If you are
looking at up-to-the-minute information: you may need access to transactional data.
Either way, the first hurdle is getting access to the data.
Chapter 1
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What do you do once you have access to the data? How do you best format and
present the data in some meaningful fashion that can be used to assist in the BI
(Business Intelligence) process? This is where BI tools come into play. Using BI
tools you have the ability to write reports that can present this oftentimes sporadic
and confusing data, in some sort of format that is useful to decision makers. Once
this data is presented, trends can be identified, total figures can be aggregated, and
decisions can be made.
The Current State of the BI Market
The current state of the BI market is similar to the state of any technology field. It
can change at the drop of a hat! At the time of this writing, you can divide the major
players in this field into two categories: commercial offerings and open-source
offerings. Each category has its own benefits and drawbacks. With the commercial
offerings, typically you have familiar names such as Actuate and Business Objects,
offering various tools aimed at different levels of business. Some of these tools
are large and enterprise reporting platforms that have the ability to process,
analyze, and reformat large quantities of data.
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