1) History of Business Intelligence (BI)

According to Hannula et al, it is the Systematic business information acquisition and

analysis. In addition, it is also called Competitive Intelligence, Corporate Intelligence, Market
Intelligence, Market Research, Data Warehousing, and Knowledge Management. As you can tell
it is a very broad subject with many definitions. BI has been around for a long time. As
illustrated in the class presentation, BI is nothing more than the gathering of information to give
your business an advantage over your competitors, whether it concerns rugs and carpets or the
building of combat aircraft. The purpose of this paper is to explore every facet of Business
Intelligence, including internal and external BI and the tangible/intangible aspects leading to a
competitive advantage. Internal BI refers to the protection and utilization of internal data and
external BI refers to the gathering of data and information about the competition. Business
Intelligence Model. 3 Internal Business Intelligence and Espionage To paraphrase an
interpretation of Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”; it will not do for a corporation to act without
knowing the competition’s strategy, and to know the competition’s strategy is impossible
without espionage. Sun Tzu created his strategy and philosophy over 2000 years ago and the
Japanese still apply it today for business and politics. It is very important to understand the
classifications of espionage and how a business can protect its physical and intellectual assets
from competitors. According to CIA there are three types of Espionage when dealing with trade
secrets, businesses intelligence and competitive advantage:

• Industrial Espionage – Foreign government vs. Domestic Business.

• Business Espionage – Foreign or Domestic Business vs. Domestic Business.

• Corporate Espionage – Legal and ethical intelligence gathering by Domestic

Businesses, for a competitive advantage. The FBI, on the other hand defines the theft of trade
secrets using the definitions in the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 - Economic Espionage
includes both:

• Industrial Espionage: ƒ Section 1831 - the theft of trade secrets by a foreign

instrumentality ¾ any agency, bureau, ministry, component, institution, association, or any legal,
commercial, or business organization, corporation, firm, or entity that is substantially owned,
controlled, sponsored, commanded, managed, or dominated by a foreign government; ƒ and/or a
foreign agent ¾ any officer, employee, proxy, servant, delegate, or representative of a foreign
government.

• Business Espionage– the theft of domestic trade secrets by a foreign or domestic

business.
2) Data Warehousing

Data warehousing is the electronic storage of a large amount of information by a business. Data
warehousing is a vital component of business intelligence that employs analytical techniques on
business data.

The concept of data warehousing was introduced in 1988 by IBM researchers Barry Devlin and
Paul Murphy. The need to warehouse data evolved as computer systems became more complex
and handled increasing amounts of data.

What is 'Data Warehousing'

Data warehousing is the electronic storage of a large amount of information by a business. Data
warehousing is a vital component of business intelligence that employs analytical techniques on
business data.

The concept of data warehousing was introduced in 1988 by IBM researchers Barry Devlin and
Paul Murphy. The need to warehouse data evolved as computer systems became more complex
and handled increasing amounts of data.

BREAKING DOWN 'Data Warehousing'

Data warehousing is used to provide greater insight into the performance of a company by
comparing data consolidated from multiple heterogeneous sources. A data warehouse is designed
to run query and analysis on historical data derived from transactional sources. Once the data has
been incorporated into the warehouse, it does not change and cannot be altered since a data
warehouse runs analytics on events that have already occurred by focusing on the changes in
data over time. Warehoused data must be stored in a manner that is secure, reliable, easy to
retrieve and easy to manage.

A data warehouse is not necessarily the same concept as a standard database. A database is a
transactional system that is set to monitor and update real time data so as to only have the most
recent data available. A data warehouse is programmed to aggregate structured data over a
period of time. For example, a database might only have the most recent address of a customer,
while a data warehouse might have all the addresses that the customer has lived in for the past 10
years.
There are certain steps that are taken to create a data warehouse. The first step is data extraction,
which involves gathering large amounts of data from multiple source points. After the data has
been compiled, it goes through data cleaning, the process of combing through the data for errors
and correcting or excluding any errors found. The cleaned-up data is then converted from a
database format to a warehouse format. Once it’s stored in the warehouse, the data goes through
sorting, consolidating, summarizing, etc. so that it’s more coordinated and easier to use. Over
time, more data is added to the warehouse as the multiple data sources are updated.

Businesses might warehouse data for use in exploration and data mining, looking for patterns of
information that will help them improve their business processes. A good data warehousing
system can also make it easier for different departments within a company to access each other's
data. For example, a data warehouse might allow a company to easily assess the sales team's data
and help to make decisions about how to improve sales or streamline the department. The
business might choose to focus on its customers’ spending habits to better position its products
and increase sales. With data warehousing, the company can gather historical data of its
customers’ spending over the past, say 20 years, and run analytics on this data. The resulting
information could provide insight into the preferences of its consumers; the time of day, month,
or year with greater sales; highest spending customer for the year; etc. Effective data storage and
management are also what makes processes, such as initiating travel reservations and using
automated teller machines possible.

3) BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT

Businesses, in order to achieve its goals and objectives, design, implement and use business
processes which they, in turn, manage for optimization and standardization purposes, using what
is known as Business Process Management.

Business Process Management (BPM) is a management discipline describing the systematic

approach to “identify, execute, document, measure, monitor and control both automated and
non-automated business processes to achieve consistent, targeted results aligned with an
organization’s strategic goals.” To put it simply, it is the systematic approach to improving the
business processes of an organization, making the workflow more efficient and effective, and
improve its overall ability to adapt to an ever-changing business environment.

Management of business processes through BPM involves modeling, analysis, design and
measurement of these processes. It sounds like a lot of work, which is why BPM is designed to
 be technology-enabled. This means that it makes use of various technological tools in carrying
out its roles.

Aside from the obvious, which is the improvement of business processes to achieve its goals and
objectives, why is it so important for businesses to have a BPM system in place?

 BPM facilitates the improvement and management of processes that drive optimized business
results, leading to lower costs, higher revenues and high customer satisfaction, to name a few.

 BPM enables businesses to align its processes with the needs of their customers.

 BPM aids decision-making on matters such as deployment, measurement and monitoring of the
resources of the organization.

 BPM contributes to the maintenance of a sound financial management system of the

4) GIS vs GPS

GPS is an acronym for Global Positioning System. This is one of the many ways that are used to
pinpoint an exact location on the earth’s surface. This is made possible by a vast network of
satellites that are located inspace and which relay information on the ground regarding specific
coordinates on the earth’s surface. The satellites operate in such a way that they relay radio
signals from space to GPS receivers on the ground using a process referred to as trilateration.
Specific locations on earth can also be located using a vast network of several satellites and
receivers combined.
The GPS technology was developed for use by the US military in the 1960s but it has turned out
to be a revolutionary invention that defines the way people live on a daily basis. Today, GPS
technology is used in almost every facet of daily lives. It has been used in the aviation industry
(airplane, drones), tourism, and even mapping. One of the most common applications of GPS is
in mapping and surveying.

GIS on the other hand is an acronym for Geographical Information System and is most
commonly mistaken to mean the same thing as GPS. GIS is a computer program that is designed
to capture, analyze, interpret and store data that has been transmitted from navigation systems
such as GPS and make the information available for use. The first rudimentary GIS system was
designed in 1960 to be used in Canada and a desktop version of it was created in 1986 to be used
by computer end users. GIS can be used to create or generate a map that can then be interpreted
to show patterns such as the movement of people from one place to another, the spread of a
particular disease and so on. In other words, GIS makes the information from GPS more sensible
such that without GIS, GPS would not be manipulated and utilized to its maximum.

5) RFID

RFID stands for Radio-Frequency IDentification. The acronym refers to small electronic devices
that consist of a small chip and an antenna. The chip typically is capable of carrying 2,000 bytes
of data or less.

The RFID device serves the same purpose as a bar code or a magnetic strip on the back of a
credit card or ATM card; it provides a unique identifier for that object. And, just as a bar code or
magnetic strip must be scanned to get the information, the RFID device must be scanned to
retrieve the identifying information.

RFID Works Better Than Barcodes

A significant advantage of RFID devices over the others mentioned above is that the RFID
device does not need to be positioned precisely relative to the scanner. We're all familiar with the
difficulty that store checkout clerks sometimes have in making sure that a barcode can be read.
And obviously, credit cards and ATM cards must be swiped through a special reader.

In contrast, RFID devices will work within a few feet (up to 20 feet for high-frequency devices)
of the scanner. For example, you could just put all of your groceries or purchases in a bag, and
set the bag on the scanner. It would be able to query all of the RFID devices and total your
purchase immediately. (Read a more detailed article on RFID compared to barcodes.)

RFID technology has been available for more than fifty years. It has only been recently that the
ability to manufacture the RFID devices has fallen to the point where they can be used as a
"throwaway" inventory or control device. Alien Technologies recently sold 500 million RFID
tags to Gillette at a cost of about ten cents per tag.