The terms business intelligence, data warehouse, data mining and OLAP/cube technology currently encompass all systems that enable information to be gathered from the flow of data that arises from day-to-day business processes – information that can be used to identify directions, changes, deviations and shifts in structure.

Long-term shifts or temporary exceptional incidents are often cause for special analyses, new decision documents, special reporting processes or plan reviews. Even business plans are based on extensive information such as market potential, competitor behaviour and internal marketing campaigns – exactly the kind of information that BI tools can gather and coordinate.

Business intelligence converts endless streams of facts and figures into interconnected data. These data can then be used across different areas, even between suppliers and customers, as a basis for more rapid and better coordinated decisions.