Business intelligence software is a culmination of different methodologies, processes and systems which are designed basically to analyse the entire business data of an organization. This often plays a very significant role in strategic decision making in a company. BI software provides a clear insight of the strengths and weaknesses of an organization. In today's era, most of the companies have to maintain huge databases to keep a track of information from its various departments such as sales, finance, production etc. It is in fact very difficult to use multiple software programmes as it may fail to provide the right information at the right time. Business intelligence software is the best substitute for all the traditional methods to collect and analyse data.It takes all the raw data from various functions of an organization and provides useful reports to the management.

The software helps the management to analyse the data for better decision making and optimum utilisation of their resources.Business intelligence tools also provide various integrated software applications that are easy to use, report, analyse and present the data. The software is capable of using data stored in any form. It can extract the data from any data warehouse software or data storage system.

Often, the software may include certain tools specifically designed for some verticals like education, healthcare or may be retail. However, there are certain tools in BI applications solution that are commonly used to generate the correct information. It generally comprises the followings:

• Data mining

• Search or query

• Analytics processing (OLAP)

• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

• Spreadsheets

• Operational Dashboards

• Content viewer

• Business Performance Management

• Decision Engineering

• Local Information System

The applications of Business Intelligence software can be deployed in a number of ways. Some of the most common options include Cloud Computing Implementation, On-Premise Installment and SaaS (hosted on-demand). On-Premise Installment is usually deployed in-house using leased or may be owned equipment. SaaS is normally hosted by the application service provider (ASP).

Most of the BI software provides a wide array of features that may be common in nature yet support improved decision making in an organization. Nowadays, there are a lot of different types of business intelligence software solutions available in the market.Some offer ad hoc reporting capabilities while others offer a complete portfolio of analytics and some provide custom-built reporting applications. Almost all the BI software is share a broad array of similar features that enable fast decision making at various levels in a company.

Some of the common features of a business software system include - Ad hoc reporting, an intuitive web-based interface, flexible formatting options, dynamic information distribution and financial reporting and analysis.An intuitive web-based interface makes the information readily available that allows the user for anytime, anywhere access. Ad hoc reporting system enables workers at all levels to prepare and run their own reports. Business intelligence software also provides the feature to present the information by using a wide variety of formats such as word documents, excel spreadsheets, web pages and many more.