Business Intelligence and Business Analytics

Business intelligence refers to business tools and techniques that enable organisations to make better decisions.

The skills that an organisation’s managerial cadre possesses are quite different from those possessed by data engineers. Thus, it becomes extremely vital to represent data in a form that is not only visually appealing, but also easy to understand and de-hyphenate. 

This is where business intelligence proves useful. It helps us present data in the form of dashboards, which can then be used by departments across an organisation in various capacities.

Nevertheless, before delving deeper into business intelligence, you need to understand the difference between two terms: Business intelligence and business analytics.

While both the terms are used interchangeably, there is a clear distinction between them. This difference is essential to comprehend by anyone who wants to build a career in either business intelligence or business analytics.

Business intelligence focuses on the present, business analytics focuses on the future. Nevertheless, present and future scenarios are equally important for all businesses. Thus, both business intelligence and business analytics are important for any organisation.

	Business Intelligence	Business Analytics
Scope	Managing near-term goals using prior data	Managing future growth strategies using statistical and quantitative tools
Tools	Reports, spreadsheets, data mining software	Statistical and mathematical tools such as regression and text analysis
Usage	Helps business leaders stay on track with their goals	Helps business leaders determine future targets and areas of improvement
Examples	Defines the outlook of current customers. Determines the performance of a marketing campaign	Predicts customer preferences and opinions in the future. Predicts the future customer base

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