One of the newer components of most modern midmarket ERP packages, BI (Business Intelligence) shines a bright light into the heart of a company's performance. In general, an ERP suite's analytics or BI tools allow users to share and analyze the data that the ERP applications collect from across the enterprise from a unified repository.

The end result is more informed decision making by everyone from executives to line managers to human-resources professionals to accountants. A variety of automated reporting and analysis tools can help streamline operations, as well as improve an organization's business performance. With greater control and visibility of data across the enterprise, business leaders can better align the company's operations with its overarching strategic goals.

BI solution could be a combination of Data-warehouse, dashboards, ad-hoc reporting etc. In the simplest terms, BI is just a facilitator for reporting and hence it is the decision making solution for Businesses so that they can cut costs and hence increase profits.