Many South African organisations are still hung up on decision stages involving business intelligence (BI) applications, tools or platforms, and they need to move forward and start implementing and making use of the valuable BI they already have.
Itayi Mandonga, senior sales consulting manager at Oracle, advises: "The proliferation of BI tools in the marketplace has not helped either. While it does give organisations a choice, the excess to choose from has the unintended effect of stopping decisions from being made quicker."
He also points out that the need for, or shortage of, skills in this area can never be overemphasised.
"Adoption of BI in the South African market is much lower than I would have expected. I think we can do more in South Africa as we have mature business processes in place, and the next-level differentiator for most organisations is BI."
Mandonga adds that by having a clear understanding of their business requirements, knowing how to appropriately use tools, as well as the maturity to take action once informed, organisations are well equipped to make informed decisions.
On this note, ITWeb, in partnership with Oracle, has opened the BI Survey.
"I believe this survey will reveal the understanding of the BI landscape in the South African market and this understanding will be of a number of dimensions, eg, who is doing what; why they are doing it; what they are getting out of what they are doing; and generally to gauge the spread, usage and maturity level of BI in South Africa."
Mandonga believes there are organisations in SA that have invested a small amount in a BI data warehousing/enterprise data store, but through good business practice and use, are now reaping the benefits; however, the reverse is true. He affirms that an adequate amount of money is definitely being spent on BI, however, the question remains whether the organisation's investment is being optimised.
"BI has been around for some time now in South Africa and it is time for companies to make a concerted effort in making use of it. This is no longer a 'new' phenomenon. The market shouldn't wait for the next big thing before exploring the current one of BI," Mandonga concludes.
Click here to complete the survey and stand a chance to win a Kindle 3G WiFi.
Share