processes. The term "dashboard" refers to the visual similarities to a car dashboard.

BI Glossary - Business performance management (BPM)

Business Intelligence BI Glossary - Business performance management (BPM)

Business performance management (BPM) is a set of processes that help organizations optimize business performance. BPM is focused on business processes such as planning and forecasting. It helps businesses discover efficient use of their business units, financial, human, and material resources.

BI Glossary - Balanced scorecard

Business Intelligence BI Glossary - Balanced scorecard

Companies use the balanced scorecard method, a management process introduced by Robert Kaplan and David Norton, to measure and refine current performance as well as to formulate future strategy. The method consists of measuring business performance in four categories to align individual, organizational, and cross-departmental initiatives. The four categories of indicators measured are: financial performance, customer knowledge, internal business processes, and learning and growth.

BI Glossary - Analytic applications

Business Intelligence BI Glossary - Analytic applications

Software solutions designed to address a specific data analysis need, for example financial analysis or customer intelligence. These applications are presented as 'turnkey' solutions, ready to be deployed to address a business department's specific data analysis needs.

BI Glossary - Activity-based costing

Business Intelligence BI Glossary - Activity-based costing

A practice which identifies activities and then calculates all related costs of performing them - providing actual costs chargeable. It accurately identifies sources of profit and loss, and improves company-wide decision-making.