Business intelligence and performance management: Introduction

Abstract

Globalisation, volatile markets, legal changes and technical progress have an immense impact on business environments in most industries. More and more IT is deployed to manage the complexity. As a result, companies and organisations have to handle growing volumes of data which have become a valuable asset. The ability to benefit from this asset is increasingly essential for business success. Therefore, fast storage, reliable data access, intelligent information retrieval, and new decision-making mechanisms are required. Business Intelligence (BI) and Performance Management (PM) offer solutions to these challenges. Before important aspects of both topics are analysed from different points of view, this chapter gives an introduction to concepts and terms of BI and PM.