Business intelligence back in the hands of the business user

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) November 23, 2011 -- With the BI market predicted to grow by 8.1% into 2012, the question is how well local companies are positioned to benefit from the upswing.

Ian Littejohn, CEO of BI Insight says, "Business intelligence tools have been sitting in the wrong hands, and thats why the internal uptake of these tools by business users has been in the region of 6 - 8% , a low figure considering the investment that many large companies make in software and data management. A transition is now taking place, however. The business manager is beginning to realise the power of using BI tools to visualise and analyse their data themselves to assist in making strategic decisions."

The sluggish process of BI delivery from the IT department to the management office means that BI analysis tools are not used by the people who actually make the decisions. Instead, most managers and decision-makers are using Microsoft Excel to manage and analyse information, often laboriously and without really spending enough time actually analysing information – as little as 20% in fact.

"In the BI workshops that I have run, I have found that many professionals who work everyday on Excel are not even sure how to use PivotTables let alone manipulate the programme to visualise and analyse data effectively." says Littlejohn.
Business intelligence was once one of the most exciting areas of IT, but its true value proposition lies in its potential to improve efficiency and productivity in business. Traditionally, the business manager would ask questions of the IT department, who analyse masses of data often using sophisticated hardware and software to do the job. Innovation in BI software, however, has made it possible for the ordinary managerial 'Joe' to run complex analysis and create interactive dashboards on their own laptops, hence the reference to 'self-service'.

Creative leaders ask questions that need to be answered by visualising and interacting with data. There is no doubt that if managers could get their questions answered more quickly and meaningfully, significant organisational potential would be released. "Take for example an annual budget. In times of economic uncertainty, budget decisions could quickly become invalid and fast reporting becomes a business emergency. It's a matter of fine tuning and efficiency", comments Littejohn.

BI tools also allow for 'what if' analysis. The procurement industry is another example; economic indicators such as the exchange or interest rates can be inserted into the BI software to offer predictions of how the bottom line and other key internal performance figures will change.

"We have found that decision makers become quite addicted to visually represented BI, as once they discover that their questions can be answered quickly they start asking more and more of their data sets, which in turn inspires better and more innovative business leadership," continues Littlejohn.

Ian Littlejohn is the CEO of BI Insight, a company that offers training on self-service business intelligence, Excel training and Data Analysis Training to decision-makers in business. BI Insight is also a reseller of Tableau one of the leading global BI software innovators.

For more information please contact Ian Littlejohn on 0861 003 007 or visit www.biinsight.co.za.

ENDS.

Note
For interviews with or commentary from Ian Littlejohn please contact Candice de Carvalho on candice@phatic.co.za.

Business profile on Ian Litteljohn available on request.
Editorial and profile images also available on request.

business intelligence     dashboards     data analysis     data visualisation     Excel training