2010 Top 10 Business Intelligence Trends
The Business Intelligence Industry grows faster and faster every year with new software and analytics debuting regularly. Trying to keep up with the changes in the environment can be staggering. In this article, we have identified ten top Business Intelligence software trends worth watching.
The first trend to look for is pre-packaged solutions that are focused on strategic answers. “Strategy-Driven” software will emerge as a way to cover all business processes– whether performance-based, predictive of future trends, to monitor goals or to optimize transactions. Real-time reports will be part of the program, not a costly add-on. Having data integrated is a trend that more and more businesses are taking advantage of so that they can establish organizational-wide coordination.
The second trend is shortened reaction times for reporting and predictive analytics. Waiting for mountains data to be analyzed has always been a challenge in Business Intelligence solutions. New technology such as Complex Event Processing uses algorithms to make decisions quickly.
Third is a focus on getting correct and accurate data though Data Governance. The reality is that the software is only as good as the data. It is critical in the case of Business Intelligence solutions that the data is correct before organizational changes are implemented.
Fourth, data warehousing and operational systems will be combined more closely Instead of simply generating reports and simple queries, the new systems focus on informing traditional decision making and in some cases, also automatic decision making.
Fifth, Excel will continue to be prominently used by home users and companies alike. With the new version, there are new analytic and charting options that provide additional data visualization and options. In addition, a new engine allows for lightening fast analysis on millions of lines of data.
Sixth, new priorities are emerging with data warehousing and Business Intelligence. New technologies have to be able to not only store all the relevant data, but they need to be able to instantaneously process it, decipher it’s importance and integrate the information back into applications. A focus on integration of data will be with us for the near future.
Seventh, data virtualization will allow real-time, event and batch data to be combined from disparate sources into one. Called Master Data Management, or MDM, completely different areas of business– whether suppliers, processes, finance or customers– can be combined and integrated.
Eighth, semantic technologies are allowing users to deal with unstructured data in a more effective way. Content monitoring, filtering, and advanced classification allow data and content to be normalized, which in turn, allows greater usage in all areas of the organization.
Ninth, look for the normally isolated compliance issues, performance management and risk analysis to come together. While these processes are normally completely separate, with the increase in government compliance, and the need to ensure financial performance to maintain viability, compliance, performance and risk will be cemented into one unit in future applications.
Tenth, with the economy still feeling a bit timid to many business owners, open-source Business Intelligence software is catching on. Extremely cost-effective, these open source solutions can not only be used singly, but in cooperation with other closed-source applications. Though a good cost-effective solution, there may still be a limited market.
Overall, the Business Intelligence solutions trends are focused on data integration, predictive analysis, and cost-effective solutions for organizations of every size. Look for more simple, yet effective solutions for the future.