The Right BI Tools for the Job

The more business intelligence applications you buy to serve specific purposes, from basic query and reporting functions to CRM, the harder it is to see the big picture.

The term "business intelligence" can be brutally ironic, as companies often end up buying BI tools ill-suited to their needs, wasting money and time on software they would have been smarter without. Compounding this problem is the fact that each business intelligence application has historically focused on a single process or division of the company. Disparate BI systems can report conflicting information, leading to far more confusion than insight.

Business intelligence software runs the gamut from basic query and reporting tools to heavy-duty analytics applications, covering corporate functions from budgeting, planning and forecasting to sales, marketing, CRM and e-business. The more software packages a company buys to serve these different functions, the more difficulty it has zooming out to a holistic view of its business.

Yet showing a clear big picture is key to the mission of business intelligence and its evolutionary successor, business performance management. BI software is a strategic investment that should drive information about every aspect of corporate performance into the hands of those best equipped to exploit it, without regard to departmental or even geographical boundaries.