Over the years BI has gone through revisions in relation to the biggest marketing buzzwords and the push on how organizations should adopt BI – whether BI for the masses, self-service BI, operational BI, collaboration, and the like – all have benefits to organizations but based on actual business requirements, each cannot be applied equally within all companies. In general though, the feeling within the BI market has always been that access to business intelligence is too reliant upon IT and the infrastructure that supports it. What solution providers are starting to do is create solutions that are business user driven within an environment that can support different forms of interactivity and integrate multiple data forms.
Adding to this is the way solution providers like iWay, Dataflux, Kalido, etc. are building broader platforms to address the issues associated with data management and not just one area of data warehousing or master data management. By combining areas within the realm of data management, organizations can now address their overarching data issues that affect all initiatives related to customer experience, suppliers, partner networks, performance, and the like. Couple this with BI and end user driven applications and businesses can develop a roadmap for successful data management and visibility initiatives.
Overall, what this means for organizations is that solution providers are moving into the realm of full-service solutions. Whether through acquisitions such as the Oracles, SAP’s, and IBM’s of the world, or through enhancing market offerings, vendors are starting to develop a more holistic approach to effective business driven decision making and its convergence with data management. As many solution providers offer business user focused applications, the market turns towards the demands of making everything available. This means that the ability to access information from any vantage point is no longer enough. Organizations require the ability to access the information they need when they require it, in any fashion to make informed decisions. Add to this the integration of data management and data governance practices, and businesses can now develop a holistic approach to data management that will help them achieve the TCO and ROI that has so long been elusive within BI environments.
