Welcome to my expert channel on trends in business intelligence (BI), case studies and my thoughts on business intelligence and business integration. I hope to make use of surveys to track what is happening in the local marketplace and will tap into other parts of the world on occasion to see what is happening in other countries.

I plan to cover most areas of business intelligence including enterprise data management, master data, data integration and data quality, BI tools and services, and performance management. With respect to business integration, I will also look at how combining service-oriented architectures (SOA) and BI Web services is allowing business intelligence to be integrated into mainstream operational business processes. See how BI Web services and event-driven automated analysis are changing the role of BI systems into one where BI is helping operations personnel contribute to business performance. We will look at BI integration with applications, business processes, collaboration and portals to show how BI in a SOA is moving us from business intelligence to intelligent business.

Mike Ferguson is Managing Director of Intelligent Business Strategies Limited, a leading information technology analyst and consulting company. As lead analyst and consultant, he specializes in enterprise business intelligence, enterprise business integration, and enterprise portals. He can be contacted at +44 1625 520700 or via e-mail at mferguson@intelligentbusiness.biz.