09.04.2008

Every second company wants to invest in its BI fitness

Over the next two years, more than every second German company intends to increase its focus on business intelligence (BI) fitness. According to a survey by Actinium Consulting, external expertise for implementation and strategy development will be called upon in particular. According to the study, 57 percent of the nearly 300 companies surveyed intend to invest in their existing or a new BI infrastructure by the end of 2009. Another 19 percent have not yet made a decision on this, while business intelligence is not currently on the priority list of a quarter of the companies.

When asked which external specialist resources they would like to use to achieve greater BI fitness, support for implementation projects is in pole position with 44 percent. In second place is consulting for the development of BI strategies (39 percent). One-third of respondents also want expert advice on evaluating BI tools, but users seem to have much less need for coaching on strategies or projects. Only a good quarter of respondents want to be guided unerringly through BI projects in this way. Comparatively even less often (24 percent), they want to start with a potential analysis in order to arrive at an objective status of their individual conditions with reliable recommendations for action.It is precisely this result of the survey that Actinium CEO Klaus Hüttl finds incomprehensible. “Without a precise clarification of the initial situation, there is no stable basis for successful projects when expanding the BI infrastructure, just as there is when taking the first steps into the world of business intelligence,” he points out. A fitness check of the BI conditions must systematically analyze technical aspects as well as processes and efficiency ratios,

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The consultant is less surprised that looking at the technical implementation is valued more highly for companies than the strategic orientation. “This is the regular experience in practice, although the weak points usually lie precisely at the strategic level,” Hüttl problematizes. In this respect in particular, companies would have to ensure that a transfer of best practice approaches is made to optimize strategic alignment. “Companies often discuss technical realization before the concrete objectives have even been defined and checked for their feasibility,” he calls for a change in thinking.