BI Heavy Lifting

Key trends in BI from an article by Patrick McCollum and Craig Izydor in the October 2009 issue of Information Management magazine:


"... The IT organization will continue to:

•Enhance BI project management processes to reduce risk and budget overruns,
•Consolidate the BI application footprint to reduce application, data and support costs, and
•Closely partner with business leadership to define and justify BI projects.
•Given the economy, there are some fundamental trends regardless of industry.
•Funding is limited. Businesses will approach IT investments differently as funding is tied to company cash flow as well as market conditions.
•Capital investments are difficult to obtain and, in many cases, require approval from the board of directors. Defining compelling business value is a must.
•Investment funding is tied to stock or market performance so businesses can better manage cash flow. Deferring, shelving or canceling projects is common.
•Projects have been broken into smaller, incremental efforts that are funded within fiscal periods or quarters to closely manage capital and validate business value.
•"Quick hits" are gaining emphasis as business teams are looking to get information sooner and may not wish IT to run everything through a data warehouse for key business insights. A challenge is that they may lose attention on getting solutions backfilled in the proper architecture at a later time. "