What is Business Intelligence?

Business intelligence is a broad "umbrella" term used to describe concepts, applications, processes and methods used to improve business decision making by analysis of commercial statistics, forecasting, and data mining. Do not make the mistake of confusing business intelligence with competitive intelligence, as this is a entirely separate concept. The sheer amount of information available to modern companies can be overwhelming and larger "blue chip" organizations will have an in house team develop software applications and information gathering procedures to streamline this data and use it effectively. While smaller companies will often outsource this technology and/or manpower due to high costs.

Nowadays you will find many such business intelligence management companies and software applications on the web. These types of companies are becoming more and more popular in this increasingly competitive business environment. Obviously, every business owner wants to succeed and prosper. To stay competitive, companies must meet or exceed the expectations of their consumers, reacting quickly to trends, current events and fashions, while outperforming their competitors. To accomplish this, business intelligence is a required tool enabling companies not just to survive, but to excel in a fiercely competitive atmosphere. Having accurate and up to date information, collated and presented in a useful manner, allows commercial decisions to be made in a timely fashion.

For Small and Medium Businesses, Oracle Accelerate seems to be the software of choice. However there are other applications, such as Cognos for business intelligence and performance management software, SAS Enterprise BI Server, the BI platform MicroStrategy 8business and IBM's Data Warehousing and Business intelligence suite. For now oracle is leading the field but the competition starting to encroach on its market share.

Oracle offers scalable solutions to quickly integrate with existing hardware and applications, a built-in industry specific function, and best-in-class business flows allow quick business-process changes for commercial needs. Offering proven experience, Oracle business solutions are built on open standards with third party solutions and add-on applications, and a formidable partner network that is 19,000 strong and uses industry specific functions.

Many small or medium businesses feel they will remain competitive with business intelligence management from Oracle. Being able to meet the needs of customers and partners and control costs at the same time. Historically Oracle has provided technologically sound and affordable solutions that are easy to install and maintain, and still provide power, security and function.

Oracle offers bundled solutions, including middleware, analytics, database, applications and unstructured content management. You decide what you need, when you need it. You can upgrade on your terms and receive lifetime support and get more capability to grow your business. Oracle can automate your business with integrated applications and technology, fast implementation tools and a large partner system. The Oracle Database 10g Standard Edition One delivers, faster response time, better data protection, non-stop availability with a database suitable for all data, all applications and all platforms.

Oracle Application Server 10g Standard Edition One is able to, create a foundation for share and growth information with customers, partners and employees to improve job efficiency and making decisions. Oracle On Demand, is a world-class computer system and services to enable you to run your business in a smoother fashion.

It is important to note however that, although Oracle has a good track record in the industry over many years, this alone is not enough. The IT industry is renowned for the speed of development with new products, applications and companies seemingly springing up overnigh. Oracle is but one of several business intelligence management programs available to you if you have a small or medium business, and there are plenty of other programs out there for any size of business.