To have real value in today's business environment, business intelligence (BI) needs to be agile and provide practically instant and accurate forecasting.
So says Yolanda Smit, BI business analyst at PBT Group, who notes that BI provides value through expertly designed, targeted toolsets and access to the right information.
Agile approaches empower BI to meet the increasing pace of demand in business. What one needs to be mindful of is that agility in terms of BI is not about being able to do tasks quicker, but is rather about being able to adapt and respond to unexpected variables, Smit says, adding that agile BI is about cultivating innovation.
Smit attributes the shift to agile approaches in BI to the maturity of BI as a discipline and business as a whole. Data warehouses are more mature, she says, thus more value can be found in the data examined. Additionally, BI users are maturing and they, too, demand more sophisticated functionality from the BI tools they have.
Agile BI techniques, such as automated testing, database versioning, re-factoring and automated deployments give organisations everything required to adapt, enhance and revolutionise faster than the market within which they operate, Smit says.
Smit is a speaker at the ITWeb BI Summit and Awards, taking place at The Forum, in Bryanston, on 28 and 29 February, with a workshop on 1 March.
She will review the status quo regarding predictive BI and agile analytics, as well as challenge some of the more conventional thoughts about the linear model of analytics maturity.
Time is running out to secure your seat at the event. For more information, click here.
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