Business Intelligence: Making Better Decisions Faster

“This readable, practical book helps business people quickly understand what business intelligence is, how it works, where it's used, and why and when to use it—all illustrated by real case studies, not just theory.” Nigel Pendse Author of The OLAP Report www.olapreport.com

So much information, so little time. All too often, business data is hard to get at and use—thus slowing decision-making to a crawl. This insightful book illustrates how organizations can make better, faster decisions about their customers, partners, and operations by turning mountains of data into valuable business information that’s always at the fingertips of decision makers. You’ll learn what’s involved in using business intelligence to bring together information, people, and technology to create successful business strategies—and how to execute those strategies with confidence. Topics covered include:

• THE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE MINDSET: Discover the basics behind business intelligence, such as how it’s defined, why and how to use it in your organization, and what characteristics, components, and general architecture most business intelligence solutions share.
• THE CASE FOR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: Read how world leaders in finance, manufacturing, and retail have successfully implemented business intelligence solutions and see what benefits they have reaped.
• THE PRACTICE OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: Find out what’s involved in implementing a business intelligence solution in your organization, including how to identify your business intelligence opportunities, what decisions you must make to get a business intelligence project going, and what to do to sustain the momentum so that you can continue to make sense of all the data you gather.

Elizabeth Vitt, a manager at Aspirity, has six years of business development, project management, consulting, and training experience in business intelligence. Her industry experience includes implementations in retail, manufacturing, and healthcare. She has specialized expertise as an educator in data-warehousing design and implementation and is an author of the Microsoft® Official Curricula (MOC) for Microsoft's business intelligence product offerings. Elizabeth is also a frequent speaker at SQL Server™ conferences worldwide. She earned a B.S. in environmental engineering from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

Michael Luckevich, the CEO of Aspirity, has 18 years of information technology and business intelligence experience. He has extensive experience in the architecture, design, development, and implementation of complex business intelligence solutions. He frequently teaches classes and offers seminars on various topics relating to business intelligence, data warehousing, and OLAP technologies. Michael is a graduate of the University of Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics.

Stacia Misner, MCITP, MCTS, is a consultant and trainer specializing in Microsoft business intelligence solutions. She has more than 20 years of IT experience and has written several books on SQL Server®, including Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Step by Step. She is also the coauthor of Microsoft® SQL Server 2005 Administrator's Companion.