Business intelligence is going through a major transformation, and it’s all for the best… except maybe for CIOs who must rapidly adapt to new technologies and new user requirements, with stagnant or declining budgets.
The Big Data buzzword has thrown into the light a number of crucial BI needs for today’s business, including:
- Greater Volume, as data growth is exponential, since all digital events can be recorded as datapoints (transactions, logs, M2M interactions, etc.);
- Increased Variety, as unstructured content is a rich source of information, either within a company or by monitoring and analyzing websites and social networks;
- Higher Velocity, since everyone wants to access information whenever one needs it;
- Value, because none of the above is useful if it doesn’t translate into a business outcome at reasonable cost.
A lot has been said about that already, but not enough, in our opinion, about how velocity, specifically, can create value.
There are a number of options. Self-service BI pioneers such as Qliktech have seduced business users because of their ability to get immediate answers. Today, SAP makes a lot of noise with its in-memory database HANA, triggering a number of announcements from the other major players (Microsoft working on next-generation SQL Server codenamed Hekaton, IBM launching in-memory appliances, etc.).
Indeed, compared to traditional SAP systems built on Business Warehouse or Business Objects, HANA brings BI into another dimension.
Interestingly, it does so with the involvement of IT, whereas self-service BI solutions are usually acquired by business divisions. Recently, I had the chance to listen to two HANA customers, and basically these CIOs were saying that, despite a non-negligible investment, they created value for their business by speeding analysis and information delivery.
CIOs can’t afford to ignore this need for speed. Traditional BI is heavily criticized by both CEOs and business users, as it is unable to provide the right information to the right person at the right moment. BI must be agile and swift, in order to participate in value creation. If the CIOs fail to provide that, users will keep buying personal or departmental tools, potentially creating a headache for data administrators and a number of reports within the enterprise with inconsistent data.
Fortunately, solutions exist, and – surprise! – in-memory systems may not be the best or the only solution that suits your needs. Our latest report explores a number of ways CIOs can put in place Fast Data or Real-time BI. Technology is driven by the business context and needs, but what counts most is how to leverage it to create a business outcome.
