Business Intelligence Competency Center

Business Intelligence at Stanford

Business Intelligence (BI) was defined in 1992 by Howard Dresner of the Gartner Group as “a set of concepts and methodologies to improve decision making in business through use of facts and fact-based systems.” As BI has become a mainstream term, it has acquired new, more extensive, definitions, but the main goal is still to inform decision-making. BI is not just technology; it is the culture, organization, and concepts required to create and maintain the information necessary for good management and decision-making.

Historically, Stanford has not had an ongoing and comprehensive Business Intelligence program. As a result, Stanford has had to struggle with a lack of executive-level reporting, a proliferation of separate shadow systems and reporting tools, and no data quality plan. In 2009, a Business Intelligence Competency Center structure and program was proposed to the Systems Governance Group, which approved its implementation. The first meeting and initial training of the BICC Steering Committee was in January 2010. The Steering Committee approved the BI program mission and BICC Steering Committee charter in March 2010.

Stanford's BI dashboards

Stanford's Business Intelligence dashboards are available at http://bi.stanford.edu.