by Terri Rylander on March 31 2009, 12:20

It really doesn’t matter what you call it – business intelligence, business analytics, decision support, or something else. What matters is that it provides business value. Accurate and appropriate information needs to make it into the process decision points, whether that’s a human or technology. I agree in general with your basic steps above but might add that you need to know what happens next in the process and how that information might be used further down the stream – so maybe it’s step 3.5. Really, the most important thing is keeping your eye on the end goal and purpose for using information, and making sure that gets met. Great post Michelle – thanks for moving the spotlight off the naming argument and onto the real objective!