Patent ID: 8165993

Claim:
A business intelligence system for an enterprise, comprising: a business activity monitor (BAM) comprising a data cache to receive and store enterprise data from an enterprise link, the enterprise link being configured to: continually retrieve raw data from a plurality of enterprise applications, at least two of the plurality of enterprise applications exchanging information with each other; integrate and transform the raw data into the enterprise data according to predefined data flow definitions, such that the data cache is updated in real-time as the enterprise data changes; and import existing metadata from the plurality of enterprise applications; the BAM further comprises a report engine that is configured to access the enterprise data in the data cache, format the enterprise data, and stream it to a computer for real-time display, the report engine being further configured to insert a data object into the data cache in response to a first message, the data object for generating an alert to trigger an action to be executed using one or more enterprise applications of the plurality of enterprise applications; and the computer coupled with the data cache to receive real-time updates to the enterprise data from the data cache, the computer configured to run a program that produces a graphical user interface on a display, the graphical user interface configured to: display a real-time unified report of the enterprise data from the plurality of enterprise applications to a user via the graphical user interface; use the existing metadata imported from the plurality of enterprise applications by the enterprise link; receive, from the user via the graphical user interface, a first action that affects operation of a first enterprise application of the plurality of enterprise applications and a second action that affects operation of a second enterprise application of the plurality of enterprise applications, wherein: the first action includes the user, via the graphical user interface, causing a report to be sent to another user; and cause the computer to send the first message designating one or more selected actions to the BAM, wherein the BAM is configured to send a second message, in response to receiving the first message, to one or more of the enterprise applications to execute the one or more selected actions, such that the computer concurrently displays the enterprise data from the enterprise applications to the user and receives actions that trigger changes to operation of the enterprise applications from the user via a single graphical user interface.