Business Intelligence (BI) is a set of methodologies and resources (theoretical concepts, algorithms, software, tools, technologies) used in business environments and whose fundamental objective is to transform information into knowledge. The purpose of Business Intelligence is to support better business decision making to improve the productivity and performance of any business organization.

BI relies heavily on a core set of analytics tools: Balanced Scorecards, Dashboards, and Key Performance Indicators.

The Balanced Scorecard (BS) is a management tool that allows the integration of short-term operational control with the long-term vision and strategy of the company under study. To this purpose, the BS formulates, implements, controls, and manages the organization’s strategy, efficiently linking strategic planning, operational management, and evaluation of group and individual performances.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the most important metrics that any organization needs to measure, monitor, and perform against in order to reach its strategic plan.

A Business Intelligence Dashboard is a tech-driven approach that uses data visualization tools to display KPIs in order to track the main factors that contribute to the operation and success of the business. It is a graphic representation of the main metrics involved in the pursuit of the objectives set by the company.

Business owners and corporate executives always want simple solutions. In that sense, data analysts must make dashboards easy to look at, navigate and understand. Two traditional graphics used to display KPIs on dashboards are Gauge Charts and Bullet Charts.

Let’s analyze them separately.

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