A business intelligence solution for public transportation sector

Abstract

Smart companies in the 21st century use business intelligence solutions to gain a clearer picture of their internal operations, customers, supply chain and financial performance. In short, they are using business intelligence solutions to become intelligent about the way they do business.. Our paper reflects the result of a project that we conducted in Portugal related to the development of a business intelligence solution for the intelligent transportation system (ITS). This project was developed on a close partnership between the University of Minho and Efacec, that is one of the most important and large Portuguese companies. More specifically, our aim was to: (1) perform a strict identification and selection of the information requirements; (2) develop technical specifications; (3) develop a business intelligence solution that will be used to support the companies top management decisions. Our approach consists on integrating in the computer-aided support system all the relevant information by mixing up different visualization forms (tables, graphs and maps), customized according to each performance indicator, thus enhancing reading efficiency and correct interpretation of every depicted situation being analyzed.