ABSTRACT
Business intelligence (BI) is simply accessing and analysing information. There are three key stages to BI implementation. First, it is Information Technology (IT)-led, whereby data is extracted, integrated, standardised and organised into data warehouses before applying IT technologies to query and summarise the data. Second, there is the ‘here and now’ approach, using BI to inform the business of performance using real-time reporting and alerts. Third, the BI ‘prediction’ approach supports business modelling and forecasting that can inform recommendations to optimise outcomes. The challenge for BI is that, while data can be endlessly sliced and diced and drilled into, the business problems keep shapeshifting. The architecture of a data trust should be such that it is designed with clear, unambiguous categories and can be maintained at a reasonable cost with free access wherever possible. Data trusts have been developed in other industries, notably in health care, as a single location for capturing, accessing and sharing data by stakeholders.
