Dresner’s Point: Ready for the “2014ization” of Business Intelligence?

I don’t like making predictions, so rest assured this is not another of a myriad of predictions articles that hit the media annually. Instead, let’s kick start the year with some definite plans and aspirations of companies in the business intelligence sphere. A great place for an insightful, real-world view of BI trends is my weekly #BIWisdom tweetchats with BI customers, vendors and consultants.

What is your organization planning to try to achieve in 2014? When I recently asked the #BIWisdom tribe this question, their tweets made it immediately clear that their companies are gearing up for achieving even greater value from business intelligence than they have to date.

Plans Include:

• More mobile BI
• More BI demos with real-life applications
• Get more into mobile BI as it helps to reach the masses and get closer to “Information Democracy”
• Explore the sharing potential of BI and the power to integrate additional sources at any point in the BI stack
• BI methodology is big on our checklist for this year
• Get up to speed with some of the specialized tools in the BI stack; it’s hard to keep up with the toolsets released so far for data integration, data quality, data management and data security
• Migrating to current versions of BI software; for innovations in BI software you need the newest versions. Examples: user empowerment and the speed of getting answers (not just reports)
• There is a growing interest in data that tells stories; keep up with advances in storyboarding to package visual analytics that might fill some gaps in communication and collaboration
• Monitor rumblings about trend to shift data to secure storage outside the U.S. due to the NSA revelations
• Expand basic BI to more users (not just multi-page dashboards, but targeted BI); mobile BI will certainly drive the expansion
• Have BI super-users engage with others to expand the penetration of BI among users
• Increase use of self-service products to provide more value and increase adoption of BI tools

Aspirations:

• More predictive analytics to learn more about Big Data
• Expand more into embedded BI
• Do more with text analytics; there’s a lot to mine from text analysis

Location intelligence:

The group also tweeted about a new thrust in business intelligence functionality — location intelligence or location analytics. Will it have legs in 2014, I asked? Definitely, they responded.
One person tweeted: “I’m close to this topic and see activity and a lot of interest growing in this area.”
Another tweeted, “Through the use of location analytics organization can see new patterns in their data that graphs and charts don’t reveal.”

Mobile and location are intertwined — two sides of the same coin — so it should have legs this year. Here at Dresner Advisory Services we’ll publish a report on our first Wisdom of Crowds® Market Study on Location Intelligence in February 2014.

Bottom line:

The #BIWisdom tribe’s tweets aren’t mere hopes. These folks are not punching above their weight. They have experienced success with BI so far and are building on that success to mine for greater value.

Judging by their comments, we have new BI trends to monitor as we watch the “2014ization” of BI unfold. Which trends will rise to prominence?

I’d love to know what plans and aspirations your company has for 2014. Please post your comment.

Click Here to Purchase Your Copy of the 2013 Wisdom of Crowds ® Mobile Computing & Mobile Business Intelligence Market Study

Howard Dresner is president, founder and chief research officer at Dresner Advisory Services, LLC, an independent advisory firm. He is one of the foremost thought leaders in Business Intelligence and Performance Management, having coined the term “Business Intelligence” in 1989. He has published two books on the subject, The Performance Management Revolution — Business Results through Insight and Action, and Profiles in Performance — Business Intelligence Journeys and the Roadmap for Change. He hosts a weekly tweet chat (#BIWisdom) on Twitter each Friday. Prior to Dresner Advisory Services, Howard served as chief strategy officer at Hyperion Solutions and was a research fellow at Gartner, where he led its Business Intelligence research practice for 13 years.

Dresner’s Point: Why do Some BI Sprouts Lead to Failure?

Over the years of conducting our Wisdom of Crowds® Business Intelligence Market Study on various aspects of BI the percentage of respondents that report success with their BI initiatives increases each time. Yet there are still some that report failures.

Success begets even more success, of course. What enables an outcome of “mission accomplished” and what causes failures? This has been a topic of debates several times in our Friday #BIWisdom tweetchats.
Our market studies consistently reveal that key contributors to success are management commitment, organizational stability, focused implementation and requisite skills. So it follows that the opposite characteristics would lead to failure: lack of management commitment, unstable organization and lack of skills.

But my #BIWisdom tweetchat participants have expanded that picture with their real-world experiences as users, vendors and consultants. In our debates, they swept past the key characteristics and honed in on a central issue — How do organizations decide that a BI implementation failed?

Is the deciding factor that the company does poorly, or that the users are dissatisfied, or is it a combination of both factors? And what constitutes a “user” in this aspect; is it only users with decision authority? Is the deciding factor among end users the fact that vendors say the technology answers problems all on its own and thus there is not enough emphasis on process, training, briefings, change management? Is it the lack of a long-term vision and commitment, which then causes the BI solution to go stale and subsequently be perceived as a failure?

Failure is a relevant term; in some organizations the IT department may say the BI initiative is a success but end users say it’s a failure because they can’t use the tool.

A participant tweeted that evaluating whether or not a BI implementation fails should be like a doctor’s evaluation, checking for various symptoms to determine whether the implementation is “healthy.” From their own experiences, the #BIWisdom participants came up with a list of “symptoms” criteria for evaluating success or failure.

Someone tweeted that user adoption is the only symptom that counts. Someone else stated that it isn’t the only criterion, but it’s the most important one. Another participant disagreed, saying that it’s important that the users adopt a tool that delivers correct data and information.

Another tweeted that early adoption is critical. And someone else countered that an influential stakeholder’s adoption is the most critical factor, adding that “one negative C-level opinion is all it takes for failure.” One person stated that success requires “adoption from the C-suite to the shop floor.”

Several #BIWisdom folks pointed out that each department head in an organization might have different success criteria —ease of use, governance, integration, for example. And several opined that revenue and growth are the most important success criteria.

Another tweeted opinion is that success with BI analytics tools requires corresponding transformation of business processes.

And there was this bit of tweeted wisdom: “Failure is any BI deliverable that doesn’t result in a changed process or decisions. Otherwise, what was the point of the initiative?”

So the discussion shifted to context and actionability as well as measurement of success.
“But how can you measure ‘understanding?’” asked one of the group. “And what if you can’t prove you improved?” Another participant added that some business processes don’t lend themselves to measurement. So it’s “a bit like a scientist’s problem of mere observation impacting results of an experiment,” he added.
I think this tweet sums up the final opinions of the group: “It’s fair to say that evaluation of success or failure is a measurement of whether the BI initiative enabled change. After all, if it just proves your organization is perfect, the expense of evaluating the outcome isn’t justified.”

Bottom line: Of course failures also are learning experiences. But my experience and observation is that in successful organizations business intelligence is how people stay aligned with the mission and strategy.
Therefore, if BI is that crucial to an organization’s success, it begs the question: Does the BI industry do enough to ensure initial customer success with BI tools and solutions?

>> Click here to view our full catalog of Business Intelligence research products <<

Howard Dresner is president, founder and chief research officer at Dresner Advisory Services, LLC, an independent advisory firm. He is one of the foremost thought leaders in Business Intelligence and Performance Management, having coined the term “Business Intelligence” in 1989. He has published two books on the subject, The Performance Management Revolution — Business Results through Insight and Action, and Profiles in Performance — Business Intelligence Journeys and the Roadmap for Change. He hosts a weekly tweet chat (#BIWisdom) on Twitter each Friday. Prior to Dresner Advisory Services, Howard served as chief strategy officer at Hyperion Solutions and was a research fellow at Gartner, where he led its Business Intelligence research practice for 13 years.

Dresner’s Point: Involve Customers and Suppliers in Your BI Chain

August 15, 2013

Do you remember when you thought it was too risky to purchase something online? Remember when you held out for a while and didn’t immediately hop on board the bandwagon like others to enjoy the convenience of paying your bills via online banking? Or maybe you still haven’t taken those plunges. The same phenomenon is affecting some organizations’ entrée into cloud-delivered business intelligence. But others have injected a big dose of value creation into their BI activities by moving to the cloud.

In fact, one of the significant nuggets in our recent 2013 Wisdom of Crowds® Cloud Business Intelligence Market Study is that organizations targeting external users (customers and suppliers) are the biggest users of cloud BI. It makes sense because of the cloud’s scalability and elasticity —and the ability to isolate those users from internal systems..

Integrating end-to-end value chains is definitely valuable, from the perspectives of data source as well as delivery. Without involving customers and suppliers in the BI chain, you don’t get full value. In addition, delivering BI in the cloud (private or public) allows organizations to spend their resources on innovation as opposed to operations. The cloud’s elasticity and pay-as-you-grow pricing model makes it easier to budget and allocate resources.

So why are some organizations opting for traditional BI instead of tapping into the value of BI through the cloud? I wanted to take a deeper look at this from the perspectives of the tribe at my Friday #BIWisdom tweetchats. Their positions and insights span the horizon of buyers, vendors, and analysts, and they’re on the cusp of what’s happening in the business intelligence space.

On a recent Friday we plunged into a discussion about the nuances of adding customers and suppliers to the BI value chain. The tribe members’ real-world observations align with our survey findings around the top barriers to adopting cloud BI — security issues and loss of control.

It all comes down to trust.

The tribe tweeted that one of the points of moving BI to the cloud is to give some control to users. But that power shift can be significant, and not fully understanding the risks causes some uneasiness. Tweets pointed out that:

• “Internal users having control is one things, but external users (customers and suppliers) affecting control could present risks.”
• “By giving these external partners more control of what data/information they see via the cloud, they may bring their own agendas into your BI.”

“Where do you draw the line?” they asked.

When it comes to the barrier of security, several participants tweeted that in reality data is no more secure these days inside the organization than it is in a public cloud (think NSA). Nevertheless, perception is as important as reality. Most of them agreed with me that inadequate security is an easy crutch to lean on when there are other hidden agendas for not moving to the cloud.

I asked the tribe what needs to happen for cloud BI to earn more trust to overcome the control and security barriers. Policy changes? Education? New technology?

• A member suggested that executives might gain more trust if the cost drops to the point where that trust is bought. Another said trust can’t be bought, especially since the days of Enron.
• Someone else tweeted that big brands like Amazon help overcome the trust issue and cloud providers are bending over backwards these days to show security and compliance.
• One was of the opinion that “Trust with the cloud is only as good as the gap between now and the next news story on compromised or lost data. Even if you lose cloud data because of internal mistakes, people will still remember that it was in the cloud when it happened.”

My view: Trust takes time. After all, some people still won’t pay their bills online.

Bottom line: For some organizations, bringing customers and suppliers into their BI corral is a good starting point for moving BI to the cloud. And delivering greater value through cloud BI can be the proving ground that leads to larger acceptance within the organization.

Because of the trust issue, most organizations will opt for private cloud BI before moving across to public clouds. Organizations that don’t want to fully move BI to the cloud right away will find the right mix of on-premises and cloud that works best for them.

The cloud will continue to disrupt the business intelligence space just as it has in all other aspects of technology. And whether or not there is a trust issue, cloud BI will catch on just as e-commerce did when people realized they liked the benefits of shopping online.

Click Here to Purchase Your Copy of the 2013 Wisdom of Crowds ® CloudBI Market Study

Howard Dresner is president, founder and chief research officer at Dresner Advisory Services, LLC, an independent advisory firm. He is one of the foremost thought leaders in Business Intelligence and Performance Management, having coined the term “Business Intelligence” in 1989. He has published two books on the subject, The Performance Management Revolution — Business Results through Insight and Action, and Profiles in Performance — Business Intelligence Journeys and the Roadmap for Change. He hosts a weekly tweet chat (#BIWisdom) on Twitter each Friday. Prior to Dresner Advisory Services, Howard served as chief strategy officer at Hyperion Solutions and was a research fellow at Gartner, where he led its Business Intelligence research practice for 13 years.

Dresner Advisory Services Newsletter - September 2012

Dear Friends,

It's been a busy few months at Dresner Advisory Services and I wanted to bring you all up to date regarding our activities and achievements. Here are some highlights:

New channels for our research:
We're excited to announce the availability of our Business Intelligence market research through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Apple iTunes. While other analyst organizations may charge thousands for their research and require a subscription, our goal is to make our research both highly available and highly affordable.

Third annual Wisdom of Crowds^TM Study:
We've just published our third annual Wisdom of Crowds ^TM Business Intelligence Market Study ®. With more than 90 pages of analysis and commentary, including 70 charts and tables, we address key trends in the BI marketplace - as well as rating 17 of the most relevant BI vendors - using our trademark 33-dimension scoring system! We've received lots of great feedback from our research community and some great press too!

New Cloud BI and Collaborative BI Research plus a free webinar!
Based on user responses from last year's Wisdom of Crowds ^TM Business Intelligence Market Study ®, we expanded our research agenda for 2012 to include the emerging areas of Collaborative BI and Cloud BI. These exciting new studies are being released in early September!

Consider attending our free webinar to review highlights from this groundbreaking research. It will take place on Thursday, September 27th at 12PM ET. Click here to register for this event. Attendance is limited to 100 people.

Upcoming Mobile BI Study:
Later this year we will be publishing our fourth Mobile Business Intelligence Market Study - with a target date of late November. Data collection begins right away! Click here to be directed to the survey. As always, qualified users receive a complimentary copy of the research findings!

We're always grateful for your feedback. Please email us with your comments to bistudy@howarddresner.com.

Thank you for your continued support!

Best,



Howard Dresner

Chief Research Officer
Dresner Advisory Services

OpenSource Business Intelligence Category in Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study

Hello again!

We're making great progress in analyzing data from our 2011 Edition of the Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study (TM) and are on track for the release of findings, to enterprise licensees, in mid-May.

There will be a number of enhancements over last year and I wanted to let you know about an important one.

In the past we placed OpenSource BI vendors into existing market categories of "Established Pureplay" and "Emerging BI Vendors", based largely on size (revenues).

However, OpenSource BI vendors share common demographics, which are unique to them. As a result, for 2011, we'll break out OpenSource BI vendors into their own distinct category. This will better enable the direct comparison of these vendors - which we believe is both more useful and appropriate.

Stay Tuned!

Best,

Howard

Analysis Phase of Wisdom of Crowds/ Some Demographics

After 6 weeks of data collection we've officially concluded data collection for the Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study (TM) 2011 Edition!

It's been an exciting process, resulting in a very rich and interesting data set - with 50% more data collected than last year! And, some surprises have already started to emerge!

Here are some of the final demographics:

Geography: We managed to collect a good sample from most of the major geographies around the world. Although a bit US-heavy, there's very strong representation from EMEA and APAC.




Industries: We had broad participation from a number of vertical industries, including: Technology, Financial Services, Health care, Retail & Wholesale and Manufacturing. Typically we haven't seen notable differences between industries. However, this year there are some worth examining - especially in the areas of licensing and technology.



Departments/Functions: Although the strongest response came from IT professionals, we collected a significant sample from Sales & Marketing, Finance and Executive Management. This will allow us to compare and contrast the plans and attitudes of the IT Department vs. Business users. First blush, I'm seeing some significant differences between functions - especially related to various technologies.


Organization Size: When looking at size of organization, we were able to recruit a great sample of small, mid-sized and large organizations. Although the differences aren't quite as striking as other splits, there are some important differences moving from small to mid-sized to large companies.



We'll be performing the in-depth analysis of the data over the coming weeks and plan to release the findings to enterprise licensees sometime in early to mid May.

And, we'll continue to post updates here throughout the process. Also, check out our official Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study (TM) Website at www.business-intelligence-study.com.

Best,

Howard

Three *MUST READ* Business Intelligence Articles!

This past week has been insane, but really gratifying, as we begin to wrap up data collection for the Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study! We now have 600 surveys collected, which is amazing - even though we're short of our goal of 1,000.

We've also gotten some fantastic recognition by some great industry trade press this week and wanted to share these articles with you:

• Jim Ericson - Information Management - "Business Intelligence Crowd Appeal" - March 30, 2011

• Ann All - ITBusinessEdge - "Dresner: Business Users Happy With BI" - March 31, 2011

• Nicole Laskowski - SearchBusinessAnalytics - "New survey reveals mobile business intelligence is on the upswing" - April 1, 2011

If you haven't completed the survey yet, you're in luck! We've extended data collection until next Friday, April 8th! It takes less than 10 minutes and you'll get a free copy of the findings report.

And, this isn't just any old research report! We've not only collected data about Business Intelligence market perceptions and intentions, but have also scored and ranked relevant vendors & products using our trademark 32-dimension scoring model! So, you'll learn what your peers are planning AND have an important tool to help evaluate vendors and products!

Click on this link and complete the survey now! If you've already filled out the survey, I want to say "thanks!" and ask you to pass this on to a colleague!

Also, next Friday, April 8th, we will hold our 3rd Twitter "Tweet Chat", discussing the study and Business Intelligence in general. They've been well attended and really fun! The hashtag is "#BIWisdom" and I hope you can join in!

In the mean time, please remember to complete the survey!!

Thank you in advance!

Best,

Howard

Howard Dresner
President, Founder and Chief Research Officer
Dresner Advisory Services, LLC

Visit The Official Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study Website

Five Business Intelligence Trends from Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study

As you may know, data collection for our Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study - 2011 Edition will close at the end of this week!

To drive awareness, last Friday we held a "tweet chat" to talk about some of the trends AND encourage people to join in and take the survey.

If you haven't completed the survey yet - it takes less than 10 minutes and you'll get a free copy of the findings report later this year.

Click on this link and complete the survey now!

So, here are five Business Intelligence trends - based on preliminary data:

1. The area of lowest overall customer satisfaction is "online training, forums and documentation"
2. The area of top overall customer satisfaction is "robustness/sophistication of technology"
3. The top mandate for BI technology so far? Operational integration.
4. 94.5% would recommend their BI vendor.
5. 69% of respondents consider their current BI vendor "strategic"

We'll be holding another tweet chat this coming Friday at 1:00 PM EDT. The hashtag for this event will be #BIWisdom. Hope you can join in!

But, until then, don't forget to please complete the survey!

Best,

Howard

A Research Nugget From Upcoming Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study

Here's some preliminary research from the data that we have already collected for the 2011 Edition of The Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study (TM).


















For this analysis, we asked respondents how many BI software tools they currently have in their organizations. As you can see in the chart below, the majority reported either 1,2, or 3 tools. Although this is based on early data, this indicates an improvement over last year when nearly 9% indicated that they had over 10 tools in their organizations.

We still need your help! As you are probably aware, we are in the midst of collecting data for this important study. Last year we collected data from 500 organizations. This year I am hoping to reach over 1,000 respondents! The more data that we collect, the more accurate and valuable the analysis will be.

So, if you have not yet contributed to the study process, I am asking you to join in and complete the survey today. There is nothing to buy and your detailed information will remain confidential!

The process takes approximately 10 minutes and you'll get a free copy of the findings report when the analysis is complete in May.

You can simply click on this link and go to the survey and complete it now.

By completing this survey you will be helping to create an important alternative to conventional industry analysis that is available in the market today.

If you have already filled out the survey, please accept our thanks and pass this on to a colleague!

Thank you in advance!

Best,

Howard

Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study (TM) 2011 Edition - is Off and Running

Seems like it was only yesterday that we launched our inaugural edition of the Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study (TM) in January 2010. The impetus for it emerged from a sense that the world needed a more balanced and real-world approach to understanding the BI market.

So, we took a good idea, combined it with social media and crowd sourcing - and a little market research know how - to create a fresh and important new perspective on the market!

Fast-forward to 2011, and we are officially launching our 2nd Edition of Wisdom of Crowds. And, we have a more ambitious plan than last year. This year we've adding several sections dealing with budget, licensing options, and a technology section - while keeping the time to complete the survey down to ~ 10 minutes. We're also aiming to increase the sample size to over 1,000 responses.

So, if you're a BI software user, here's your opportunity -> by completing our survey, you'll get to have your voice heard. Tell us your plans, your experiences; your opinions. In return, we'll give you a complimentary copy of study findings for your own use.

Like all of our market studies, this is NOT sponsored or influenced by ANY third parties - ensuring an objective and unbiased view of the market.

Just click on this link and become part of an important process to add clarity and insight to the market!!!

Thanks in advance!

Best,

Howard

Some Mobile Business Intelligence Articles

Hello Folks!

Our latest research project on Mobile Business Intelligence has been a great experience and a great success. We had a chance to learn a great deal about new technologies, new market segments and get introduced to a number of wildly innovative organizations.

Thanks again to all of you that participated. Much appreciated!

We also received a good amount of press attention. Here's a short list of the many articles on Mobile BI that quoted our research:

• Lots of Change Ahead for Mobile Business Intelligence
  Published by IT Business Edge on Nov 12, 2010
• Mobile Business Intel to Skyrocket Next Two Years
  Published by internet.com on Nov 05, 2010
• The upcoming revolution in business intelligence systems
  Published by SearchCIO.com on Nov 05, 2010
• Mobile BI Survey Sheds Light on Use, Ubiquity
  Published by Enterprise Systems Journal on Nov 03, 2010
• Mobile Business Intelligence: The Next Big Thing
  Published by eCRM Guide on Oct 29, 2010
• Q & A With Howard Dresner on Mobile BI
  Published by SmartDataCollective on Oct 27, 2010
• Why Your Business Intelligence Apps Need a Tablet Strategy
  Published by Datamation on Sep 28, 2010
• Profound Shifts in Mobile Business Intelligence Are Afoot
  Published by Forbes on Sep 22, 2010

And, of course, our official Mobile BI Website is up and running for those that want to get the complete story!

NEXT: We're getting ready to announce our upcoming research project within a few weeks. So, stay tuned!!

Best,

Howard

Happy New Year and a Look Back at 2008

With the holidays and 2008 behind us, I thought I’d take a moment a review my predictions from 2008 to see how accurate I was. Of course, nobody is perfect and I certainly missed a few. However, I managed to get a couple right. Below are my 2008 predictions along with my 2009 commentary:

January 2, 2008: The Economy: In my opinion, the “Big Kahuna” of predictions has to do with the economy. I may not be an economist, but I’ve been around long enough to know the signs of recession when I see them. A quick look in the local (US) newspaper tells part of the story: numerous housing foreclosures and auctions. I haven’t seen that since 1992. In addition, rumors a of a weak holiday retail season abound. Coupled with the current and unfolding lending crisis, a dismal Q4 earnings report could seal it. If I’m right, this means that 2008 budgets will be flat to down – especially for IT. The rest of my predictions are either caused by or accelerated by this prediction.

January 12, 2009: When I made this prediction, I had no idea how right I was going to be. From where I sit right now, I would suggest that we’re on the brink of an economic “depression” (aka “severe recession”). Having recently read Paul Krugman’s “The Return of Depression Economics”, I’m hopeful that, with appropriate intervention, things will stabilize by the second half of the year, even though it’ll likely be at a much lower level of economic activity. Earnings announcements due out soon will tell us how bad 2008 really was and will set the tone for the first half of 2009.

January 2, 2008: Market consolidation: As everyone is already aware, 2007 was a year of massive consolidation for BI and EPM software vendors. Although Hyperion, Business Objects and Cognos are gone, the fun’s not over yet. As the big guys feel even more pressure to boost revenues and profits, I believe they’ll gobble up any remaining, above-average software vendors of size (> $100M USD).

January 12, 2009: I was less accurate on this one. Acquisitions were far fewer than expected in 2008. This was likely due to a general lack of available credit, which made acquisitions harder to fund. The only BI/EPM acquisitions worth noting for 2008 were FAST and DATAllegro – both by Microsoft and few assorted smaller ones by Oracle (e.g., ATV). Not much else has happened on this front – even though there are some pretty good bargains out there. Perhaps as credit starts to flow again, the hunt for acquisitions will resume in 2009. Of course, I’m not suggesting that this is necessarily a good thing but, instead, a market reality.

January 2, 2008: Leveraging Existing Investments: With a combination of lower budgets and real urgency to improve business performance, I expect many organizations to try and get more value from software and systems they already own. This would be especially good news for systems integrators – especially those with deep expertise in key vertical and functional areas. So, I would anticipate consultancies become even busier than in 2007 and for a whole new crop to emerge in 2008. Caveat Emptor!

January 12, 2009: Certainly, doing more with less was a central theme in 2008 and will continue to be throughout 2009. However, I’m not sure that consultants have been the main beneficiaries. Budgets are flat to down and less will be spent during 2009 than in 2008. I saw a recent study from an analyst organization suggesting a 50% decrease in IT spending in 2009. I find that difficult to fathom. I believe a decrease of 10 – 20% is more likely. In spite of this, BI and EPM are still top priorities and organizations will concentrate efforts upon these and other critical business challenges - while working to save money whenever possible.

January 2, 2008: Rise of the Business Buyer: I don’t want to give Nick Carr (Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage - Harvard Business School Press) too much credit, but many IT Departments have become alienated from the business and less relevant than they could or should have been. An exclusive focus upon the largest software solution providers doesn’t help. In defense of IT, much of this may not be their fault and they may find themselves in an impossible situation. Nevertheless, emerging software vendors and consultants have caught on to the trend and are focusing selling efforts on business management – with the promise of implementing business solutions faster than IT can. Of course, these vendors may eventually have to deal with IT, but will avoid it (if at all possible) until business management is “on board”.

January 12, 2009: While some on the business side continue to seek BI and EPM solutions independent of IT, I have seen greater pragmatism on the part of some organizations and a more conciliatory approach between IT and business users. Having said that, BI and EPM initiatives will continue to be driven by both business and IT departments (often independently) with economic buyers and influencers varying by organization. Irrespective of who drives the initiative, I expect that there will be greater urgency and immediacy associated with it.

January 2, 2008: New Approaches Map to the Emerging Market: On-demand, open source and software appliances have been around for a few years and have experienced varying rates of adoption and success. However, with the above forces changing the shape of the market in 2008 – these options - offering lower cost and fast deployment - become vastly more appealing – especially to business users! Expect to see lots more of each at the expense of traditional software offerings.

January 12, 2009: Given the current recession, I’ve observed a growing interest in open source and Software-as-a-Service as alternatives to traditional enterprise software. Interestingly, some of the enterprise software providers have taken steps to address this by offering to match the open source total cost of ownership (TCO). However, given the different economics surrounding the two business models, I remain skeptical that they can succeed. In general, I believe that 2009 will be a good year for solution-providers offering rapid time-to-value, and a lower cost structure. Right now Software-as-a-Service is my top pick.

Best wishes to you and yours for a healthy and prosperous 2009!

Howard

Why Performance Management and Business Intelligence are Crucial at this Moment

Now that the US elections are behind us, we can start to refocus on the biggest single issue facing businesses (and individuals) right now – the economy. In January, I started talking about an economic recession:January blog posting

I think it’s now unanimous that a global recession is upon us with more bad news emerging each day. In fact, today the OECD issued a statement saying that its 30-nation member area “appeared to have entered recession”: OECD Press Release

Even Asia is not immune, with China announcing that annual industrial output growth has slowed to 8.2 percent for October. And, I think we’re just getting started! All signs point not only to a meager Q4 but a Q1 that likely won’t be much better.

In the corporate world, we’re seeing many respond with a “kneejerk” reaction to this malaise: budget cuts, RIFs, financial guidance reduced, assets sold, bankruptcies, etc. These organizations have adopted a sort of “bunker mentality” to face the threat. As a result, they overreact, shedding more “ballast” than they need to stay afloat. By exaggerating the challenge and overcompensating, they weaken the enterprise for the future. One doesn’t have to look far to find these sorts of companies – for example: a number of companies in the auto and telecommunications industries. A friend of mine, who works for a large telco, shared with me extreme frustration concerning ongoing and across-the-board RIFs. Seasoned employees have been eliminated in favor of cheaper, less experienced labor, making it hard, if not impossible to get important work done. While this may please Wall Street (in the near term), this sort of tactical approach doesn’t bode well for their future.

In contrast, the wise organization carefully analyzes the current threat, developing multiple scenarios for the future and creates suitable short and long term plans. This forward-thinking approach allows management to proceed strategically, with an eye to the future, but still grounded in the present. Of course, organizations may still have to take measures to reduce costs – perhaps dramatically. However, they will do so with greater precision – ensuring they haven’t seriously hampered their future ability to execute. It’s also reasonable to expect that this sort of sober, yet visionary direction will expose new opportunities to invest in, which will have been obscured to less sophisticated organizations. A good example of this, in my opinion, is Alcoa. Hit with an industry-wide surplus of aluminum (and a dramatic decline in price), it took aggressive action to reduce costs, employing “a four-part model that spreads the curtailments across [the] global system and minimizes the costs associated with plant shutdowns and re-starts and, in turn, minimize the impact on plant communities.” You can read their press release here: Alcoa Press Release

Of course, the title of this posting has already given away my core message – that EPM and BI are critical during this time. This is true. However, I don’t mean just the technology. I mean the philosophy! This begins with transparency and accountability. Without those as core tenets of an organization, the best technology won’t help. However, under the right conditions, BI and EPM can work wonders – allowing an organization to quickly develop perspective, to assess strengths, weaknesses and capabilities. To plan, execute, analyze, re-plan, alter strategy, and plan and execute again in a continuous cycle – matching the changing dynamics of the real world.

So, I encourage organizations to avoid the reactive and tactical approach to a worsening economy and take a more strategic outlook – embracing transparency and accountability - with BI and EPM as enablers – delivering true perspective, precision of execution and agility and a better chance to survive and see the next era of growth.

Best,

Howard

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