The transition between structured and semi-structured data types and between internal and
external data sources is not defined sharply. For example, semi-structured data from e-mail and
Web sites deal with both internal and external data sources— intranets and extranets for Web
sites. Nevertheless, this matrix is useful to guide research and to view the available analytic tools
for BI. For example, ERP systems capture operational (internal) data in a structured format,
whereas, CRM focuses on customer (external) information. On the other hand, semi-structured
data is captured in business processes and news items, among other documents. For the
purpose of this paper, business processes and news items are used to represent internal and
external data sources, respectively.