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

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.