Technical Data Analysis – This is most commonly known as the process of looking at technical data and summing up the data with the purpose to extract any available useful technical information and then use that information to draw conclusions. This data analysis process in closely related to the data mining applications we discussing in previous articles, with the exception that data mining tends to focus on larger data sets, and placing less importance on any type of reasoning process, and it often uses data that was originally compiled for a different reason all together.

Technical data analysis is often split into Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) and Confirmatory Data Analysis (CDA). Exploratory Data Analysis focuses mainly on discovering new data, where as Confirmatory Data Analysis is centered around confirming or falsifying existing hypotheses.

Technical data analysis uses Information Technology in a similar way to statistics tools. It takes the information gathers by Information Technology and processes in, categorizes it, and allocates it into valid departments. It is not hard to see how Information Technology is tightly intertwined with Business Intelligence.

Finally we will quickly delve into Business Process Management applications. These applications are a vital tool for the management and monitoring of the processes used within organizations.

Business Process Management (BPM) – This is the growing fields of knowledge and research at the junction between management and Information Technology, surrounding methods, techniques and tools to create, portray, manipulate, and analyze operational business processes usually concerning people, organizations, applications, documents, and all other known sources of business information.

Business Process Management involves activities performed by organizations to manage and if needed to improve their personal business processes. Though this type of goal has been long lived, new software tools knowing as Business Performance Management systems have allowed such activities to be completed in less time and with less cost to the organization. These Business Performance Management tools monitor the execution of the organization’s business processes so that managers and executives and analyze and if needed change processes in response to data rather then instinct.

Business Process Management is a management tool that enables the users to manage their processes as if they were any other assets and improve them over time. Good Business Process Management applications allow organizations to monitor and make changes on a day to day basis, this directly results in a well planned and functioning organization.

This application is perhaps one of the most closely related to Information Technology, it is easy to explain how Information Technology works with Business Process Management and why they work so well together. It shows how Information Technology is deeply rooted in most applications, especially those that are designed to deliver data to Business Intelligence application users.

Conclusion

After looking briefly into the relationship between Business Intelligence and Information Technology it is no surprise to find that the two are very much alike. Each one supports the other in order to complete tasks. It seems to be our nature to overlook the details involved with how the technology we use each day actually function, and the relationships between those technologies. Information Technology has existed for far longer then most may think, it was not until Business Intelligence software debuted that Information Technology actually realized its potential. If you take a moment to consider your own computer applications, the ones you use each day, and remember the definition of Information Technology, you may be surprised to find that you are putting Information Technology to work for you right now.

First Page: Business Intelligence in Information Technology