# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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Activity-based costing
A practice which identifies activities and then calculates all related costs of performing them - providing actual costs chargeable. It accurately identifies sources of profit and loss, and improves company-wide decision-making. Learn more about activity-based costing
Analytic applications
Software solutions designed to address a specific data analysis need, for example financial analysis or customer intelligence. These applications are presented as 'turnkey' solutions, ready to be deployed to address a business department's specific data analysis needs. Learn more about analytic applications
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Balanced scorecard
Companies use the balanced scorecard method, a management process introduced by Robert Kaplan and David Norton, to measure and refine current performance as well as to formulate future strategy. The method consists of measuring business performance in four categories to align individual, organizational, and cross-departmental initiatives. The four categories of indicators measured are: financial performance, customer knowledge, internal business processes, and learning and growth.
Business intelligence
The use of an organization's disparate data to provide meaningful information and analysis to employees, customers, suppliers, and partners for more effective decision making.
Business performance management (BPM)
Business performance management (BPM) is a set of processes that help organizations optimize business performance. BPM is focused on business processes such as planning and forecasting. It helps businesses discover efficient use of their business units, financial, human, and material resources.
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Customer relationship management (CRM)
Term used to describe both a business process and an associated software application family.
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Dashboard
A user interface that organizes and presents information in an easy-to-read format and help organizations align people's actions with strategy by tracking and analyzing key business metrics and goals. Dashboards and scoreboards enable proactive management via "what-if" analysis, customer segmentation, forecasting, and analyzing business processes. The term "dashboard" refers to the visual similarities to a car dashboard. Learn more about dashboards
Data cleansing
A process to prepare your data for analysis using a variety of techniques: parsing, standardizing, correcting, and consolidating in order to get your data as accurate as possible. Learn more about data cleansing software
Data mart
A form of data storage geared at business intelligence or decision support.
Data mining
A component of business intelligence. Data mining relates to discovering previously unknown patterns within a data set, typically by testing the validity of different ways of describing the data.
Data visualization
Maintains live data connectivity, provides visuals and interactivity.
Data warehouse
A form of data storage geared at business intelligence or decision support. A data warehouse integrates operational data from various parts of the company.
Decision support system (DSS)
'Legacy' term used in the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s to describe a business intelligence system.
Drill down/up
A component of OLAP analysis. The term drill down, in the context of data analysis, refers to the process of navigating from less detailed aggregated information to viewing more granular data.
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Enterprise information management (EIM)
Products and services that deliver physical and virtual data integration, data quality, and metadata management capabilities that ensure BI information is timely, accurate, and trustworthy. Learn more about EIM
Enterprise performance management (EPM)
Applications and services that help users align with strategy by streamlining the planning process, setting targets, and tracking key business metrics via management dashboards, scorecards, analytics, and alerting. Learn more about EPM
Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
Enterprise resource planning system. Popular acronym for a broader category of enterprise software systems (a.k.a. enterprise business applications). An enterprise system enables a company to integrate data used throughout the organization in functions such as finance, operations and logistics, human resources, and sales and marketing.
Executive information systems (EIS)
A precursor to business intelligence systems. Before the democratization of information, customized views of business data was accessible only by a limited elite of senior executives via EIS systems. EIS systems were typically expensive to build and difficult to modify, hence slow to adapt to the rapidly changing needs of modern corporations.
Extract, transform and load (ETL)
Extraction, transformation, and loading (of data). Term used to describe the process of extracting data our of a production system, then transforming and cleansing it before loading it into a database dedicated to business intelligence. The term is also used to describe a software industry segment and set of software products designed to manage the data extraction, transformation, and loading process.
Extranet
Web-based applications to share information with a defined group of users, such as external customers, suppliers, or partners.
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Information discovery and delivery (IDD)
IDD help simplify the way that business decisions makers use information, allowing users to access, format, analyze, navigate, and share information across the organization. IDD comprises (enterprise) reporting, query and analysis, dashboards and scorecards, and the BI platform (including search capabilities).
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Knowledge base/Kbase (KB)
A database of customer questions and answers on how to use Business Objects products. It is maintained by Technical Support and available to customers over the web. Access the knowledge base
Key performance indicators (KPI)
Quantifiable performance measurements of performance of an activity that is critical to the success of an organization. KPIs differ depending on the objective of an organization.
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Management information systems (MIS)
A general term for the enterprise reporting system designed to give managers an overview of business operations.
Multidimensional analysis
Also known as dimensional analysis. The analysis of business indicators by examining them from different points of view. One can examine revenue by product, or revenue by geography, or revenue by time period. In this example, revenue is the business indicator under examination, while product, geography, and time period are the points of view or dimensions. See also OLAP.
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Online analytical processing (OLAP)
Online analytical processing. Popular term coined by E.F. Codd in 1993 to describe the multidimensional analysis of data. The term OLAP itself is somewhat confusing and was popularized simply to highlight the difference between databases designed for analysis (OLAP) and databases designed for updates and transaction processing (OLTP).
Original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
Originally a hardware industry term, but became a commonly used term in the software industry as the number of software bundles have increased. Crystal Reports is bundled with over 200 different applications, and the companies Business Objects bundles with are referred to as OEM partners. Learn more about OEM
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Portal
The entry point for users to access available information via the Web.
Predictive analysis
A powerful analytic engine that quickly uncovers key business drivers from data and forecasts future business conditions. It helps people make proactive decisions more easily by providing insights via easy-to-use dashboards across the organization. Learn more about predictive analysis
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Query and analysis
Tools that allow end users to interact with business information and answer ad hoc questions without advanced knowledge of the underlying data sources. These tools support query generation and basic report authoring, as well as integrated analysis. Learn more about query and analysis
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Reporting
Reporting (or enterprise reporting) tools facilitate accessing data, formatting it, and delivering it as information inside and outside the organization. Reporting serves as the foundation of a broader BI strategy by providing the most-requested pieces of information reliably and securely - via the Web or embedded in enterprise applications.
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Sarbanes-Oxley
The purpose of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act - signed into law on July 30 2002 - is to review legislative audit requirements and to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures. Sarbanes-Oxley covers issues such as establishing a public company accounting oversight board, auditor independence, corporate responsibility and enhanced financial disclosure. It also significantly tightens accountability standards for directors and officers, auditors, securities analysts and legal counsel. The law is named after Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael G. Oxley. Learn more about Sarbanes-Oxley solutions
Semantic layer
A software 'layer' which insulates business users from the technical intricacies of a database (e.g. esoteric table or column names, and relations between tables). With the semantic layer in place, available data is presented to users as familiar business terms. The semantic layer is technology patented by Business Objects and is essential to business intelligence.
Set-based analysis
A relatively recent data analysis method (in the context of the business intelligence software industry, that is) which incorporates the use of groups or sets. Set based analysis (based on the homonymous branch of mathematics) facilitates the examination and comparison of the properties of groups of data, for example the characteristics of groups (or segments) of customers, or lines of products.
Six Sigma
A quality improvement methodology aiming at the near elimination of defects from every manufacturing, service and transactional process. The Six Sigma level corresponds to 3.4 defects per million opportunities for each product or service. Learn more about Six Sigma solutions
Standardization
The consolidation of a company's disparate BI solutions which frees up money, resources, and systems previously dedicated to supporting the old solutions. Standardizing on an BI suite allows a company to optimize corporate performance and pursue corporate initiatives with maximum coordination and visibility.
Structured query language (SQL)
Industry standard database access protocol introduced by researchers at IBM in the 1970s in the context of relational database management systems.
Supply chain management
The combination of art and science that goes into improving the way your company finds the raw components it needs to make a product or service and deliver it to customers. Learn more about supply chain management solutions
