Business Intelligence (BI) refers to the methods used for the presentation, collection, integration, and analysis of business information. Its purpose is simple: help companies make better decisions, whether through briefing books, report and query tools, or executive information systems.
Companies today sit in the middle of profound change. The volume of data available — and the rate at which fresh data gets produced — is growing rapidly, and business models increasingly lean on data and analytics to keep pace.
Data science is the discipline through which knowledge gets extracted from large structured or unstructured datasets. It follows a clear rhythm: cleaning the data, analyzing it, and presenting findings that inform high-level decisions across the organization.
We're also living through rapid growth in artificial intelligence, IoT, and big data analytics — all pushing businesses toward smarter, faster decisions. As IoT expands, so does edge computing, which is set to take over from mainstream cloud systems by letting organizations store streaming data close to its source for real-time analysis.
Data services — online services that handle the programming logic for data virtualization in cloud storage — give companies the flexibility to store data across multiple locations without consumers needing to worry about where that data physically lives. Business Intelligence services, in turn, use dedicated data science tooling to analyze that data and get the right information to the right people.
”Combining analytics and data science to drive smarter business decisions.”
Trends Shaping BI and Data Science
BI and data science have grown considerably over the past two years, with 2020 marking a shift toward more customized tools and strategies — a genuine year of collaborative BI and AI.
2020 BI & Data Science Trend Radar
Relative organizational adoption momentum across the four leading 2020 BI trends
Data Quality Management (DQM)
Quality over quantity — pulling data from multiple sources into a single clean structure, then acquiring, processing, and distributing it effectively.
Data Discovery & Visualization
Extracting maximum value from metrics and insights using online visualization tools — an increasingly indispensable resource for modern BI teams.
Artificial Intelligence
Moving from static historical reports to live dashboards with real-time alerts, letting AI fully analyze datasets with minimal human intervention.
Data-Driven Culture
Decisions grounded in historical outcome data across every department — changing employee mindsets while cutting costs and improving segmentation.
Organizations increasingly see data and content under the same umbrella, managing them in an integrated way rather than as separate concerns. Operational Business Intelligence is booming, and vendors that once targeted only the top of the pyramid are now shifting toward the bottom — aiming squarely at self-service BI.
Combining Analytics and Data Science to Drive Smarter Decisions.
"Turning complex data into actionable insights with BI and data science."
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