Is BI building to be buzzword of 2012?

Business intelligence events spur thoughts of monthly presentations

By Simon Eskow, Auckland | Thursday, 15 December 2011
Most CFOs and CIOs place business intelligence at the top of their priority lists over other IT considerations such as the cloud or mobility, according to research presented at recent Microsoft events.

But only a fraction of BI initiatives currently connect users in an organisation to meaningful data.

These were key points made during Microsoft’s Big Picture roundtable presentations held in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland from November 22 to November 24.

The events featured keynote presentations from John Brand, principal analyst at Forrester Research, customer case studies, and discussion on where Microsoft’s cloud, software and appliances (with hardware partner, HP) fit into the market.

While BI is already trending as an IT buzzword for the coming year, Steve Haddock, Microsoft’s cloud computing and server and tools marketing group lead, says successful implementation of BI is not strictly a technology issue.

“I think we’ve got to be careful it doesn’t become a cliche, or even worse, an oxymoron,” Haddock says. “The really interesting thing that came out from the executives at the Big Picture is that successful BI is about people, culture and process. The most successful leaders to get this are the ones that are building to leave a legacy, not to look like a hero.”

Organisations, especially in smaller companies where individuals wear more than one hat, must have a “thought leader” to “own” the business intelligence.

“It comes back to who is the one that says this is our vision, this is our goal, and that every report we need done comes back to what we are trying to achieve,” he says.

Consultants or resellers can work with clients to determine what kind of data they want disseminated to their team, see what kind of data is already there and tell them what they need to do to get the rest.

“A lot of people’s first thoughts around BI is general ledger stuff — what’s the sales, what’s the margin, what’s the stuff on hand. That’s business as usual. If you haven’t got that sorted, you have a bigger problem,” Haddock says. “The growth and success of the company ultimately and the competitiveness of the company is around everything else. If you haven’t got your GL you don’t even know if you’re competitive now.”

Microsoft, which was listed as a leader in Gartner’s BI platform Magic Quadrant in 2011, says it offers a “cloud-ready information platform” for BI through Office, SharePoint, and management tools on the SQL Server platform.