BI Now Regarded as Urgent For Many Companies If businesses were in doubt before as to whether they could justify the cost and implementation schedule of business intelligence solutions, the recession is certainly making them wish they had taken the jump earlier.

There are many comments as to how the rate of change in business has increased, yet little focus is given to the magnitude of change. When we look at the recession, it was evident four years ago that financial services practices were going to cause major market problems a few years down the track. Early in 2008, banks in NZ were already changing policies to strengthen their capital base, but when the force really hit in September the downfall was strong and spectacular, and worldwide.

This was no longer a ripple effect, it was a rip apart effect with major structural fractures appearing in all sectors of the market.

The impact of media cannot be underestimated and I personally have to wonder how much of the backlash is real, and how much of it is in response to the predictable market hysteria that can bring a market to its knees in quick time through any negative trigger.

Regardless of the cause or the degree of damage, businesses need strong leadership to determine what to do next. And the cost of taking the wrong action could be devastating. Thus decisions must not be based on assumptions or false confidence built on past experiences. They must be based on hard facts, and future scenarios analysed fully to determine outcomes and knock on impact throughout the business.

The other factor that is also highlighted at this time is the complexity of relationships in the market today. The interrelationships and the speed at which these can be forged and broken due to Web 2.0 is another significant factor in the game play.

No human could possible gather all the required intelligence, assimilate it, determine the interactions and configure it to develop likely outcomes of different decision scenarios.
It is no wonder in spite of IT budgets being slashed, financial support for BI is being wrung out of Opex budgets to ensure it is on the agenda as soon as possible.

No longer is BI capability a desirable investment – it is an absolute necessity