Business intelligence is the collection of strategies and tools used to analyze business information. Business intelligence projects are significantly more effective when they combine external data sources with internal data sources for actionable insight.
Business analytics, also known as advanced analytics, is a term often used interchangeably with business intelligence. However, business analytics is a subset of business intelligence since business intelligence deals with strategies and tools while business analytics focuses more on methods. Business intelligence is descriptive while business analytics is more prescriptive, addressing a problem or business question.
Competitive intelligence is a subset of business intelligence. Competitive intelligence is the collection of data, tools, and processes for collecting, accessing, and analyzing business data on competitors. Competitive intelligence is often used to monitor differences in products.
