Business Intelligence: Software Helps Decision Makers
Date : 14 Jul 2008 Category : Technology
NewsFactor NetworkIt's impossible for humans to keep track of the numerous terabytes and petabytes of information in many government data warehouses, or to easily identify trends that are lurking behind the numbers. BI, as it's known, uses software programs to sift through the information to find relationships among data sets that otherwise might go unnoticed. The results can help managers determine better ways to operate an organization, improve products or services, identify which strategies are working or not working, or find other opportunities.
According to the Congressional Research Service report "Data Mining and Homeland security: An Overview," traditional analysis requires someone to develop a hypothesis and then test it based on the data. For example, a hardware store owner might assume that a customer who buys a hammer also would buy a box of nails, therefore leading the owner to place the nails on a shelf close to where the hammers are hanging. The owner then can measure any increase in sales of nails.
But BI allows users to discover multidimensional relationships that never would have occurred to them. "For example, a hardware store may compare their customers' tool purchases with home ownership, type of automobile driven, age, occupation, income, and/ or distance between residence and the store," the report notes. This in turn could lead the store owner to rethink how the business operates and which products to carry.
For the federal government, BI can help an agency find relationships in its data that could lead...