Call it big data, analytics or old-fashioned business intelligence, the ability to identify trends in business data can be useful. However, trying to build a system which is both adaptable to large volumes and easily tweaked can be challenging.
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Forrester research analyst Boris Evelson notes that most business analytics projects typically fall into one of two buckets: systems driven by the IT department which scale up easily but which can’t quicly add new queries, and systems driven by individual business units which can adapt rapidly to different circumstances but which don’t scale up well. Without careful planning, it’s almost impossible to blend the two:
This results in an ugly reality for BI strategy and the BI journey in many organisations: Business and technology stakeholders are disconnected and use different platforms, and true business requirements and priorities are lost in translation. The result is a lose-lose-lose where customers don’t get what they want, and business and technology pros spend too much time arguing over and supporting their own agendas, and often feel like they’ve reached a fork in the road and must go their separate ways.
The ideal platform would mix both attitudes, but that will require very careful planning and data collation. Whichever approach you take, also bear in mind that constant maintenance will be required.
The Good The Bad And The Ugly Of Enterprise BI [Forrester]
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