Five tips for firing up a BI analytics practice, and some reality checks

The BI enthusiasts at this week's Information Builders Summit made predictive BI analytics seem like the next best thing to a time machine or crystal ball. A data-driven crystal ball, that is.

Predictive BI analytics, like many an IT term, refers to an amorphous discipline that involves using statistical and other complex mathematical analyses of data to predict the future. It is not exactly data mining, the industry experts like to point out, and it's certainly not data mining for data mining's sake. Predictive BI analytics identifies patterns in the volumes of data generated by a business and by relevant external sources. Those patterns are used to predict the future so the business can adjust its strategies accordingly.

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