By Mark Brousseau
When Colleen Graham, research director at Gartner, looks at trends in the business intelligence market, she sees two 800 pound gorillas for organizations to consider: business intelligence mega-vendors (the result of vendor consolidation over the past few years) and the weakening economy.
“Besides figuring out how to deal with the mega-vendors, you also have to figure out how your organization is going to deal with the economy. Organizations had to turn on a dime as a result of the economy,” Graham told attendees at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2009 in Washington, D.C. The good news: “We’re seeing more organizations looking at business intelligence as a life line; a way to run the business smarter, to use existing resources better, to do more marketing, to gain market share and beat their competition. There is a growing realization that information is an asset that organizations need to leverage,” she said.
“For many organizations, business intelligence is like a lot of new projects: it is under pressure,” Graham told attendees. “But the market is still growing. Business intelligence is not a commodity yet. Business intelligence can make every dollar count. It can help organizations drive toward strategic goals while meeting near-term needs.”
Graham expects business intelligence to enjoy continued growth as a result of lower technology prices and the fact that business intelligence functionality such as reporting and analytics is being embedded in other products, such as predictive modeling, workflow and virtualization. “Business intelligence is becoming more available. It used to be only in the hands of mega users. Now, business intelligence is spreading to more users in the organization and reaching beyond the firewall to partners and customers.” Graham sees the highest growth rates for business intelligence in operations; users are becoming more sophisticated and more accustomed to using analytics in their day-to-day lives, Graham said. She expects business intelligence usage to double by 2013.
Against this backdrop, Graham thinks there are few things to watch for from vendors:
... Creative financing deals
... Maintenance revenue becoming increasingly important for vendors
... Pricing pressures and bundling
... Infrastructure-light business intelligence
... Users looking to leverage what they already have
... Open source and SaaS solutions getting a push
... More departmental-level business intelligence
What do you think? Post your comments below.
Showing posts with label process management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label process management. Show all posts
Monday, March 9, 2009
The BIg Discrepancy
By Mark Brousseau
Despite the wide range of skills and technology available to support business intelligence and performance management, many organizations still struggle to deliver success in this area, John van Decker, research vice president at Gartner said today during a keynote presentation at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2009 in Washington, D.C.
“For years, organizations have been saying that business intelligence is a high initiative, but the business areas have not seen the value,” van Decker told the standing-room only crowd. “We don’t want to downplay that many organizations have had great success with business intelligence and performance management. We want to point out that there is an opportunity here.”
Kurt Schlegal, also a research vice president at Gartner, and co-presenter of the keynote address, said there are five key reasons for this discrepancy:
... No IT/ business partnership
... No link to corporate strategy
... No connection to the process
... No governance or too much
... No skills
Van Decker warned attendees that simply buying more business intelligence technology is not always the answer. The answer has to center around business process management and how organizations leverage technology to improve the business process. “Many companies have tried hard to establish architectural standards for business intelligence strategy, but in many cases, they are trying to retrofit business intelligence strategy where they had already bought tools. That is difficult. To drive the business case is to drive business intelligence strategy forward.”
In spite of the cost-cutting necessitated by the recession, van Decker said organizations also must ensure their competitive position. And business intelligence can help. “Unfortunately, organizations are being forced to cut head count,” van Decker said. “But organizations can’t take an axe to cost-cutting. They need to be more strategic and more surgical. Business intelligence needs to be a top strategic initiative, well supported and well funded.”
Mounting regulations will also force organizations to take a harder look at business intelligence initiatives. “You need to do it internally, but you will be forced to do it externally [in response to anticipated new regulations],” van Decker said. “It is good to be ahead of the game.”
Schlegal concluded: “Now, more than ever, we need business intelligence. We need systems that bring information together.”
What do you think? Post your comments below.
Despite the wide range of skills and technology available to support business intelligence and performance management, many organizations still struggle to deliver success in this area, John van Decker, research vice president at Gartner said today during a keynote presentation at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2009 in Washington, D.C.
“For years, organizations have been saying that business intelligence is a high initiative, but the business areas have not seen the value,” van Decker told the standing-room only crowd. “We don’t want to downplay that many organizations have had great success with business intelligence and performance management. We want to point out that there is an opportunity here.”
Kurt Schlegal, also a research vice president at Gartner, and co-presenter of the keynote address, said there are five key reasons for this discrepancy:
... No IT/ business partnership
... No link to corporate strategy
... No connection to the process
... No governance or too much
... No skills
Van Decker warned attendees that simply buying more business intelligence technology is not always the answer. The answer has to center around business process management and how organizations leverage technology to improve the business process. “Many companies have tried hard to establish architectural standards for business intelligence strategy, but in many cases, they are trying to retrofit business intelligence strategy where they had already bought tools. That is difficult. To drive the business case is to drive business intelligence strategy forward.”
In spite of the cost-cutting necessitated by the recession, van Decker said organizations also must ensure their competitive position. And business intelligence can help. “Unfortunately, organizations are being forced to cut head count,” van Decker said. “But organizations can’t take an axe to cost-cutting. They need to be more strategic and more surgical. Business intelligence needs to be a top strategic initiative, well supported and well funded.”
Mounting regulations will also force organizations to take a harder look at business intelligence initiatives. “You need to do it internally, but you will be forced to do it externally [in response to anticipated new regulations],” van Decker said. “It is good to be ahead of the game.”
Schlegal concluded: “Now, more than ever, we need business intelligence. We need systems that bring information together.”
What do you think? Post your comments below.
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