The View From Here: Don’t Overlook the Complexities of Business Intelligence

April 13, 2009

I recommend the April 12 post by Karthikeyan Sankaran at the Hexaware blog.

Business intelligence, to relative newcomers, end users and decision makers, is a complicated stuff. The first part of Sankaran’s post suggests how structurally confusing the topic is by presentation of statements about BI systems (along with links to his views on each topic). The objective seems to be to demonstrate how many directions BI can point in and that the uninitiated will quickly be adrift, confused and frustrated.

Sankaran then offers a suggestion: A way to cut to the heart of the matter is to ask what the business model is. This, he suggests, can vastly simplify things. At the same time, the question, if not answered succintly, will lead to amorphous and essentially useless answers.The idea is that thinking clearly about BI requires that the business model is clear. Sankaran than suggests that the best way to think about a company’s business model is to think of the business as a work of fiction. A good book or movie has many different characters. In this context, instead of Rambo and Don Corleone, the characters are partners, employees, customers and others. Each as their own roles and motivations.

Finally, he brings the piece full circle by describing the tie between the hopefully newfound understanding of the business model and specific questions focusing on how BI can help it to succeed.

It’s a good post. The bottom line is that business intelligence is a vastly complicated topic. Unlike a technology – VoIP, antivirus software, femtocells, etc. – business intelligence is a broad and quickly evolving category that sometimes masquerades, so to speak, as a technology. Those on the inside — vendors, VARs, consultants and IT pros whose job is to sell projects to management – shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that BI is a complex extended family of hardware, software and services. This should impact how they present it to others.

Posted by Carl · Filed Under Business Intelligence