If someone puts you on the spot, could you tell him/her what the difference between business intelligence and analytics is? If you feel a bit uncertain about the specifics here, you’re not alone, experts aren’t in agreement either! There is not a clear line between business intelligence and analytics, but they are extremely connected and interlaced in their approach towards resolving business issues and providing insights on past and present data, and defining future decisions. While some experts try to underline that business analytics focuses, also, on predictive modeling and advanced statistics to evaluate what will happen in the future, BI is more focused on the present moment of data, making the decision (and future of a company) based on current insights. But let’s see in more detail what experts say and how can we connect and differentiate the both.
We already saw earlier this year the benefits of Business Intelligence and Business Analytics. Let’s dig deeper now and figure out what this is all about, what makes them different, and how they are complementary to each other.
In an article tackling BI and Business Analytics, Better Buys asked seven different BI pros what their thoughts were on the difference between business intelligence and analytics. Each and every professional had a different take. Here are a few snippets of their opinions:
“BI is needed to run the business while Business Analytics are needed to change the business.” – Pat Roche, Vice President of Engineering at Magnitude Software
“BI is looking in the rearview mirror and using historical data. Business Analytics is looking in front of you to see what is going to happen.” – Mark van Rijmenam, CEO / Founder at BigData-Startups
“What’s the difference between Business Analytics and Business Intelligence? The correct answer is: everybody has an opinion, but nobody knows, and you shouldn’t care.” – Timo Elliot, Innovation Evangelist at SAP
Well, what if you do care about the difference between business intelligence and data analytics? It doesn’t matter if you run a small business operation or enterprise, if you have to make decisions that will affect you in the short or long run, it is wise to use both. Business intelligence and analytics will provide a company with a holistic view of the raw data and make decisions more successful and cost-efficient.
Business intelligence and analytics are data management solutions implemented in companies and enterprises to collect historical and present data, while using statistics and software to analyze raw information, and deliver insights for making better future decisions.
Let’s face it: both terms provide insights into the business operation and future decisions, but it comes down to the differences into how they do it and what information exactly do they provide.
It seems clear that there isn’t one standard “correct” definition of the differences between the two terms. The varying opinions given by the experts is evidence of that. So, instead of trying to find the “right” answer, let’s find a useful distinction between the two that can be used simply and clearly to help you in your work. The most straightforward and useful difference between business intelligence and data analytics boils down to two factors:
What direction in time are we facing; the past or the future?
Are we concerned with what happened, how it happened, or why it happened?
Keeping in mind that this is all a matter of opinion, here are our simplified definitions of business intelligence vs business analytics.
Business intelligence – Deals with what happened in the past and how it happened leading up to the present moment. It identifies big trends and patterns without digging too much into the why’s or predicting the future.
Business analytics – Deals with the why’s of what happened in the past. It breaks down contributing factors and causality. It also uses these why’s to make predictions of what will happen in the future.
Confused yet? Let’s use an example from football as a metaphor to help clarify things.