“Where is the information?
Lost in data.
Where is the data?
Lost in the #@%!& database!“

Joe Celko

The quote, coming from a well known pioneer in relational databases theory, highlights the frustration of most managers. They seek answers for their questions but they cannot filter the useful information from the heaps of data they have. Is like the proverbial look for a needle in a bundle.

Most organizations are not short of data. On the contrary. They have dozens of applications, files, databases which contains the most thorough details of their daily activity. But all this data must be consolidated, compared, analyzed, filtered in order to emphasize what is really important for the business. This data ought to be search through to reveal trends, opportunities, strategic courses. In other words to look for the needle in the bundle. This is the role of Business Intelligence.