Business Intelligence in the Information System Curriculum

The focus of Business Intelligence is the strategic application of information to provide value to an organization. But every information system should provide value to an organization! The typical information system focuses on day-to-day operational systems. With Moore’s law of expanding CPU capacity there is a parallel explosion of data generated by operational information systems. Business Intelligence is unique from traditional operational systems in that it takes a strategic view of the massive amount of operational data, and transforms this data into information that is used as a strategic resource by the organization. Business Intelligence is based on the data warehouse technology which strives for a single, integrated version of the historical data in an organization. The data warehouse is necessary, but not sufficient, for the successful delivery of information to all potential end users. Business intelligence emphasizes the need to create an information system in the context of the organization. Thus Business Intelligence should be incorporated into courses which emphasis information systems theory, business design, and database technology.