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Enterprise technology leaders in India are excited about Business Intelligence (BI). Most of the CIOs that I interact with speak of doing two things this year -- moving applications to the cloud and deploying a BI solution. BI certainly seems to be on top of their priority list in 2015.
The major push for the adoption of BI (unlike other ITsolutions) is coming from the top management in an organization. The boardroom agenda has changed today. The era of post mortem is over. Analysis now needs to be done in real time. Gone are the days when insights were presented in half-yearly and yearly meetings. CEOs now want daily business reports, and are pushing their IT heads to deploy the requisite solutions.
The increasing adoption of ERP among Indian enterprises is the other trend that is fueling BI adoption. An ERP solution helps in consolidating data. With huge amounts of data getting centralized, it only makes sense to get insights out of it, and hence the need for a BI solution. As per Gartner, from2014-18, SaaS ERP in India is forecast to grow at a healthy CAGR of 28 percent.
There are those who feel that BI is relevant only for certain verticals. However, I feel any company that is growing would want to know which sector and/or product is fueling demand.
The market is flooded with BI solutions. It is hardly a challenge for a CIO to procure a solution. This is the easier part. The more challenging aspect, and one on which the success or failure of the project hinges, is getting the algorithm right. In the absence of building the right rules, queries and eventually the algorithm, the desired output and result can’tbe achieved.
Not getting the algorithm right often results from a disconnect between the business and technology teams in the enterprise. The two can meet at a common ground by improving communication and enhancing the level of interaction between the business and technology teams.
Business Intelligence is perhaps a solution that demands the CIO and CMO/CEO work more closely together than on any other IT project.
Going forward, BI would become increasingly commoditized. As more and more enterprises adopt it, they stand to gain a double benefit – one from the solution and the other from the close connect developed between the CIO and CMO. As according to another prediction by Gartner, by 2018, those CIOs who achieve a solid relationship with their CMOs would be able to achieve a 25 percent enhancement in return on marketing technology investment. In these tough times, any enterprise would more than welcome such returns.
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