Ashley Ellington, MD of Softline Enterprise, says business intelligence (BI) is now a key component of any integrated business management solution. However, as the uptake of BI extends throughout the organisation, risk of duplicating and creating BI shadows is rising.
"The increasing use of BI as a role-based tool is a very positive sign. It enables all levels within an organisation to use BI to improve overall performance.
"However, persistent use of BI has consequences and organisations need to understand what these are and how to successfully manage widespread BI adoption," says Ellington.
He says users, in their enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge, often duplicate information, creating additional BI silos that are not managed or even known about within a company.
"Aside from the organisational chaos this creates, it increases BI costs and duplicates efforts. Not to mention working against very serious attempts to create a single version of the truth," stresses Ellington.
One way in which to combat shadow BI is to focus on BI governance. This will assist companies to alleviate the negative effect of shadow BI while also making sure BI remains role-based and employees have access to the information they need.
Gartner, in its Predicts 2007 study, says this year, demands for business intelligence capabilities will increase rapidly. This will prompt adoption of new technologies, lead to new styles of deployment and make BI environments even more chaotic.
Ellington agrees and suggests a focus on the organisational component of BI. "It is important to understand the overall vision for BI across the entire company before deployment. This needs to be coupled with a disciplined approach to the implementation and ongoing management of the data."
Rather than chasing shadows afterwards, focus on your BI strategy first; this needs to be followed by a people management plan and an outline of the processes they should follow.
"Effectively what we have, and continue to create, is enterprise-wide BI. It is vital that management never takes their eye off the organisational aspects of BI, governing it as they would any other solution containing vital customer and company information," concludes Ellington.
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