UMUC IFSM300 week 3 discussion

Just as accurate, timely, and dependable information is important to the intelligence community (a plug there for you Intel folks), it is of paramount importance to have relevant information that supports/determines the best decision possible within the business realm as well. Succinctly put, “Information impacts Business Intelligence….”

“What is Business Intelligence (BI)?”, you might ask. According to one of my favorite IT-related Websites (http://www.cio.com) BI is described as, “an umbrella term that refers to a variety of software applications used to analyze an organization’s raw data. BI as a discipline is made up of several related activities, including data mining, online analytical processing, querying and reporting. Companies use BI to improve decision making, cut costs and identify new business opportunities. BI is more than just corporate reporting and more than a set of tools to coax data out of enterprise systems. CIOs use BI to identify inefficient business processes that are ripe for re-engineering. With today’s BI tools, business folks can jump in and start analyzing data themselves, rather than wait for IT to run complex reports. This democratization of information access helps users back up—with hard numbers—business decisions that would otherwise be based only on gut feelings and anecdotes. Although BI holds great promise, implementations can be dogged by technical and cultural challenges. Executives have to ensure that the data feeding BI applications is clean and consistent so that users trust it….” (Source: http://www.cio.com/article/40296/Business_Intelligence_Definition_and_Solutions)

Examples of use of BI, as indicated in your textbook, include:

– Analyzing popular vacation locations, along with current flight listings (Airlines),

– Comparing the demographics of patients with critical illnesses (Health care),

– Predicting sales, levels of inventory, and distribution (or means of distribution) (Retail)

Virtually every business or organization can ideally benefit from the use of BI; it can help answer critical questions that impact the business or organization’s future.

As a Response to this Conference Topic, refer to the Questions in Chapter 6, under the section “Learning Outcome Review” (pgs. 239,240)

Select two (2) out of the eight questions, and do some research (Internet sites are fine–do NOT use the Wikipedia Website!!) on the topic addressed within the respective question(s):

#1 – The four traits determining the value of information,

#2 – A database, database management system (DBMS), and the relational database model,

#3 – The business advantages of a relational database,

#4 – Benefits (from a business perspective) of a data-driven Website

#5 – The data warehouse,

#6 – Extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) and the role of a data mart, in business,

#7 – Data mining, and the three common forms for mining data (structured, and unstructured), and

#8 – The advantages of using BI to support managerial decision-making

Write a well-thought-out, comprehensive, 2-3 paragraph article on each of the two (2) questions you have selected. In addition to describing (in your own terms) “what” the subject-matter is, give a detailed example of how it is used in today’s business or organization.

Properly cite your reference(s), for each question you choose – do not use your textbook as a reference, unless you (absolutely) cannot find an outside source….