INTRODUCTION Business Intelligence refers to the way companies collect and organize raw data, then transform it into something meaningful. The transformation and analysis of this data generally occurs through the use of software with systems such as SAP or Cognos (Howson, 2010). BI is important as it is useful in streamlining and simplifying certain tasks within a business context, resulting in smoother operations overall. While this is the overall BI process, it is also important to consider who influences this process and how they are influenced and how this impacts the overall BI model within an organization. Howson states that “everyone, from executives to casual users, [has] an opinion on the company's BI strategy” (Howson, 2010), further strengthening his point of view on the importance of stakeholders and their contribution to determining a BI strategy. STAKEHOLDER Stakeholders are people who are directly or indirectly influenced by decisions made within a particular company. For example, an internal stakeholder could be an employee or a manager, while an external stakeholder could be the company, shareholders, customers, or government. Stakeholders undoubtedly play an important role in how BI strategies are conducted and how decisions are made. The primary goal of a business is to offer a service and/or product to sell to a customer. Therefore it is in a company's best interest to make decisions that have the best impact on stakeholders and it is also in their interest to target their BI strategy to their stakeholders. As stated in Oracle's “Sustainability Matters” article – “management teams must consider the needs of all stakeholders. Retrieved April 16, 2014, from Oracle: http://www.oracle.com/us/solutions/business-intelligence/057079.pdfPant, P. (2009). How to build a successful BI strategy. Retrieved April 16, 2014, from http://www.loria.fr/~ssidhom/UE909R/1_BI_strategy.pdfPoladi, F. (2013, December 23). Building a business intelligence strategy for your company. Retrieved April 17, 2014, from Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/article/building-a-business-intelligence-strategy-for-your-company Rodrigues, E. (2013, August 6). The five most common mistakes in a Business Intelligence project. Retrieved April 16, 2014, from SAP Community Network: http://scn.sap.com/community/business-intelligence/blog/2013/08/06/five-most-common-mistakes-in-a-business-intelligence - projectShollo, A., & Kautz, K. (2010). Towards an understanding of Business Intelligence. Association for Information Systems.