Business Intelligence: Leveraging Information

In barely more than a generation, information technology has gone from being considered a desirable but
expensive source of business efficiency to becoming the indispensable backbone of most organizations. It has
become nearly impossible for a business to sustain growth without an increasing sophistication in the use of
information technology and the data it provides, from tracking sales information to providing the information
that drives development and change.
Information provides power to anticipate, track, and detect opportunities as well as risks. As a result, one of the
largest concerns regarding information technology is the organization’s ability to maintain privacy and protect
ownership of information. The issues involved are wide-ranging, including, for example, the personal privacy of
financial, medical, and personnel records; risks involved in legal compliance; and businesses' proprietary
information about products and customers. As a result, understanding the management of business risks
surrounding information technology have become critically important to companies.
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