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Peak Performance, by Mark Smith
Mark Smith is the CEO and SVP of research at Ventana Research, an advisory services and research firm providing insight and education on best practices and technology in performance management. See More by Mark Smith BI & SaaS: Challenging Conventional Wisdom
The need for business intelligence (BI) is evident, but most business organizations still don't have the information or insights needed to improve their decision making. The debate rages on: has IT been delivering BI effectively or does the responsibility lie within business? My recent blog, "Why Business Should Be Mad as Hell at IT," injected the frustration of business on this topic into the debate, and it generated some hearty discussion on who is responsible and why both IT and business don't work more closely together. Unfortunately, the pressure to reduce costs and resources in IT has impacted many organizations' ability to dedicate further attention to BI. The reality is that each organization will have to determine how IT should prioritize budgets and resources for BI and how to respond to this growing need. Business knows the problems quite well, and limitations of existing BI efforts has proliferated further spreadsheet use. And as we all know, the copy and paste function of spreadsheets leads to inaccuracy and hampers quality decision-making. We are seeing organizations that were previously handcuffed by IT inaction and lack of focus on BI now turning to software as a service (SaaS) as a new method to gain access to the software and their data. The combination of BI and SaaS introduces the concept of "BI as a Service" that can complement or be an alternative way of accelerating BI in an organization. Instead of purchasing the software and implementing, users can rent the software on a monthly cost-per-user or usage basis and can scale up or down as needed. This approach lets business find value quickly once the data is fed to the supplier in a routine manner. Then you can see your data and metrics when you want them and can gain further intelligence on your business. BI as a Service is now being used by hundreds of companies like yours. Some vendors that I have begun research coverage on are BlinkLogic, myDIALS and PivotLink. Many more are new players in the BI market and I'm awaiting company and customer validation to ensure they are ready for primetime. Let me know your thoughts.  E-MAIL | SLASHDOT | DIGG This is a public forum. CMP Technology and its affiliates are not responsible for and do not control what is posted herein. CMP Technology makes no warranties or guarantees concerning any advice dispensed by its staff members or readers. Community standards in this comment area do not permit hate language, excessive profanity, or other patently offensive language. Please be aware that all information posted to this comment area becomes the property of CMP Media LLC and may be edited and republished in print or electronic format as outlined in CMP Technology's Terms of Service. Important Note: This comment area is NOT intended for commercial messages or solicitations of business.
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