To provide users with access to corporate data, many organizations are implementing data warehouses and data marts.

Users analyze the data in warehouses and marts using a wide variety of BI tools. Many vendors offer integrated packages of these tools under the overall label of business intelligence (BI) software.

Major BI software vendors include SAS (www.sas.com), Hyperion (www.hyperion.com, now owned by Oracle), Business Objects (www.businessobjects.com, now owned by SAP), Information Builders (www.informationbuilders.com), SPSS (www.spss.com, now owned by IBM), and Cognos (www.ibm.com/cognos).

BI is vital to modern decision making and organizational performance.

BI encompasses not only applications, but also technologies and processes. It includes both “getting data in” (to a data mart or warehouse) and “getting data out” (through BI applications).

In addition, a significant change is taking place within the BI environment. In the past, organizations used BI only to support management.

Today, however, BI applications are increasingly available to front-line personnel (e.g., call center operators), suppliers, customers, and even regulators. These groups rely on BI to provide them with the most current information.