Getting the best from business intelligence

To gain maximum benefit from your BI system, it should be simple enough for any non-IT executive to use from day one, says Paul Magee.

What exactly is Business Intelligence?

Paul Magee. Business Intelligence (BI) should provide transparency of, and accessibility to, company data across myriad digital data sources to business users, regardless of their seniority or level of IT expertise. Traditionally BI has been complex, designed for large organisations with substantial IT resources. However, we are now seeing a shift in demand towards BI systems that are easier to use and more cost-effective.

BI helps companies make sense of what is performing and what isn't - visibility that is particularly important during a downturn. A recession brings increased scrutiny at all levels, so more companies are using BI analytics to closely monitor performance. The value proposition BI offers now extends beyond large companies into smaller and middle-market organisations, and it's a question now of how quickly BI vendors can catch up and meet this new market demand.

Analysts have highlighted BI as a fast-growing technology sector. Do you think this growth in adoption will continue?

PM. Over the past few years the BI market has seen unprecedented growth, with Gartner's CIO surveys ranking BI as a number one priority four years in a row. As expected, the recession has impacted adoption slightly, however, a recent report by IDC predicts steady continuing growth through 2014, by which time the market will be worth $11.3 billion.

I think this growth will be largely fuelled by product developments utilising Software as a Service (SaaS) and mobile technology. At Phocas we have seen significant demand already for our browser-based BI tool Phocas Xpress, launched earlier this year. It enables users to analyse their data from anywhere in the world with an internet connection, and in today's 24/7 business environment BI any place, anytime is an attractive proposition.
One issue is that most first generation BI systems are complex programmes, heavily reliant upon IT staff to operate them. Because business users can't use these systems themselves, many older BI investments simply become shelfware.
My view is that BI should be a simple, easy-to-use technology that provides business executives direct access to their data. This makes it more attractive to smaller companies too, as there isn't the requirement for dedicated IT staff.

What do CXOs need to know when considering BI adoption?

PM. BI is designed to make your data work harder for you. The first step to achieving this is to work out what questions you want to ask of it, however this is not necessarily straightforward. Until you start drilling down and exploring the data, the questions you should be asking are not always obvious.

If your BI tool only provides the answers to the questions posed by each query, it can take a long time before you start understanding where the performance issues and opportunities are.

However, some modern BI systems let the user run ad-hoc queries and play with their data at their own pace, helping them identify the questions they need to be asking and helping them spot opportunities on the fly.

BI should also be simple enough for any non-IT executive to use from day one. To overcome the mental barrier to technology that some non-technical staff have, you should clearly demonstrate how BI quickly turns a set of daunting numerical values into sales opportunities, customer satisfaction rates and stock levels.

BI has typically been positioned as a sales tool. Does it offer value elsewhere in the organisation?

PM. I think companies that restrict BI access to senior sales and management are usually missing a trick. Sales tends to be the first department to start using BI, but it quickly catches on elsewhere in procurement, logistics, customer services - growth you should plan for from day one. BI that is offered on a subscription basis allows scalability based on business need, and in a short space of time you should see the tool become a core business asset. Or, as one of our customers recently put it to me, "the indispensible heartbeat of the organisation."

Biography

Paul Magee is Managing Director of Phocas Ltd in the UK and Phocas Group.

With an honours degree in Industrial Economics and Accountancy from Nottingham University, Paul joined Burroughs Computers in 1980, initially in the UK and later in New Zealand. In 1988, he joined CSB Ltd and headed the takeover of Steeple Computers Ltd. In 1994, he led the MBO of CSB Steeple from the CSB Group. In 1999 CSB Steeple created the independent company of Phocas Ltd.