Business Intelligence Tools to Improve Business Strategy

In the past, decision-support systems were non-integrated systems in an organization and, therefore, had a weak relationship with other information systems. Today, business information systems are the foundation of an organization, and practitioners design and implement business intelligence tools integrated into existing information systems, creating a comprehensive decision-support environment for management. Thus, innovating, increasing efficiency, and maintaining competitiveness for businesses are essential. Several business intelligence tools are on the market, ranging from standard MS Excel spreadsheets to OLAP tools and data mining software. With the advent of big data and the fact that data seamlessly gain dimension, a specialized approach to big data analytics has emerged, which is more data-driven and deals with large volumes, a variety of feeds and a higher rate of data feed. This article presents the leading business intelligence tools that combine operational data with analytical tools to extract and present complex, competitive, and valuable information for decision-making. The methodology used to achieve this objective was a critical review of the available tools and technologies: a literature review and content analysis of websites. As a result, the most prominent BI tools and their main functionalities were identified and posted in a summary table, and some conclusions were pointed out.