In today's Big Data world, BI has matured to a greater level with four major classifications, namely:

• Descriptive
• Diagnostic
• Predictive
• Prescriptive

With the available raw source data, BI helps to build meaningful information to act and decide using one of the aforementioned models. Let us illustrate them in detail with the real life scenario of being an end customer of a mobile service provider.

Descriptive: The core theme of a descriptive report is, What happened to source data? Being the mobile user, we are sent the monthly usage/billing report by the service provider. The monthly report shares the billing details with the associated transactions of mobile calls/usage during the specified period. Therefore, it gives a perspective on what happened to my mobile usage during the last month.

Diagnostic: A diagnostic report responds to the question, Why did it happen? In the same scenario, the mobile service provider can send the monthly usage report along with reasons for the usage spike (if any). Assume that the data consumption was quite high for a few days due to the local seasonal festival. It might be the reason for the usage spike in the monthly report.

Predictive: The core theme of a predictive report is, What will happen inferred from the source data? With this type of report, the mobile service provider will be in a position to predict the upcoming usage spike based on the historical usage and social media seasonal feeds. For the end user, the monthly usage report will be delivered along with the predictive usage for the upcoming days.

Prescriptive: A prescriptive report is an advanced action-oriented report with the theme, What should I do as a corrective action?. In the discussed use case, the prescriptive report shares some beneficial action with customer as well as the service provider. As an example, the prescriptive report may share the insight to promote the existing mobile plan into a beneficiary plan based on the earlier prediction. Ultimately, it adds value for both the stakeholders. It is a win-win situation for the end customer and the mobile service provider. Hence, this advanced action oriented prescription is in high demand for modern business execution.