Keeping outgoings to a minimum is clearly a primary concern for so many reasons in the business world – and the use of business intelligence software is rapidly becoming one of the most efficient means of achieving this. This is very interesting because only a few years ago the industry was unable to deliver what businesses were asking for, but with the business acquisitions of the tools, and bigger companies getting involved, there’s much more capability in the technology space.

Application virtualization is one type of business intelligence software which has really started to take off in workplaces throughout the UK – and when it is seen in action, it really isn’t difficult to see why software applications such as this are so highly regarded in terms of their potential to cut costs in the long term.

Implementing an effective business intelligence solution can be difficult because it’s often cross functional, the quality of the data is sometimes unknown and it’s not always all going to be under your control, or it may simply be a case of the KPI’s not being fully understood or clearly enough aligned to the data being used.

To overcome the limitations of these systems, business intelligence relies on a set of tools that facilitate the processes of extraction, purification, analysis and storage of data, with appropriate speed in order to support the decision making process of the business.

Sporadic use of the term business intelligence dates back to at least the 1860s, but consultant Howard Dresner is credited with first proposing it in 1989 as an umbrella phrase for applying data analysis techniques to support business decision-making processes.