Business Intelligence 2.0
Feb 25, 2007The business intelligence (BI) market is now officially getting the 2.0 treatment. It may have something to do with the fact that, according to a recent Accenture survey, managers say the majority of information obtained for for their work is useless. The survey results are not be surprising to people who have followed this industry for some time, but they are concerning nonetheless:
"Managers spend up to two hours a day searching for information, and more than 50 percent of the information they obtain has no value to them. In addition, only half of all managers believe their companies do a good job in governing information distribution or have established adequate processes to determine what data each part of an organization needs."
Clearly the promise of BI for most organizations is not being met. But when you start to dig into the emergence of this new "BI 2.0" label, you quickly discover that at best it's a vision and at worst it's just another marketing term being used by both industry analysts and vendors attempting to re-brand, re-energize, and hopefully re-position the category and themselves. While this is not a new tactic, it's one that has caused considerable schizophrenia, internal debate, and ultimately customer confusion in this market since its earliest days. From executive information systems (EIS), to online analytical procession (OLAP), to decision support systems (DSS), to data warehousing, to business intelligence, to business analytics, to performance management -- there has been no shortage of terms used to describe the tools, applications, and processes that are now getting the royal 2.0 treatment. And the royal treatment it is certainly getting...
- There's a BI 2.0 conference and a DW 2.0 conference later this year;
- There's a free e-book available on BI 2.0;
- There are numerous articles and surveys on business performance management (BPM) 2.0 (which also focuses on operational analytics with a slant towards dashboards, scorecards, and financial budgeting and planning);
- And of course there's already cynicism.
But new marketing messages and hype aside, the 2.0 treatment for the BI industry will ultimately be a good thing if it forces the vendors to focus more on the users and less on the infrastructure. If it means that analytic insight will be available within business processes and historical and real-time information will be available in a way that people understand, it will be a major step forward. But to be successful, BI 2.0 will have to be simple and collaborative to meet the expectations set by Web 2.0. And of course it will also have to be delivered on demand!
Check out our AppExchange Analytics partners to see BI 2.0 starting to go from industry hype to customer reality thanks to the power of the Apex Platform.
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BI 2.0 is a term we are certainly seeing more of, but let’s not be fooled by “2.0”, the new era of BI is already here with its need to be proactive, real-time, and operational. The BI 2.0 era is a natural progression that isn’t replacing traditional BI, but extending it. We know that most enterprise applications follow the direction of the Web, and that people are attracted to collaboration and networking. Enabling similar freedoms of expression makes BI 2.0 a sure thing.
By recognizing that a flood of data is not helpful to managers searching for actionable information, companies like Spotfire have created software that allows more users to have an interactive, fast and flexible look at data. By putting the power in the hands of analysts and decision-makers this new kind of BI, which we call “next generation BI” really does change the BI game as compared to traditional solutions.
So, before we throw the baby out with the bathwater, we should look at the realities and not get lost in an automatic negative reaction to the “2.0” monster.
Posted by: Mark Lorion | February 26, 2007 at 01:56 PM
Hi Darren --
The real problem behind current BI approaches (I guess it should call it BI 1.0?) is embodied in the text you quote: "only half of all managers believe their companies do a good job in governing information distribution." Traditional BI has relied on IT to govern what employees see. But, how can an IT department be expected to know what information every employee really needs to see? You run into all the problems that centrally run socialist economies run into.
Instead, give the power back to the employee. It's their own success that's on the line, so give them the power to determine for themselves what information will make them most successful. IT's role should be to make sure processes are in place to capture relevant data, and then make that data available to employees. Then give the employees the right solutions to get the information they feel is most important.
As individuals, we seem to do just fine sifting through the sea information on the web to find information that we need for our personal lives. We should have the same ability in the workplace. That's what my company (LucidEra) is focused on. I believe that a hosted reporting and analysis service focused on the business person rather than on IT is really what "BI 2.0" is about.
Posted by: Ken Rudin | February 26, 2007 at 05:49 PM
Hi Darren-
One trend that I've noticed in "BI 2.0" is the emergence of actionable, collaborative Business Performance Management (BPM) solutions. Rather than seeking to give an analyst 50 ways to slice and dice a cube to find out the price of red shoes in Duluth on Thursday, BPM tools are better suited to help report operational analytics - How much did we sell? Are we making goal? Who are my top sales people? How far am I from my bonus? What parts of my pipeline are sticky? Which products aren't selling? Which are?
These are the types of BI content that have relevance throughout an organization. These are the features that make users want to use the "BI 2.0" app long after the novelty of "all that power" has worn off.
I've noticed both Mark and Ken above have talked about putting more power in the hands of the users. I'd respectfully suggest, however, that giving users more "power" is not the problem. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of powerful BI software already sits unused on the shelf in many Fortune 500 companies.
The problem is providing easy to use content that addresses the specific needs of a wide swath of users. We (at Visual Mining) don't believe that BI should be limited to just analysts and executives. Providing relevant, actionable BPM can produce benefits for just about any information worker at any level in the enterprise. Add to that collaboration - Shouldn't the subordinate see the same measures that the boss is evaluating him or her on? Shouldn't users on the front lines have a forum to comment on factors influencing the data? In our view, it's these kind of features that will make BI 2.0 different from BI 1.0.
Finally, when BPM is coupled with a pure Software-as-a-Service delivery mechanism, it exponentially increases the solution's value. Now users get the benefits of SaaS (low-risk, easy access, no maintenance, automatic upgrades, etc.) with the power of BPM (timely information, relevant data, actionable/collaborative content, etc.).
It's a beautiful thing. :-)
Mike MacDonald
Posted by: Mike MacDonald | February 27, 2007 at 10:54 AM
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. Since I wrote this I've realized that Gartner has also jumped all over "BI 2.0" (http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39285700,00.htm). Does that mean it's real or just that we'll see more vendors promoting it? While I agree with the message of Ken's comment, it does remind me of the tried-and-true "information democracy" term that's been used repeatedly in the industry since day one. My hope is that the required focus on ease of use and, as Mike points out, the elimination of shelfware thanks to the on-demand model will finally make it a reality. Maybe it's time for information democracy 2.0! This is a great discussion. Other thoughts?
Posted by: Darren Cunningham | February 28, 2007 at 07:12 AM
The vendor community has been a big part of this problem.
The focus of the Business Intelligence (BI) industry has been selling complicated platforms and their toolkits to IT. Problem is it’s management who makes the decisions and needs the intelligence.
In many companies IT buys and then assembles this “tinker toy” stuff into complicated frameworks that were never designed around how business people work. The result is often a complete mismatch with what management needs.
It is not uncommon for corporate departments to run hundreds of reports each day that are of no help to executives seeking to use the data to make decisions. When companies turn to the market for assistance, it becomes obvious that there is an enormous gap between reporting programs and very expensive, high-end analytical offerings which require individuals with statistics and/or programming expertise.
In order for companies to be successful, managers must be able to make quick, important decisions based upon available information. They must also be able to understand and analyze information without relying on others to prepare or interpret the results.
BI software must grow up. It’s not about the technology. It’s about the answers that drive new business or cut costs. You shouldn’t have to employ an entire department of IT folks to generate reports for executives. BI must move beyond complexity to simplicity. That's certainly our vision at ADVIZOR.
Doug Cogswell
Posted by: Doug Cogwell | February 28, 2007 at 02:29 PM
Is BI 2.0 just a long list of the features that the vendors had already been planning to implement in this space? Or, by analogy to Web 2.0, is it rather about consumer BI, communities, and collaboration? I suspect BI 2.0 will mostly be driven by companies that think that they are in the "mashup" business, and that traditional BI vendors will have to move fast keep their existing market positions. http://www.timoelliott.com/blog/2007/03/bi_20.html
Posted by: Timo Elliott | March 05, 2007 at 10:23 AM
This use of 2.0 is sort of unfortunate, but I did use it in a number of articles and white papers. Personally, I'd like to get away from the term BI completely, because it's been flogged to death. I just don't have a substitute.
I've set out some ideas for BI, most recently in IntellgentEnterprise and DMReview, but it boils down to this - BI didn't work. The same people who use BI would have used FOCUS or EXCEL or both if they had to. We haven't had much impact on the way decisions are made. Ease of use was not the answer, it was the excuse. Relevance is the answer. Understand what people do for a living and give them something relevant that helps them. A big baloney slicer (thanks Juice Analytics) didn't help.
There are a lot of other issues too. Read the articles and papers, I can't repeat it all here.
As for the AppExchange, there are some intriguing applications there, but I don't see an enterprise-wide solution yet. BI 2.0 has to be woven into the fabric of the organization, not applied piecemeal. To do that, it needs a whole new metaphor.
Posted by: Neil Raden | April 05, 2007 at 01:39 PM