IT-driven organizations typically capture and store vast amounts of data each day. While these organizations are proficient at capturing a high volume of detailed data, they are far less adept at organizing and delivering this data to decision makers in ways that help them make informed decisions. Business intelligence (BI) is the discipline of doing just that - building and deploying "decision support" systems.

Effective BI gives managers insights into the inner workings of their organizations. These insights come to light when managers are able to use data analysis tools to answer questions about financial and operational performance, from a variety of different perspectives.

Data Warehousing
BI solutions may rely on a data warehouse. A data warehouse stores a copy of transaction data structured specifically for query, reporting and analysis. While BI solutions often utilize a data warehouse, this is not always the case. In some companies, data querying and reporting is done directly against the "live" data. In other instances, companies query against a combination of both "live" data and records contained in a data warehouse.

Multi-dimensional Databases and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)
A multi-dimensional database is a type of database that is optimized for online analytical processing (OLAP) applications. A multi-dimensional database rapidly processes many kinds of queries. It uses the idea of a data cube to represent the dimensions of data available to a user. For example, 'sales' or 'profit' could be viewed in the dimensions of product, geography or time period.

The Microsoft BI & Data Warehousing Tool Set
Microsoft's SQL Server database includes a full-range of tools to support business intelligence and data warehouse solutions. All of these services are built into SQL Server and the Office suite.