Business intelligence systems are becoming a growing trend on the market nowadays. Reason for this is the increasing amount of information generated and collected within the company and from many external sources. In order to remain competitive on the market, it is very important to collect and select relevant information in time, from which a business decision can be made. OLAP (On Line Analytic Processing) systems represent one part of business intelligence systems. Their goal is analytic

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... essing and data extraction for business decision-making. Given the increasing demands of the market, it is important to prepare students to work with these tools as early as in the classroom. In this paper we present an overview of the development and characteristics of OLAP systems and a method of their implementation for educational purposes. We compare the characteristics of two selected OLAP tools used in the classroom. 1. Introduction Information is the key element of today's business. To get the information we need, first we have to collect data-facts, numbers or text-that can be processed by a computer. Relationships among data give us information, which we then convert into knowledge. That is why many business organizations collect and store vast amounts of data in different formats and in different databases. However, there is a problem of finding meaning in that vast amount of data and transforming it into useful information. The solution to this problem can be found in the implementation of business intelligence systems (henceforth BI) and Online Analytical Processing (henceforth OLAP) tools. BI systems enable business organizations to isolate large sets of data from various sources and convert them into meaningful information. OLAP tools are a part of business intelligence systems. The goal of OLAP tools is analytical processing and data extraction for the purpose of business decision making. With the help of OLAP tools, business organizations can accurately know the state within the company and all its parts, taking into consideration the conditions of the market. These tools can reveal hidden patterns in the collected data and, thus, help managers and analysts in making good business decisions. The paper gives an overview of the concept and structure of an OLAP system, explains the OLAP schema and the difference between OLAP and