Don't believe the hype: Business intelligence is no silver bullet!

Hugh Scantlebury is fed up with evangelists who tout 'business intelligence' as the answer to all firm's information problems.

What’s the best BI application you know?

The biggest majority of people would probably reply Google, followed by the accountant’s favourite, Excel. In their different ways, both applications give you access to a wide range of insights on a particular business with just a few keystrokes and clicks.

Why doesn’t the software that is supposed to help us make sense of our business have the same impact and deliver the decision-making information we need?

Experience suggests that disillusionment with BI is a side-effect of unfulfilled expectations raised by software sales people, probably brought about by the unforeseen complexities of implementing “traditional” BI systems. Many BI projects may have fallen victim to excessive cost, but more have withered away because the end-users were given the keys to a complicated, multidimensional analysis system that few had the training or inclination to exploit.

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