History of Business Intelligence

In the 1970s and 1980s analytical software packages started showing up in the market place. However, lack of computing power, poor user friendliness and cumbersome and manual integration with the transaction system providing the data kept business intelligence tools from widespread usage.

The release of spreadsheet software like Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel in the 1980s opened up for end users creating their own data models for business analysis. Spreadsheets are still widely used in this area today, and probably will be for many years to come.

For a period in the 1980s and early 1990s so called executive information systems (EIS) grew in popularity with the promise that they would put key information on the desktops of executive. The idea was that colorful software screens with big buttons and sometimes touch screen, so that the user did not ever have to use a mouse. Should put data directly in the hands of top management to reduce the need for secretaries and assistants to write and print reports for them.

However, one of the biggest problems with executive information system (EIS) systems was that it took a lot of manual work to convert and lead data from the data sources, as well as to maintain customized versions of the user screens.

Major effect in maintaining the EIS made implementations short-lived. In the 1990s and the new millennium, with the widespread usage of SQL (standard query language) databases; datawarehouse technologies; extraction, transformation, and loading tools; as well as new and powerful end-user analytical software, the stage is set for fast growth in usage of business intelligence tools in the next decade.

Furthermore, most of the business intelligence software vendors have released web-based versions of their solutions. Companies can easily and at a low cost give users access to large amount of corporate data and sophisticated analytical tools.

By providing access to the internet or an intranet connection, a person can investigate and analyze data from home, when traveling, or from any other location at which they may happen to be.
History of Business Intelligence