Business Intelligence
Explore this article to understand the definitions and common functions of BI technologies, which include reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), analytics, data mining, process mining, complex event processing, business performance management, benchmarking, text mining, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics.
BI Portals
A Business Intelligence portal (BI portal) is the primary access interface for Data Warehouse (DW) and Business Intelligence (BI) applications. The BI portal is the user's first impression of the DW/BI system. It is typically a browser application, from which the user has access to all the individual services of the DW/BI system, reports, and other analytical functionality. The BI portal must be implemented in such a way that it is easy for the users of the DW/BI application to call on the functionality of the application.
The BI portal's main functionality is to provide a navigation system of the DW/BI application. This means that the portal has to be implemented in a way that the user has access to all the functions of the DW/BI application.
The most common way to design the portal is to custom fit it to the business processes of the organization for which the DW/BI application is designed, in that way the portal can best fit the needs and requirements of its users.
The BI portal needs to be easy to use and understand, and if possible have a look and feel similar to other applications or web content of the organization the DW/BI application is designed for (consistency).
The following is a list of desirable features for web portals in general and BI portals in particular:
Usable
User should easily find what they need in the BI tool.
Content Rich
The portal is not just a report printing tool, it should contain more functionality such as advice, help, support information, and documentation.
Clean
The portal should be designed so it is easily understandable and not over-complex as to confuse the users
Current
The portal should be updated regularly.
Interactive
The portal should be implemented in a way that makes it easy for the user to use its functionality and encourage them to use the portal. Scalability and customization give the user the means to fit the portal to each user.
Value Oriented
It is important that the user has the feeling that the DW/BI application is a valuable resource that is worth working on.