Cat Corp (CC) has grown dramatically over the past few years, mostly through small mergers and acquisitions. These mergers and acquisitions have helped the company grow, but at the same time have caused tremendous stress and pressure on the systems used at CC. In particular, there are now over 50 different transaction processing systems (TPS) used at CC, many of which are redundant or are unable to communicate and share data with other necessary TPS. Many of these systems run on different hardware and software platforms, and some of the systems are very old. This overall situation has caused several issues at CC, including missed payroll, and most recently, the publication of financial statements that later turned out to be incorrect. Part of these issues are related to the current systems, but Mr. Hank believes that part of the problem may also be due to their current processes. In addition to these problems, CC has had tremendous difficulties in their abilities to access quality data to help them make decisions.

Mr. Hank has heard about Business Intelligence (BI) and Business Analytics (BA) and would like to know more about them and how these might aid CT in their future decision making. Explain BI and BA to Mr. Hank, noting what they are, how they work, what is needed for an effective BI program and how they may help CC overall. Finally, explain what specific BI/BA tools might help CC in decision making and how these could potentially be used at CC.