Data Analysis is a process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data from your business, customers, and competitors with the goal of discovering useful information, suggesting conclusions, and supporting decision-making.

Business intelligence software helps you keep a finger on the pulse of your business and make informed decisions. Once relegated to the domain of only large companies, business intelligence software is getting easier to implement by small and medium businesses that want to better analyze their data.

Data warehousing combines data from multiple, usually varied, sources into one comprehensive and easily manipulated database. Different methods can then be used by a company or organization to access this data for a wide range of purposes. Analysis can be performed to determine trends over time and to create plans based on this information. Smaller companies often use more limited formats to analyze more precise or smaller data sets, though warehousing can also utilize these methods.