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What’s Lacking in Business Intelligence Software?

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A great question that Jaime Brugueras, CEO of Mineful addresses in his Software Advice blog What's Lacking In BI.  It seems that building the definitive Business Intelligence (BI) system is like chasing a dream.   We get close, but never quite there.

There are many reasons that currently Business Intelligence systems miss the boat….  Jaime, quite correctly identifies some key pain points.   Here they are with our comments: 

• Data integration – A huge challenge but a key for BI success.   It is the most fundamental to the process.   Have bad, cumbersome data and the users don’t get what they need.   Also with data coming from everywhere – how do we integrate data from different sources?  Often unstructured sources.
   
• Delivery needs – Not everyone needs the same information, with the same level of detail.  BI needs to have targeted deliverables to the appropriate user.  Otherwise, many users will get lost in a sea of data, with no clue as to how to get to what they need to run their business.
   
• Too complicated – The kiss of death to any system.   Complicated tools are barriers to usage - often large barriers.  That’s partially the reason for a preponderance of Excel usage with data coming from BI platforms.   If users don’t feel comfortable with the software, they go off the grid very rapidly and go to what they are most comfortable with.
   
• Lack of action – Here Jaime makes the point of having alerts to trends both positive and negative.  While many Business Intelligence Software systems have notification applications, They are a challenge to manage.  At what level do you filter?  Too granular and you get lost in the forest, too general and you miss the trend.  Predictive analytics is certainly an interesting and positive direction.   Actionable data is the hallmark of a good BI implementation.
   
• Too expensive – Cost is always an issue.  Not only the cost of the system, but even the cost of prototyping an application.   How do you know if it’s the right system?  Often, prototyping is in Excel and that’s where the systems remain (not always a bad thing), but it’s very challenging to start small and grow.

All these pain points are on target…  So where do we go from here?  Building the ultimate Business Intelligence system is Impossible, therefore determining the right one for your user community…  What actionable information do your users need?   How does it need to be delivered, web, mobile, dashboards?  What is your data structure?  Different data sources?

Answering those questions will help provide a roadmap to which BI Software will work for your organization.