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| | creative approaches to
applying the right
knowledge to improve
business processes and
performance.
Major trends in BI
implementation involve
front-end tools and
back-end infrastructure,
as well as the
transformation of
business processes. At
the front end,
browser-based BI tools
and dashboards are
evolving the view of
information away from
standard reports, toward
metrics and key
performance indicators.
On the back end,
regulatory compliance
puts pressure on IT to
ensure high data
quality. Strategic
business objectives are
forcing organisations to
break down information
so enterprise BI and
performance management
tools can gain a single
view of customers.
Better infrastructure
will lower BI costs and
let organisations serve
the right information at
the right time.
Paul Alexander, head
of global consumer
markets for dunnhumby,
says that: "Successful
companies today will be
those who can harness
the significant amounts
of data they have at
their fingertips, and
make sense of it. Most
organisations have
mistakenly taken this as
meaning that they need
to collect data and
report on it. Simply
reporting on data falls
far short of providing
the organisation with | |
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| | insight which can be
actioned. BI is about
reporting on it,
providing the insight
which finds the list of
200 things the
organisation could do,
but most importantly
defines the 10 which
will make the biggest
impact on the bottom
line."
Market consolidation
is also driving platform
convergence. Most of the
leading BI vendors have
been buying technologies
to broaden their
functional capacities.
An example of this is
Business Objects.
With its acquisition
of Firstlogic in April
2006, Business Objects
now provides
best-of-breed data
quality solutions as
part of its long-term
strategy to offer
customers a trusted
foundation for
enterprise information
management. "Data
quality is critical to
helping companies
resolve a myriad of
challenges, from
ensuring regulatory
compliance, to managing
expanding numbers of
data sources, to linking
data to business
performance," said
Donald MacCormick, vice
president of product
marketing at Business
Objects.
"Without trusted
information,
organisations face a
major roadblock to the
success of business
intelligence and
performance management
initiatives. Data | |
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| | quality is a key pillar
of our overall EIM
strategy, which is
designed to help prevent
the spread of poor data
throughout their
enterprise and BI
infrastructure, and at
the same time, ensure
that users can trust the
information on which
they base their business
decisions."
As performance
management nears the top
of the investment
priority list in many
companies today, it is
no surprise that BI is
seen as a tactical means
to a bigger end. A major
draw of enterprise BI is
to apply the technology
to reorient business
performance and
execution. BI vendors,
once limited to query,
reporting, and analysis,
are increasingly adding
performance management
analytics on top of
their core platforms. In
doing so they are hoping
to increase BI data
outside the realm of the
traditional 'power
users' and business
analysts to propagate
the entire enterprise –
across middle
management, up to the
executive suite, and
even down to operational
workers – via scorecards
and dashboards for daily
comparison to strategic
goals and budget
targets.
BI vendors,
particularly those that
bought their way into
performance management,
face another stiff
integration challenge to
fuse together their BI | |
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| | with performance
management systems.
Specialist system
integration and
consulting firm, Detica,
which focuses on
intelligence systems,
has seen the volume and
complexity of technology
and process integration
challenges grow rapidly
over the past 12 months.
As business
intelligence continues,
it's quickly moving into
one of the most
strategic and important
investments for
businesses today. With
this in mind it is
critical that companies
leverage the right
resources to implement
these solutions and
involve experienced
people, including
professional services
and technical expertise
that are closely aligned
with the business
objectives. This helps
to provide a crucial
role in ensuring success
by minimising risk while
providing rapid return
on an investment.
Currently the BI
market is growing and
the right resources are
required to fuel the
demand for expertise
within this area – as
well as within the
broader consulting
market.
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