I attended the IBM Business Analytics Analyst Summit in Ottawa and while I can’t tell you much about what was discussed there due to confidentiality restrictions that will be released shortly, I can share with you some of my own observations regarding the state of BI, particularly what’s wrong with it. By “wrong,” I mean why aren’t adoption rates higher? Why aren’t users more satisfied? Our Ventana Research benchmark research on BI indicates that only 37 percent of organizations are satisfied or very satisfied with their BI efforts.
Here’s my theory on what’s wrong with BI: The basic problem is that software vendors are trying to bring users to BI rather than bringing BI to users. Do you remember the phrase “BI for the masses”? In a 2005 article Industry influencer Cindy Howson already described it as a “once revolutionary phrase that has become a cliché.” One way I have seen it used by SAP Business Objects and others was to describe new and improved user interfaces that would make BI so much easier to use that adoption rates were certain to increase dramatically. It also has been used to describe browser-based interfaces that would reduce the barriers to adoption by eliminating the desktop installation process for BI.
New interfaces and easier administration are both valuable advances, but they are not what’s needed to spur widespread adoption of BI. In short, many software vendors have been focused on solving the wrong problem. They’ve been working in the labs and doing research looking for a silver bullet that makes BI so easy to use that everyone will want it. Don’t get me wrong. I applaud these efforts, and there have been significant and valuable advances as a result of these efforts. In fact, our benchmark research on Business Intelligence indicates that usability is sufficient in over half the cases. But if usability is sufficient, why hasn’t there been more adoption?
Analysts and expert BI users certainly can do more types of analyses, quicker and over more data than they could just a few years ago. However, these changes haven’t solved the problems either. Adoption rates and satisfaction levels for BI tools are still far lower than most organizations would like. I think this approach hasn’t worked because BI is not a single universal function that can be delivered to everyone in every organization in a one-size-fits-all approach. In vendor speak, the marketing claims often sound something like this: “Deploy our tool and all your BI problems will be solved.” This simply is not the case.
For truly widespread adoption, BI needs to be packaged and delivered to business users in bite-size, pleasing morsels that are easy to swallow. Or using a different analogy, you might even say “invisible” – users shouldn’t think they are using BI.
