Surveys show BI failing to spark

Adoption of business intelligence (BI) software by UK firms is proving slower than expected and failure to deploy the technology could be limiting firms' competitiveness, according to two new surveys published this month.

The reports from database giant Oracle and BI specialist ICS both suggest that while many firms recognise a need to gain more insight into their data, relatively few are using BI reporting tools to achieve this.

In Oracle’s survey of 200 UK and Irish IT managers, over half of organisations said they did not have any BI systems, though 69 percent of respondents said BI was important to help senior managers run their business.

Kevin Henderson, BI solution house leader at Oracle, argued that the discrepancy could be explained by confusion over what software constitutes BI. "I can't believe 58 percent of companies have no BI… Many organisations are using Excel for reporting and that is a form of BI," he said.

However, Henderson admitted that a lack of understanding about BI was slowing adoption. "A lot of the business benefits, like having a single view of the truth and better decision-making are being lost," he said. "We're going to invest more in educating the market and engaging with customers to identify their BI needs."

Meanwhile, a survey of 1,000 UK business managers at companies with over 250 staff, published by ICS, indicates a widespread need for better BI systems. The study found that over three quarters of respondents were forced to make decisions "blind" due to late or insufficient business information – a situation that costs UK businesses £2bn a year, according to ICS’s estimates.

The report says IT departments took the brunt of the blame for the problem - 63 percent of respondents claimed the shortage of relevant data was caused by a lack of technical resources.

Christian Smith, managing director of ICS, said the survey highlighted many firms' failure to roll out reporting systems to middle management staff responsible for day-to-day business decisions. "The board may have BI systems, but we surveyed more middle ranking staff and they still lack the data they need to make well-informed decisions," he added.