Moving Beyond Common SMB BI Implementation Knowledge Challenges

Recently, I attended the Enterprise Data & BI Conference Europe in London. The conference focused on many different BI and data management related topics, many of which support mid-market goals to achieve greater visibility and better analytics.

Recently, I attended the Enterprise Data & BI Conference Europe in London. The conference focused on many different BI and data management related topics, many of which support mid-market goals to achieve greater visibility and better analytics. The takeaway most interesting to me was the fact that many SMBs are still struggling with their BI implementations. Many are either starting from scratch or trying to figure out how to expand their traditional BI implementations. Neither of which are easy as both require the ability to translate business requirements into technical needs and apply the right set of tools to meet the needs of the business.

The reality is that many organizations don’t even know where to start. This includes a general inability to develop the proper cohesion between business units sponsoring projects and IT required to develop the BI infrastructure. Within the European market, this seems like one of the most common situations among SMBs. One in which the market does not seem to be taking advantage as much as it could be. With the technology available today and the pricing coming down to be able to meet the budget restrictions of smaller organizations, midsize organizations require the guidance to understand the technology and key differentiations in the market. More than once, I have been approached to help organizations with their shortlist requirements to be asked about vendor offerings that should not be considered during the same evaluation due to the fact they were developed to address completely different business challenges. The issue remains that many organizations are still uncertain what key differentiations exist among products.

Part of implementing the best fit choice requires this level of knowledge. Basically, organizations need to take a step back and look deeper than what they see via online marketing and develop an understanding of how specific offerings can meet their needs and help them address their business challenges. The ability to combine this level of understanding with what business users require is what can help organizations develop BI applications that are easy to interact with and flexible to take into account future scalability requirements.

This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit  IBM’s Midsize Insider. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

business intelligence / shutterstock