BANGALORE, INDIA: Based upon our work with Fortune 500 companies and discussions with experts in the field, the top trends in Business Intelligence are reflective of the high growth across industries such as financial services, manufacturing, telecom and retail, across the globe. Business Intelligence and data warehousing have become top priorities for most enterprises in these industries. Gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data, to help enterprise users make better business decisions has become very important in today's competitive scenario and Business Intelligence helps generate important reports to guide management decisions.

Here are some key predictions for the BI segment this year:

Trends in Business Intelligence

Strategic approach to information: Enterprises are recognising information as a strategic part of their business. Some companies have adopted the concept of 'data as an asset' but most recognise the significant value of information. Today, Business Intelligence and data warehousing have become an essential part of most businesses. Incorporating business intelligence and data warehousing into key enterprise projects optimises business processes and delivers benefits at the end.

Developing an information strategy and architecture is the first step, along with setting some basic standards for data governance.  This needs to be a joint activity of IT and business because organizational and political issues are just as important as technology issues.  IT must communicate with business to discover their needs and understand what data is really driving the answers to crucial business questions. 

Educating the end user: Companies still make the mistake of thinking that since they have built it, the result will be achieved without any problems. This is the general attitude towards Business Intelligence/Data Warehousing projects. The best solution is to educate the end user about the data that is available to them and its accuracy and value. Many organizations feel that it's enough to provide basic training on BI tools for end users. It is however essential to train users on how to analyse the data.

Focussing only on the BI tool training can actually multiply the workload of the IT help desk. A user who is trained only on BI tool will not know to use it in the context of Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing environment and will not be able to derive the required analytical results. Thus the user will more than often turn to Information Technology to do work for them or end up giving up entirely. This has led to many organizations recognising the value of complete education and training programs for end users.

Actionable Business Intelligence: Companies also want to be able to use the insights gained from their data for a more tactical decision making process. Enterprises have become more interested in dashboards and scorecards because they want to monitor their performance. Now they want to take this information and determine how to act on it. For example, manufacturing companies are more interested in understanding how to use their supply chain information to make correct and timely decisions. Timely decisions are very essential in the manufacturing sector and hence these companies want to know how they can act when they spot a problem in the supply chain. They have to act on their information in real time to make improvements. Business rules can help these companies develop step by step instructions on how to respond to data, they receive from the supply chain. Thereby with the help of these rules, companies can incorporate the instructions into their Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing systems.

Sophisticated Analytics and Data Visualization: Simple reports and queries were used for some time. The transaction then went to multidimensional analysis. These are still popular but there is a movement towards more complex, deeper analytics using data mining, statistical methods and technologies that support pure ad hoc, unplanned forms of analytics. The level of business expertise has evolved and is now much more sophisticated and advanced than it was 10 years ago. The ease with which even non-skilled users can perform these complicated analysis increases their adoption and utilization.

Companies are now able to perform operational or right-time Business Intelligence, giving the front-line workers the ability to access and use the results of these analytics, combined with operational data, for their daily activities. These capabilities just don't come into being by chance. One must also consider that they should fit into the enterprise's overall Business Intelligence architecture and the technological architecture, otherwise there would be a whole lot of confusion that will set in. Operational Business Intelligence requires complete understanding of the business process. These valuable insights cannot be implemented without this understanding. The implementers will not know where to embed the knowledge acquired. This trend has the highest impact on business intelligence.

More and more companies are investing in Business Intelligence solutions to fix old problems and move to the next level. Companies from across segments are recognising the value of BI and investing in its solutions. United States is currently the leader in the world and is closely followed by Europe. Asia Pacific is the next down the line. India has realised the significance of BI in the recent past and is quickly catching up. In the next few years, India is expected to beat many prominent countries in the Asia Pacific region