More than half of business intelligence deployment projects fall

According to a recently released study, Business Intelligence 2020, nearly 60 percent of enterprise information management projects fail to be properly deployed and leveraged. The main reason is insufficient preparation, where the objectives and requirements for the system are not clearly defined, there is no implementation plan with the scope and timeline, and the structure and competencies of users in the organization are not properly addressed.

Business Intelligence is an umbrella term for the tools, technologies, applications, and processes that are used to collect, analyze, and present an organization’s data. The purpose is to generate clear business insights useful for its management. Investments in the acquisition of a modern BI reach millions of crowns, but a dysfunctional system cannot deliver the expected benefits, including effective management, profit growth, and cost savings.

According to Kamil Mahdal, CEO of Analytics Data Factory which implements BI systems, the first step to ensure the success of a new BI project is to chart business processes. It is necessary to identify the needs of all departments and arrange them by business function into a logical structure. This should reveal the different requirements of all stakeholders. “The actual BI implementation should be incremental, starting from high-priority functions that have the greatest impact on the company’s business. Each step should follow after sufficient time to verify the functionality of the processes and data integrity, and to address any issues. Likewise, it is important not to underestimate the importance of training users and explaining the benefits of the new system to drive adoption,” stresses Kamil Mahdal. 

Those who failed cite underutilization of the BI (71.4%), limited user adoption (65.9%), insufficient benefits for users (50.6%), and low return on investment (26.4%) as the main reasons for failure. According to the study, only less than 30 percent of organizations consider the deployment and use of BI systems to be completely successful. They mainly appreciate optimization of processes and their higher effectiveness, fast and accurate identification of both market trends and issues, and improved decision-making.

Properly implemented BI systems address many areas of business data, including manufacturing, sales, finance, and others. They provide retrospective and predictive insights into business operations, and analyze customers, partners, and competitors. The current trend is a self-service environment with a visual interface that allows even non-advanced users to easily control access and administrative functions without IT assistance.

Dresner Advisory Services has been researching most BI systems available on the market for twelve years now. Its analysts find out how organizations use the systems and with what results. They measure user experience and satisfaction and predict BI trends. The study is a recognized reference document widely used by organizations in search for new solutions.