Learn the history of business intelligence in this three part series. In part one, we discuss how business intelligence software used to be (the past).

1. The past
of business
intelligence.
What it is today is not what it has
always been.

2. The
past.
CHAPTER 1

3. BI as it was.
The ability to collect, process and
act upon the information gathered
was from the earliest days and
still is the BI soul.
THE PAST

4. 1800s.
THE GENESIS

5. 1800s.
Using data to make data-driven
decisions can be traced back
to the 1800s
Florence Nightingale, an English social
reformer and statistician, pioneered
the use of applied statistics and
created visual ways of displaying data. Image source: Wikipedia
THE PAST

6. 1960-70s.
EARLY TIMES

7. 1960-
1970s.
THE PAST
Fast-forward to the 1960s
and the first computer
applications were
developed for transaction
processing.
Although the reports of
processed data assisted decision
makers, the information they
offered was hardly conclusive.

8. THE PAST
Due to the demand from corporates and early work by the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard,
data-driven intelligence platforms began to evolve.
University of Georgia’s Ph.D., Hugh Watson asserts
that it was the work of Michael Scott Morton
(MIT) in 1967 that led to the development of
management decision systems to assist managers
in making fact based decisions.
These systems were developed across the
1960s and 1970s primarily by academics with
management backgrounds.
Image source: MIT website
1960-1970s.

9. 1980-90s.
A LONG PROCESS

10. 1980-
1990s.
THE PAST
By then, if a decision
maker wanted a business
intelligence tool, they
would often go to an
enterprise BI vendor.
A complicated project plan would
often need to be created which
may involve speaking with internal
departments and deciding on what
their needs are.

11. THE PAST
In addition, the Information
Technology (IT) team
would need to be trained
on how to use the business
intelligence tool and
expensive consultants
would often need to be
hired.
It would often be 6-12 months
before a BI solution would finally be
introduced into an organization.
1980-1990s.

12. After the business intelligence solution was introduced,
there were many difficulties.
Forexample,oncetheITteamorProjectManagerputtheBItoolinthehandsofbusiness
users, most couldn’t use it. Very few could create their own reports and they had to go to
the IT team who were highly trained and ask them the questions they need answers to. It
was not unusual for it to take 5-7 days before the IT team produced the report.
By that time, the user has often forgotten the question they asked in the first place.
THE PAST
1980-1990s.
PROJECT
MANAGER
BUSINESS
USER
IT GUY REPORT
5-7 DAYS

13. The new
term.
THE PAST
“A broad category of applications,
technologies, and processes for
gathering, storing, accessing, and
analyzing data to help business
users make better decisions.”
The term ‘business intelligence’ or ‘BI’ was devised
by industry analyst Howard Dresner in 1989.
Business intelligence can be defined as:

14. It has all
changed.
THE PRESENT
Get a grip on your data.
With immediate access to the
exact data you need, you make
the best strategic, tactical, and
operational decisions.
Phocas allows you to drill deep from
high level dashboards right down
into the underlying transactions.
It’s not just turning data into pretty
pictures, it’s about seeing the data
that makes your business tick.
Stay tuned and don’t miss
the next part of this
series to learn more about
the present and future of BI

15. Learn more.
THE PRESENT
Don’t miss the next part of this series to learn more about
the present of business intelligence
Follow the Phocas blog for
the next SlideShare update or
click on the image on the right
to read the next part:

16. Visit our website:
www.phocassoftware.com
or contact us directly:
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North America: +1 877 387 4004
Email: marketing@phocassoftware.com
Get in touch.
CONTACT
If you do not want to wait to find out more.