The View From Here: Accenture, Gartner Surveys Show a Confusing BI Environment

January 13, 2009

Though companies do not question its value, they still are struggling to find an approach to business analytics and business intelligence with which they are comfortable. Two recent studies–one from Gartner this month and the other from Accenture in December–drive home this point.

Gartner said that the larger BI vendors are starting to build functionally into familiar processes, such as email and spreadsheets. Simultaneously, smaller players are using Web 2.0 and related functionsto create better user interfaces.

Both of those developments are great. Here, though, is an important caveat that is attributed to Dan Sommer, a senior research analyst for the firm:

However, although employees are becoming savvier in their use of data, many still view BI as an isolated technology or activity so it will take time to adjust.

Thus, the bottom line is that vendors big and small are finding their niches and doing what they do well – but still trying to get businesses completely on board. Just how long should it take the company–both the people who would use the BI tools on a day-to-day basis and the executives who must sign off on their purchase–to completely buy into BI.

That same kind of ambivalence is evident in the Accenture report. The firm found that two-thirds of large companies in the U.S. think they must heighten their capabilities and only half think that they are spending enough on business analytics. The report says that more than half don’t have a consistently updated enterprise-wide analytic system and that 72 percent are looking to improve their capabilities. A full 40 percent of major decisions eschew BI and BA in favor of judgment calls.

There is a lot to chew on the two reports. At the highest level, there are two takeaways. The first is that the packages in which business intelligence and analytics are delivered are changing. That may to some extent be exacerbating the other conclusion, which is that despite the fact that businesses want to use these tools, they are unsure of the best way to proceed.

Posted by Carl · Filed Under Business Intelligence