What is business intelligence (BI)?
Turning a company's raw data into answers to management questions.
Business intelligence (BI) is the use of computing tools to collect, consolidate and analyse an organization's raw data in order to guide strategic decisions. It covers dashboards, analysis reports and predictive models. In French, Quebec's terminology office prefers informatique décisionnelle and discourages the literal translation intelligence d'affaires.
In short
- BI has three steps: collect, consolidate, analyse.
- French term preferred by the OQLF: informatique décisionnelle.
- A dashboard is one BI tool, not a synonym for BI.
- Start from a question, not from software.
What does business intelligence actually involve?
The OQLF's definition, with business intelligence, BI and decision support computing as its English equivalents, describes three moves: collecting, consolidating and analysing an organization's raw data to guide strategic decision-making [1]. The entry notes that the field sped up with big-data analysis and can now include AI approaches such as predictive AI [1].
For a small company, collect means pulling data from the calendar, the accounting software and the CRM. Consolidate means linking it: same customer, same job, same period. Analyse means answering one specific question. All of that data moves through the company's information system [3].
| Tool | Typical question | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Dashboard | Where do we stand this week? | Daily or weekly |
| Analysis report | Which services are most profitable? | Monthly or quarterly |
| Predictive modelling | How many calls next January? | Occasionally |
| Actionable insights | What exactly should we change? | After each analysis |
The OQLF entry lists dashboards, predictive modelling and actionable insights among BI's traditional tools [1].
Why is the French term a bit of a minefield?
In Quebec French you will often hear intelligence d'affaires. The OQLF discourages it as a calque of business intelligence, because in French the word intelligence doesn't carry the sense of monitoring or gathering and processing information [1]. Its preferred terms are informatique décisionnelle and le décisionnel. If you publish in both languages, that matters for how French-speaking customers search.
What question can BI settle for a small business?
How do BI, dashboards and KPIs fit together?
BI is the overall practice. A dashboard, defined by the OQLF as a visual display of the indicators executives need to track activity and make timely decisions, is one of its outputs [2]. Key performance indicators are the measures you choose to put on it.
What mistakes do small businesses make when starting with BI?
- Buying an analytics platform before having a question to ask.
- Analysing data that was never cleaned: one customer entered three times skews every average.
- Mixing tax-included and tax-excluded revenue in the same chart.
- Producing forty charts nobody reads instead of four that trigger a decision.
- Confusing correlation with cause: more calls in July doesn't prove June's ad worked.
What does Pilotiko offer on the BI side?
Pilotiko isn't a BI platform. It provides dashboards and internal reports built from your real data: bookings, revenue, workload and indicators for each room of the virtual office. Its AI agents can prepare an analysis from that data for you to review. A Google Analytics connection is not available yet.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between BI and analytics?
The terms overlap. In this glossary, BI means the whole process of collecting, consolidating and analysing business data for decisions, while analytics refers to the analysis step itself. When a vendor uses either word, ask which of those steps the product really covers.
Does a small business need BI software?
Not always. With simple questions and little data, a well-structured spreadsheet and a dashboard are enough. A dedicated tool pays off when you regularly need to combine several data sources.
Is a dashboard the same as BI?
No. BI is the whole practice of collecting, consolidating and analysing data. A dashboard is one BI tool that shows a few indicators so you can decide quickly.
Does BI use artificial intelligence?
It can. The OQLF notes that BI can now incorporate AI approaches such as predictive AI and advanced analytics. It isn't required: many useful analyses are plain arithmetic.
How do you get started with business intelligence?
Start with a precise management question, such as which service earns the most per hour worked. Then find the data sources you need and check they describe the same customers and periods.
Sources
- Office québécois de la langue française (Vitrine linguistique), informatique décisionnelle (GDT) (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Office québécois de la langue française (Vitrine linguistique), tableau de bord (GDT) (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Office québécois de la langue française (Vitrine linguistique), système d'information (GDT) (accessed on October 15, 2026).
Read next
What is a management dashboard?
What a management dashboard is, leading versus lagging indicators, how it differs from a report, a snow-removal example and mistakes that make it useless.
What is a KPI (key performance indicator)?
What a KPI is, how to derive one from a business goal, formulas for a service company, a worked month of numbers and the traps to avoid when picking them.
What is revenue, and how do you calculate it?
What revenue means for a small business: sales and services for a period, gross versus net, a GST and QST example for a Quebec service company, common mix-ups.
What is an information system (IS)?
What an information system is for a small business: hardware, software and people, how it differs from IT, a quick inventory example and Quebec privacy duties.