This term, “Business Intelligence” was coined as early as September, 1996, when a Gartner Group report said:

“By 2000, Information Democracy will emerge in forward-thinking enterprises, with Business Intelligence information and applications available broadly to employees, consultants, customers, suppliers, and the public. The key to thriving in a competitive marketplace is staying ahead of the competition. Making sound business decisions based on accurate and current information takes more than intuition. Data analysis, reporting, and query tools can help business users wade through a sea of data to synthesize valuable information from it – today these tools collectively fall into a category called “Business Intelligence.”

Business intelligence applications can be:
Mission-critical and integral to an enterprise’s operations or occasional to meet a special requirement
Enterprise-wide or local to one division, department, or project
Centrally initiated or driven by user demand

Rarely does Business Intelligence encompass all of the above, unless you’re thinking of Vision Critical’s future-proofed solutions!