REVISTA ECONOMICĂ Supplement No. 5/2012 Journal of economic-financial theory and practice CNCSIS reference: B+, Code 478 Frequency: 6 issues/year Editor Prof. Dan Popescu, Ph.D., Dr. H.C. of University of Rennes 1, France and Dr.H.C. of Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova Deputy Editor Prof. Liviu Mihăescu, Ph.D. Scientific Committee Prof. Dan Popescu, Ph.D., Dr.H.C. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Prof. Liviu Mihăescu, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Prof. Livia Ilie, Ph.D. – “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Romania Acad. Prof. Iulian Văcărel, Ph.D. – Romanian Academy Prof. Lucian–Liviu ALBU, Ph.D. – Director, Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Romanian Academy, corresponding member of the Romanian Academy Prof. Sergiu Chircă, Ph.D., Dr. hab. – Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy Prof. Mircea Ciumara, Ph.D. – Director, National Institute of Economic Research, Romania Prof. Viorel Cornescu, Ph.D. – The University of Bucharest, Romania Prof. Francesco d'Esposito, Ph.D. – The Gabrielle d'Annunzio University, Pescara, Italy Prof. Ion Pohoaţă, Ph.D. – Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania Prof. Robert Labbé, Ph.D. – University of Rennes 1, France Acad.Prof. Grigore Belostecinic, Ph.D. Dr. hab., Dr.H.C. – Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova Prof. Alexander Kostov, Ph.D. – Director, Institute for Balkan Studies, Sofia, Bulgaria Assoc. Nicolae Petria, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Assoc. Razvan Șerbu, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Lect. Bogdan Mârza, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Prof. Carmen Comaniciu, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Prof. Emanoil Muscalu, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Prof. Ilie Rotariu, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Assoc. Mihaela Herciu, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Assoc. Silvia Mărginean, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Assoc. Claudia Ogrean, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Assoc. Cristina Tănăsescu, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Assoc. Marian Cristescu, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Lect. Dan Alexandru Popescu, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Lect. Liviu Florea, Ph.D. – Washburn University, USA Prof. Eugen Iordănescu, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Editorial Board Prof. Dan Popescu, Ph.D., Dr.H.C. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Prof. Liviu Mihăescu, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Assoc. Nicolae Eșanu, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Assist. Alin Opreana, Ph.D. student – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Assist. Eduard Stoica, Ph.D. – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Assist. Florin Martin, Ph.D. student – Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania Indexed in: RePeC Ulrich`s Periodicals Directory DOAJ - Directory of Open Access Journals Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu No.10, Victoriei Bd. 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Mail: [email protected] Web: http://economice.ulbsibiu.ro/revista.economica ISSN: 1582-6260 Revista Economică Supplement No. 5/2012 Applied Informatics in Economy THE IMPACT OF SEMANTIC WEB TO BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE BERTA Dora-Anca Ph.D. student, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration /Department of Accounting, Statistics and Information Systems, "Al. I. Cuza" University, Iasi, Romania, [email protected] Abstract: Business Intelligence are high-level decisions support applications, their role being to provide to management, based on information from the company, a picture of its situation at some time but also on the medium and long term, bring forward taking competent decisions. The purpose of this research is to identify, describe and analyse if there is the impact on the Semantic Web solutions for Business Intelligence and how it manifests. The appearance of a new generation applications, called Semantic Business Intelligence will confirm that the Semantic Web has made its mark on them. Keywords: business intelligence, semantic web, semantic technologies, data integration JEL classification: L86, O33 1. Introduction Nowadays, amount of data from organizations grows exponentially. More information means more competition. In a period of information explosion, managers, users, and not only have to take optimal decisions in a short time as possible. Competitive organizations are permanently prepared to meet the challenges of other actors from the business environment. In the economic field the ancient dictum “All the roads leads to Rome” implies the fact that the majority of analysts from this area tries to identify the cutting-edge technologies which will change the future in business by using the concept of Business Intelligence. Although the concept of Business Intelligence appears into IBM Journal in 1958 as "automated system used to disseminate information in various sectors of organizations" (Berta, 2012, p.62), in the scientific literature began to be circulated only since 1989 when analyst Howard Dresner, Garter Group company employee defines it as it "an umbrella term that means a set of concepts and methods to improve the process of making business decisions using decision assistance systems based on facts" (Power , DJ, 2010). Business Intelligence is not only a concept, but also a valuable instrument in the decision-making management. In this way, B.I. will allow the processing, the analysis and the forecast of data from an organization. Companies use B.I. for its use in making a basis for the process of decision-making. According to market surveys conducted by Gartner Group, at present, revenues from the sale of these solutions exceeding the fabulous sum of $ 12 million (Pettey, C., van der Meulen, R., 2012), the world's leading BI market are SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, IBM SAS Microstrategy, Actuate, Panorama Software, TIBCO Software, etc. This research aims to explain a new trend observed in the structure of BI solutions. The approach is descriptive-explanatory, proposing to bring some clarifications regarding the “semantic" side of Business Intelligence solutions. The importance of this approach is justified because we have in mind the implication of the internet users, consciously or not, in the phenomenon of semantic integration. 2. Research methodology The issue proposed to be analysed in this research occurs as a consequence of scientific observation and analysis of the semantic web impact on data and, by default, on the applications which produce, mange, process or analyse these data. B.I. is the most-known instrument in the review, the reprocessing and the design of data. Thus, the study of the relation between the semantic web and B.I. is important. The hypothesis in this analysis is “There is a significant impact of the semantic web on B.I. solutions”. In the construction of this hypothesis we used the concordance method. This method explains the effects of a phenomenon causes according to various factors highlighted (Zaiţ D., şi Spalanzani, A., 2006, pp. 145-146). On a concrete level, in this case the marked phenomenon was the development of the 3 Revista Economică Supplement No. 5/2012 Applied Informatics in Economy semantic web. The evolution of semantic the web was achieved through semantic integration of data which determined a rethink of B.I. solutions in such a manner that it can analyze, process and synthesize, in addition to traditional data and semantic data integrated which have a different form and structure. The inferring type is causally because explain causes but mainly effects of crystallization and the Semantic Web development and also deductive whereas in order to draw conclusions will be realized a synthesis of the analysis. Hence this research will have a deductive scientific undertaking, proved by the fact that starting with a true statement proposition will get another true statement proposition. The approach used is qualitative, comparative functionalist type (Wacheux, 1996 apud Zaiţ D., şi Spalanzani, A., 2006, pp. 176-177) whereas analyzes the deterministic influence of a situational context, in this case the introduction of new technologies in certain applications. The appearance of a new generation of Business Intelligence generically called Semantic Business Intelligence based on on the Semantic Web specific technologies will confirm the proposed hypothesis. Data was collected using specialized databases (ScienceDirect, Emerald Database, Springerlink), websites that are relevant to the topic (e.g. http://semanticweb.com, http://wi-consortium.org/), scientific magazines (e.g. Journals of Information Technology and Systems,