Business Intelligennce (BI) applications provide historical, current and predictive views of business operations, very often using data already gathered into databases (internal and external) and occasionally working from operational data. Application components and technology tools support the use of this information by assisting in the extraction, analysis and reporting of information.

BI applications gather sales, production, financial and many other sources of business data for purposes that include, Business Performance Management (BPM), Market Analytics, Benchmarks, Executive Information Systems and Decision Support Systems (DSS).