Can intelligence really help business get out of a hole?

BI want to break free

By Martin Banks • Get more from this author

Posted in Applications, 11th June 2007 11:54 GMT

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Whitepaper Business Intelligence (or BI) is often promoted as a “get out of gaol free” card – surely, intelligence in business is a good thing (although perhaps we wouldn’t know, we haven’t met much of it), so paying lots of money for a BI package is a no-brainer?

Well, “Only up to a point, Lord Copper”. Obviously, fact-based decision-making, as opposed to the emotion- or fashion-based option, is a good choice – but just buying BI technology won’t necessarily deliver this. Fact-based decision-making comes with company maturity and a metrics-based culture rather than from more technology toys.

Be very wary of vendors quoting 5763.47 per cent ROI (Return On Investment), say, from the purchase of a “BI solution”. Quite apart from the entirely spurious accuracy implied by the 2 decimal places, if this is a genuine success story, the BI software only enabled it – most of the ROI is down to the managers or workers knowing what questions to ask and the ability of the company to put its BI to use in an effective business operation.

You can read the full run-down on Business Intelligence from Martin Banks here.®

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