Key BI insights, trends

If business intelligence isn't already a priority for your business, you should be asking why not.

That's according to Christo Bredenkamp, managing director of Synergy Computing. Reporting back from the recent Cognos Forum global partner conference held in Florida, Bredenkamp says there is clear evidence, albeit based mostly on United States-centric research, that business intelligence (BI) is the number one priority for the CEO.

"More and more companies are depending on BI to understand their internal strengths and weaknesses and to measure external risks and opportunities in the marketplace. BI does this by unlocking data stored in transactional systems and turning this into actionable information which delivers insight for timely decisions," he says.

Increasingly, companies are coming to depend on the BI view of what is happening across the business to stay on top of trends in marketplace. "As a maturing technology, BI is both more affordable and easier to deploy with tailored industry-specific solutions offering short deployment timeframes and subsequently faster returns on investment," says Bredenkamp.

BI is also having an effect in more spheres of business. "The traditional focus for BI is around financial reporting. However, reflecting the fact that more business disciplines are computerised and dependent on the creation and manipulation of data for greater effectiveness, BI can add value in environments, including human resources (HR), sales and marketing and supply chain optimisation, among others."

Taking a leaf out of the book of better HR practice, Bredenkamp says the concept of self service, which has considerably improved processes, information availability and accuracy in this profession, is becoming more widely implemented across BI solutions. "This is reflective of the growing concept of operational BI, which provides staff with ad-hoc information which supports day-to-day decision-making," says Bredenkamp, adding that the familiar practice of using a search engine has influenced this development.

"BI supports information workers by reducing the time it takes to find and access relevant information."

With interest in mobile solutions and the value they can add to business, BI vendors are delivering solutions which allow executives to take their data analysis with them. Bredenkamp says solutions are available for the BlackBerry platform, and are also expected to be made available for the popular Microsoft mobile platform.

"Mobility is a powerful force through which the delivery of important information is fait accompli. Executives are accustomed to receiving e-mail and accessing enterprise applications through mobile devices; adding BI information to that is a logical next step," he notes.

Finally, Bredenkamp says a further trend which is gathering momentum is that of corporate performance management, which combines BI with enterprise management as an integrated discipline.

"Good management techniques like Sigma Six are obviously dependent on accurate and timely information if they are to produce results. BI vendors are closing the gap to provide integrated solutions which are based on accurate data, supporting executive strategy more effectively," he says.

"Gartner puts the BI software market at a value of around $10 billion, with anticipated growth of 10% per year. It is such a significant market because the value is proven and accepted by companies globally."