Final answer:
OLAP is a tool for multidimensional data analysis used in business intelligence, enabling tasks such as trend analysis, pattern identification, and complex computations across multiple data sources.
Step-by-step explanation:
OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) is a tool that supports complex data analysis and enables users to perform multidimensional queries and generate reports. It is commonly used in the context of business intelligence and allows users to easily and quickly extract and view data from different perspectives. One of the key features of OLAP is its ability to let users perform tasks such as trend analysis over time, identifying data patterns, and conducting complex calculations that involve multiple data sources.
For example, in the context of GIS (Geographic Information Systems), an OLAP tool might be used to analyze geographical data to answer questions like "How much are these businesses clustered in this city?" helping to determine competitiveness in the market. Users can drill down into data, roll up to see a bigger picture, slice and dice to examine different dimensions, and pivot to view different data points. This supports a geographer or analyst in answering detailed questions about business competition, demographic distributions, and more.