Top 5 Business Intelligence Myths Revealed

A recent article in Information Age discusses the top five myths about Business Intelligence software, and since our main purpose is to help you make the best possible decisions on enterprise-class solutions for your organization, I thought it would be interesting to summarize the post and share my own thoughts. Let’s dig in!

1. Business Intelligence is complex

Business Intelligence tools are typically seen as highly technical and complicated to use unless in the hands of a qualified IT specialist. While this can be true depending on which tool you select, it doesn’t have to be the case. There now exist many Business Intelligence solutions which do not require an expert at the helm, in fact, many of them now market specifically to non-technical users and offer self-service capabilities.

2. Business Intelligence is for only large organizations

20 years ago, this was true. In those days, these kinds of technologies could only be operated by experienced IT staff and data analysts. In today’s world however, companies both big and small can deploy solutions to analyze their data; making the right business decisions based on data benefits everyone, not just those in the enterprise. Even smaller companies with no highly-skilled staff can use data visualizations and Software as a Service platforms.

3. Every bit of data needs to be analyzed

Doing this may actually be a detriment to your organization. There is such thing as over analyzing your data, and doing so can create confusion, drain resources and obscure decision-makers from focusing on the most important aspects of the data. It’s actually more important to identify and prioritize the right information by keeping defined business objectives in mind.

4. Business Intelligence is meant only for senior managers

In traditional business settings, only the upper echelon of the management team would have access to business-vital information. Those days are gone, however, as there has been a push for data democratization so that everyone, not just the management of a company can gain a better understanding of the objectives in order to gain insights from data. The view amongst today’s brightest data-driven companies is that data belongs in the hands of as many people as possible.

5. Everyone is going to become a data scientist

Sorry to burst your bubble, but this just isn’t going to happen. While it’s true that the world of self-service Business Intelligence tools are putting the power of analytics in the hands of a wide variety of users, most of these people are not trained in data science. That’s not to say that this isn’t a good thing, it’s just that sometimes data in the hands of too many users can create confusion and a mess of unstructured data. While user access to Business Intelligence is important, the content should still principally be created and regulated by those appropriately trained to do so.

What do you think? Are you fighting on a daily basis to rid your workplace of these myths? Doing so as soon as possible for all of those who rely on data for insights should be the goal. What’s next, Big Data Bigfoot? A Data Lake Loch Ness Monster?

This column was inspired by a recent post in Information Age.