Business Intelligence is threatened by a confidence crisis

Increasingly more corporate users are not satisfied with the manufacturers of Business Intelligence products. According to a survey by Actinium Consulting among almost 250 selected BI users from all sectors, many more companies than two years ago stated their desire for tools in the future that are easier to integrate quicker to implement and more user friendly.

The survey showed that only 17 percent of BI users have nothing or very little to complain about with their solutions; in 2007 this group was slightly larger (19 percent). Equally the proportion of companies that are content with only some minor flaws sank from 33 to 30 percent. Thus the amount of dissatisfied users has gone up by 5 percent, even though the initial values two years ago were already “a slap in the face for manufacturers”, according to Actinium manager

Klaus Hüttl. In his opinion, they should have been woken up by the results from the results then, but instead the critical rating in the market carries on being ignored. “

At least the unhappy users were still just in the minority two years ago”, he refers to the fact that 52 percent of users in the current survey either only gave moderate marks (32 percent) or were very unhappy (20 percent). Above all, the ability to integrate the BI products should get better in the opinion of 72 percent of those asked, this represents an increase of 8 percent compared to the figure in 2007. More companies (62 percent) also voted for more user friendliness, while a similar amount to two years ago (60 percent) pushed for faster tool implementation time. In fourth place on the users’ wish list with 52 percent came a suitable function profile (2007: 46 percent). In contrast, comparatively few companies complained about the licence costs for BI software.

“Difficult integration and time-consuming implementation are the actual cost drivers in Business Intelligence projects, which is why most of the pain also emerges in this area for the users”, Hüttl explains. “If the benefit remains behind expectations because users find the solutions difficult and therefore don’t like to use them, the whole enterprise for BI simply doesn’t add up”, the Actinium manager criticises. That’s why it is necessary for manufacturers that they compare themselves with their own promises. “Nice-sounding marketing words have to be followed up with concrete actions, to prevent a confidence crisis in Business Intelligence from arising from the users’ critical position”, Hüttl urges. Most of all, medium-sized businesses are not always interested in new features and more complex tools, but need practicable solutions that are quick to set up without embarking on a time-consuming project.

Files:

09-06-09_PM__Anwenderkritik_an_BI-Herstellern_2009.pdf

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