Corporations are currently investigating and evaluating Business Intelligence (BI) to help them reduce costs and improve business efficiencies. Successful businesses know decisions need to be made from the most complete and accurate data possible. A company needs to be able to combine data from legacy systems, software products, and real-time sources to transform the data into deeper insights about their business. These insights can provide the competitive advantage that is needed to thrive in an environment where customers have many choices. BI refers to the capability to leverage data into meaningful information that will provide richer insights into how a business is doing today and provides a sense of where it may be going

B .I. ARCHITECTURE

BI solutions provide:
• Analysis of sales and operations.
• Understanding of customer behavior.
• Identification of opportunities for revenue increases and costs savings.
• Improvements in overall decision-making.
• Analysis of large amounts of historical data which can be analyzed to identify patterns and understand    trends that might impact the business.

BI solutions are a key differentiator in todays increasingly competitive business environment. Staying ahead of the competition requires the ability to predict and respond to trends in the marketplace, rather than merely reacting to isolated events. Advancements in technology have made the use of BI practical and cost effective to a wider audience. With a BI solution, organizations are able to transform data into actionable information in less time while deploying it across intranets and extranets to improve decision-making and increase the responsiveness of all areas of the organization. In addition, BI has become strategic for companies, but needs to be integrated into every business process to guide business operations towards achieving strategic objectives. Companies need to be responsible for establishing many information stores and access paths required to support these processes.