Article Review

1. What is the main point the author is trying to get across?

After reading I believe that Joch is trying to explain the changing need of BI, benefits of utilizing BI and the competitive advantage that it can provide to those who use it effectively as well as how BI can be a strategic tool.

2. Indicate 3 pertinent points that enforce the author's point of view. Fully define these

points.

Joch speaks about how BI at one time was just thought of as a strategic aid in business, but now its being used more and more as a tool that is now being used to make day-to-day decisions in the workplace. Joch quotes Oracle’s Claire Dessaux, “We’re seeing companies build BI systems that perform analytics used to make daily decisions.” Dessaux then goes on to state, “This represents a significant shift in how think about BI, because instead of just accessing a BI system occasionally to run a sales report, your users access the system daily to optimize day-to-day business operations. And in a difficult economic climate, organizations need to analyze customers’ behavior and internal processes very carefully, and they rely on BI systems for this real-time, fact-based decision making.”

Joch shows us many different points on how BI is beneficial in business. One way that Joch brings this across is his writing on Four Star Distribution, who is a San Clemente California based distributor and designer of snow and skateboarding apparel and accessories. Joch goes on to explain that Four Star to stay competitive needs access to the most recent BI. Torres, Four Star’s vice president of sales states “Four Star needs the most accurate information about buying habits and trends across the globe regarding what’s hot. If the company misses getting its products by a week, it could miss the season completely.”

Joch also discusses the benefits of integrating BI and putting into one common platform. Joch states, “Unifying all of that functionality within a...