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What Self-Service Business Intelligence Is and How to Use It This powerful form of analytics can make your business look smarter.

By Mikal E. Belicove

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Q: How does self-service business intelligence make me smarter?

A: With a name like self-service business intelligence, you'd be forgiven for thinking this concerns DIY corporate espionage. But the term describes analytics, in a powerful form that doesn't involve hassling your IT, accounting or sales staffs to pull the information for you.

Let's say you run a small retail chain and need to understand, in real time, how each store is performing relative to its daily revenue goals. A self-service BI tool provides that data without you having to wrangle it from your point-of-sale system's software.