Less than 30% of organisations’ which are potential users of standard business intelligence (BI) tools use the latest technology available today, according to a study by Gartner.
Though the tools used by BI consumers have been coming into business IT environments, the low takeup is due to the fact that enterprise BI are often too difficult to use, slow to respond or deliver content of limited relevance, the report reveals.
The Gartner report "The Consumerization of BI Drives Greater Adoption" suggests that the consumerisation of BI technologies could benefit organisations by delivering a better fit and broader user appeal.
The report describes that the BI is not pervasive and its adoption is not in line with the investment made by most firms.
The study notes the concept of a single enterprisewide BI product standard is flawed and organisations need to oversee a number of BI platform components.
While it is inevitable that managing a portfolio of BI applications will require more effort than is needed for a single platform, Gartner recommends that IT companies should adopt a portfolio-management approach to support these new consumer BI tools.
Three key factors that can drive adoption of technology can also discourage the sustained use of BI by its intended users, if weak or absent, the report states.
If BI is hard to work with, or completely static, users will not use it, and if there are delays in query responses or report production; if the BI platform omits information that users need, or does not express content in line with their frame of reference, then takeup will be low.
Further, mobile devices were mentioned as the main platform for the consumerisation of BI technology and IT firms were required to adopt a portfolio management approach to support these new consumer BI tools.
