What is business intelligence?
Business intelligence (BI) turns a company's data into information that helps management make better decisions. Data alone is just numbers; the value lies in the question it answers.
Nakhla scenarioNakhla has implemented its ERP and now has thousands of invoices and transactions. The manager asks: “Which product earns us the most? Why did Jeddah sales dip in February? How much will we sell in Ramadan?” You're the analyst who answers.
Management's questions climb four levels; each step up adds value and difficulty:
To answer, data takes a journey: from the systems that create it, through cleaning and consolidation, to the reports management reads:
| ETL | Extract data from sources, transform it (clean and standardise), and load it into one place. |
| Data warehouse | A database designed for analysis and reporting, not daily operations. It brings ERP, CRM and e-commerce data together. |
| BI tools | Excel, Power BI, Tableau and Looker Studio: they turn numbers into tables, charts and dashboards. |
Watch outBI ties together everything you've learned: data comes from the ERP, lives in a database you designed with an ERD, and is queried with SQL. That's why data analyst is one of the most in-demand roles for MIS graduates.