This introduction to the MIS Quarterly Special Issue on Business Intelligence Research first provides a framework that identifies the evolution, applications, and emerging research areas of BI&A (Business intelligence & analytics).

An interesting statistic from a survey of the state of business analytics by Bloomberg Businessweek (2011), showed that 97 percent of companies with revenues exceeding $100 million were found to use some form of business analytics.

The article highlights the need for data and data analytics due to the low cost in acquiring the data as well as the ease of obtaining mass amounts of data.

Having just been introduced to the tool google analytics today, the article certainly helps explain the need for the tool from a marketing perspective. By analysing customer clickstream data logs (what types of sites internet users are using), web analytics tools such as Google Analytics can provide a trail of the user’s online activities and reveal the user’s browsing and purchasing patterns. This vital information can be seen as essential for organisations as this can help narrow down and establish a specific target audience.

The article goes on to express the need for continuous advancements in key technologies relating to analytics.

As consumers we are sometimes unaware of the marketing activities that are behind the reasons why we buy things, this article certainly provided information on the ways that companies find and analyse data connected to us –  Interesting read

Chen, H., Chiang, R. H., & Storey, V. C. (2012). Business Intelligence and Analytics: From Big Data to Big Impact. MIS Quarterly, 36(4), 1165-1188.