Business intelligence is increasingly recognised as key to business success, as evidenced by the continued strong growth of this market. Online data has experienced exponential growth in the last decade with the advent of ERP systems and the Web, reaching about a million terabytes in size. The problem is how to access data distributed over multiple systems and geographies, and how to turn that data into meaningful information.
The BI industry has dedicated over a decade of research and development to address this challenge. BI technology enables quick and easy access to data wherever it is located. It provides the tools to understand the data in context, thereby turning it into actionable information. Finally, it allows the sharing of that information across the extended enterprise.
However, the BI market has drawn multiple and generally incompatible vendor offerings. Consequently, as Gartner puts it, there is a strong risk that "through 2005, users will adopt a staggering amount of disparate and unrelated BI technologies, adding to BI fragmentation in organisations".
Due to its growing importance, business intelligence is appearing at all levels of the organisation. Lacking a common BI standard, companies risk finding themselves with a m'elange of incompatible technologies. This will increasingly create problems and will prevent many of the benefits that organisations hoped to achieve through their ERP and data warehouse investments. The growing patchwork of incompatible BI technologies will increasingly create problems in terms of cost, frustration and lost opportunity at all levels of the business.
"Buyers have been stung by the global economic slow down, and are wary of vendor hype," commented Paul Morgan, Technical Director at ASYST International. "There is an increasing drive to rationalise IT investment across the organisation and this is especially true of business intelligence. In SA, companies are finding themselves with a patchwork of BI technologies that cannot respond to the deeper and broader needs of the organisation. There is need to standardise on one platform to derive the full benefit of BI and gain 360-degree of the organisation, customers, competitors and suppliers."
One of the major advantages of standardising on a BI platform is cost-effectiveness. Currently, time and resources are being spent enterprise-wide every time a new department, office, or project needs to select a BI tool. Staff are then having to learn and administer multiple BI tools - and IT departments are having to support users across multiple tools. Information silos are created which is frustrating for users and business managers as there is no single `truth` in the information presented.
The creation of a single BI `framework` not only delivers cost savings but also allows organisations to bridge information and departmental divides to obtain a holistic view of the organisation - and enable more informed decision-making to achieve a competitive advantage.
"There is a need to move away from presenting BI as an information tool but rather as a business enabler," concluded Morgan. "We must understand our customer`s business and drive BI as a strategic approach to improving business performance - not as fuzzy concepts but with real demonstrable returns. Helping our customers to establish a standard BI platform will enable cost savings, reduce business risk, allow a collaborative work environment and deliver maximum business value."
For further information, please contact Justine Morgan, marketing manager, ASYST International SA (Pty) Ltd: telephone (011) 622 0112, fax (011) 622 0124, e-mail jmm@asyst.co.za.
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ASYST International SA is a South African company providing experienced consultancy and specialising in the provision and improvement of business information systems. ASYST International is an established expert in financial, business intelligence customised software systems, providing solutions to improve business efficiency, reduce operating costs and increase profits. Asyst believes in a hands-on approach, from a tailored proposal, through to the best software design and systems configuration, to providing on-going training and support. It is also the sole distributor of Access Accounts in southern Africa.
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