Much has been written on what the “next generation” of business intelligence technologies and “solutions” (did I just say the “s” word?) should look like. While the industry has been making some progress, innovation has seemed slow when compared to other corners of the IT and software landscape (thinking of web, mobile, social media, etc.).
Doug Henshen’s recent article (Merrill Lynch Tech Executive Touts BI Shift to Analysis) was yet another illustration of the business world’s appetite to get relevant insight more quickly and with less dollars and fanfare than our industry has been able to deliver to date. I think the sentiments in this and other articles could be summed up in a few bullets:
- Reduce the time (money) to analyze and rationalize source data
- Minimize time (money) to model data for analytic purposes
- Reduce time (money) to acquire and cleanse data
- Reduce learning curve for front end tools and applications
- Minimize IT involvement
If we can get over 30 million users on Twitter in less than a year (the 2009 equivalent of “put a man on the moon”), it seems like we should be able to innovate our way out of the incredible time lags of getting business intelligence and analytics in a usable and actionable form. Eliminating these barriers will in my opinion earn the rightfully title of “next generation” when it comes to a sound business intelligence strategy.
I would enjoy hearing your ideas on how our industry can improve. Twitter me @JeffSeifert to share your insights.
