Virtual instrumentation (VI) allows organizations to effectively harness the power of the
PC, to access, analyze, and share information throughout the organization. With vast
amounts of data available from increasingly sophisticated enterprise-level data sources,
potentially useful information is often left hidden, due to a lack of useful tools. Virtual
instruments can employ a wide array of technologies, such as multidimensional analyses
and statistical process control (SPC) tools, to detect patterns, trends, causalities, and discontinuities
to derive knowledge and to make informed decisions