Business today operates in a world of skills shortages, lack of time and little money, driving it to do things faster.

 

This is according to Dave Ives, Karabina Solutions GM and director of business intelligence (BI) at iSPartners, who presented at this week's ITWeb BI Summit on how to design a BI roadmap to deal with change.

 

Ives said that as BI technologies and governance has changed, so has business been forced to change the way it manages data. He indicated that organisations must make faster decisions and achieve return on investment (ROI) on their BI.

However, Ives explained that while ROI is a subjective measure – whether it is measured based on productivity per employee or capital – determining the time of ROI is critical for business intelligence today.

 

“Complex business issues can be simplified. The answer may be technology, but the question is always business. The value is in the decision, not the technology platform. While BI tools are a necessity, the quicker we can get to the decision, the more value is generated for the business.”

 

According to Ives, people are central to a business' decision-making process, and more power should be given to those using the BI tools. He said the majority of companies must revaluate their BI processes and focus on the business questions and how BI can drive business value.

 

“In most BI projects, complicated backend issues take up more than 80% of the time and cost of the total budget. The value of BI is in the decision-making process – the faster BI can help a business to get there, the better the value.”