Technologists use the term business intelligence (often shortened as BI) to encompass not only analytics–the use of data to analyze, forecast, predict, optimize, and so on–but also the processes and technologies used for collecting, managing, and reporting decision-oriented data. BI usually consists of two major types of activities: reporting and analytics. Reporting is desirable and important, but analytics–the use of sophisticated quantitative tools to model, predict, and optimize business processes–can provide substantial competitive advantage.