The BI Megatrends report for 2006 is out.
The BI community is replete with methodologies, layered architecture diagrams, technical product reviews, secrets of success, and mistakes to avoid. However, most of what’s discussed focuses on the “plumbing” enablers: data movement, quality, integration, management and modeling. This stuff more properly falls under the heading of “data warehousing.” What we should be talking more about is simply what real people need from BI to do their work.
The report mentions three categories of trends:
- Guided search and navigation.
- Master Data Management (MDM).
- Semantics.
Three external factors will drive BI out of its comfort zone and into new modes of usefulness:
- The open-source movement.
- The continued externalization of business (i.e. having to work in a connected network of businesses).
- Moore’s Law.
At CYBAEA, we have long argued that there isn’t enough business in most Business Intelligence departments which typically grew out of IT and are focused on technical beauty and correctness to the detriment of pragmatic business solutions. The report suggests the same:
In this new world, last-century solutions, such as “single version of the truth” in data warehousing, are unacceptable. Facing a global, externalized business environment, leading organizations must push beyond conventional BI and data-warehousing approaches and seek adaptable, agile solutions.