I've read quite a few articles over the last year or two that talk about how Business Intelligence should be pervasive throughout a business. The theory is that more information will make anyone better at doing their job. Yet adoption rates for Business Intelligence are currently hovering around 12-15%.
So is it true? Does everyone need BI? Must it be used by everyone throughout your organization. Contrary to many of my peers, I think not!
Rolling out BI is not cheap, and in terms of cost justification, you need to take a look at who inside your business is going to be able to achieve the greatest return from use of the technology. That means that your CFO who needs a comprehensive view of the finiancial position of your business would certainly derive great benefit from having quick access to information that would otherwise be time-consuming and difficult to collect. Similarly, your VP Sales who is mandated to ensure customers are profitable would benefit from being able to keep her team focused on key accounts and products. But an order entry clerk? What's the benefit there? Or more importantly, what is the incremental benefit derived, and how does it compare to the cost of deploying the technology?
I love BI - It allows business aspects that have never been explored previously to be exposed and leveraged for great benefit. It allows companies to make information a real business asset, and to use it for successful business outcomes. But I don't buy into the idea that BI is (at this point, anyway) a business imperative for all your employees. And I suggest you don't buy into that idea either. Instead, make sure your investment in Business Intelligence is targeted at high-value projects and processes, and make them most effective. Think Quality, not quantity.
