ARTICLES Data-driven decision making for the enterprise: an overview of business intelligence applications Darius Hedgebeth Volgenau School of Information Technology and Engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to inform the knowledge worker about Business Intelligence (BI) – its origins, value in decision-making processes, and currently available BI applications. Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses the evolution of decision support systems (DSS) and their close relationship with the business intelligence arena. Open source and commercial BI products are also identified. Findings – The data that are accessed by BI applications must be accurate if managers of knowledge enterprises are to make informed decisions. Effective partnerships for business and information entities should be observed when BI tools are introduced to an enterprise. Buy-in from top management is absolutely necessary for the successful implementation of BI tools. Originality/value – The use of BI applications aids a knowledge enterprise by promoting efficiency within an organization, particularly by using analytical methods to provide valuable decision-making knowledge to minimize operating costs and to accurately forecast market trends. Keywords Intelligence, Decision support systems Paper type Technical paper Introduction In today’s competitive, knowledge-based economy, organizations require the assistance of business intelligence (BI) tools to collect, analyze, and disseminate information so that knowledge workers are able to make informed decisions. The sheer speed at which a global economy operates makes critical the ability for managers to access “actionable data”, information that can be used to display performance metrics, understand customer behavior, and forecast market trends in a “real-time” manner. Business Intelligence applications support activities such as decision support, data mining, data warehousing, scorecarding, dashboarding, and financial analysis. The birth of business intelligence: decision support systems Dr Dan Power, founder of the Association for Information Systems Special Interest Group on Decision Support, Knowledge and Data Management Systems (SIG DSS) and editor of Decision Support Systems Resources newsletter (dssresources.com), defines a decision support system (DSS) as “an interactive computer-based system or subsystem intended to help decision makers use communications technologies, data, documents, knowledge and/or models to identify and solve problems, complete decision process tasks, and make decisions” (Power, 2007a). The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0305-5728.htm VINE 37,4 414 VINE: The journal of information and knowledge management systems Vol. 37 No. 4, 2007 pp. 414-420 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0305-5728 DOI 10.1108/03055720710838498