Managers have the responsibility to make the best decision possible, based upon the data available to them at the time. If their ability to analyze this data and transform it into useful information is improved, the overall quality of their decisions will be improved as well.

Business intelligence provides a spectrum of tools and solutions to achieve this. It's the underlying technology behind, and a key component for, more effective decision-making. By helping to align individual and departmental efforts with overall corporate strategies it should lead to improved organizational results.

While many small or medium-size companies have relied on spreadsheets as their primary BI tool, most of them have come to realize that this is a stopgap solution and one that's apt to lead to data chaos and inconsistent analysis results. This is not to say that spreadsheets should be abandoned; rather they should be a part of an organization's BI toolset, especially if used in conjunction with a commercial BI product suite that integrates with spreadsheet environments.