Intelligent businesses use business intelligence

The report, by Ventana Research, studied usage habits, perceptions, needs and intentions of individuals involved in the creation of BI documents – briefing books, presentations and reports – and individuals who support BI document creation and technologies.

And the findings surprisingly indicate that, as a need for better software integration increases, almost half will leverage BI systems at the expense of Microsoft Office when creating BI documents. The study arrives at a time when there is growing discontent about the integration between BI and Microsoft Office, particularly in light of the time wasted on the cut-and-pasting of data between applications. Even then, publishing documents can be laborious with the data needing to pass through Excel to PowerPoint and then portals or e-mail.

Ventana’s report surveyed 197 respondents, representing medium companies (US$100 million-US$1 billion annual revenue) and larger firms (more than US$1 billion annual revenue). The California-based researchers underlined complaints that there is inefficiency when moving data into BI documents as well as finding there is continued user frustration with the amounts of data to be handled and an ever-increasing demand from consumers of BI documents for more and improved information.

The research analysts concluded the main factor causing annoyance among users with BI document authoring was how data was brought into BI documents. Most data used in these documents is drawn from databases, using either extract files or ad-hoc query systems. More than one third or those surveyed cited ad-hoc query and analysis software as the most frequent source of data from BI documents they authored. Ventana Research argued that firms must mature further their integration between BI tools and Microsoft Office.

Of the respondents surveyed, around 60 percent worked in IT organisations, while the rest had line-of-business roles. Three quarters of those questioned were based in North America, ten percent were in Europe and the remainder from Asia-Pacific. Ventana concluded that efficient decision-making was a critical factor in the trustworthiness of the supporting data for proposed alternatives. IT organisations were recommended to track and publish lineage data, while time stamps should be introduced to indicate the freshness of data so executives can make decisions in real-time, the study suggested.

The researchers found that the assessment of costs and returns for organisations when creating BI documents was time consuming and ‘ripe for improvement’. It recommends that companies streamline the data transfer process and, where feasible, cut-and-paste data transfer. Also, importation of extract files should be replaced with the ability for users to query the data they need from the source, The study reports that since in many cases the BI documents are created once, but frequently updated with new data, the automation of the BI document refresh will shorten document publication time.

The concept of an Information Publishing Workflow was another central element of analysis, concluding that all executives, managers and individual contributors follow the workflow as they create documents to be used by their organisations. Common elements included the use of databases and of Excel documents, according to the report’s author, Eric Rogge, Vice President and Research Director for Business Intelligence at Ventana Research. “A key aspect of this workflow is how the data moves through the various applications used to massage, format, analyse and publish it in the various media and to the various venues where the data is consumed,” he explains, adding that data movement between BI systems and Microsoft Office applications occurs on a regular basis.

More than half of those questioned stated that they either created or edited documents holding data, presentations or other files on a weekly or daily basis. Users create briefing books, presentations and/or reports that they import, process and format the data used in these documents using both BI systems and their Microsoft Office applications. These documents are then used during the course of monitoring enterprise operations while making decisions.

Rogge said there was an inevitable downside to the now-ubiquitous office PC. “The desktop computer revolution provided independence from IT- controlled computing resources and unleashed extraordinary improvements in productivity. However, that independence has come at a price in the form of inefficient integration of computing resources. Vendors, especially in the BI domain, have worked to offset the isolation created by desktop computing and they have delivered a range of integration approaches. Nevertheless, their integration efforts have been afterthoughts.”

Ventana Research believes that most organisations, while recognising that integration between BI and Microsoft Office is important, will reach a point where further information publishing workflow improvement will require a less organic and more systematic approach. “Organisation executives will then step back, reconsider how information is published and ultimately deploy more tightly integrated information publishing solutions,” said Rogge.

Meanwhile, authors of BI documents indicated that they would prefer to have the document creation process automated and considered BI systems as a preferred alternative for automation. Respondents declared that better integration between BI and Microsoft Office systems was needed with more than half saying that better integrations improvements were more important that any other BI and Microsoft initiative within their organisations.

A quarter of the individuals reported that they were inclined to question the comprehensiveness of BI documents. Another 15 percent doubted the accuracy and sources of data. The report found that this was especially true when BI documents were presented to audiences, such as in PowerPoint. Presenters were often queried for additional data detail and those surveyed said an interactive data access opportunity during the presentation was extremely valuable.

Rogge said advances in new technologies had enabled BI documents to be more than just text-based documents. “BI documents have traditionally been distributed as ink-on-paper reports. Because of this lineage, BI documents have been static, their content fixed and unchanging,” he said. “Today, though, with the advent of the web, hyperlinks, online databases and modern BI and communications technology, BI documents can be interactive. Through interactive BI documents, readers can access additional data to further understand the aspects of the information the author included.

“Everyone benefits from interactivity, in the case of the authors since more information can be assessed without the author having to include it in the published report. Authors and readers become partners, with authors providing the access to additional content and context and the readers using this additional material as they need.”

Ventana’s work has found that most organisations have a need for technology to better integrate BI and Microsoft Office and this translates into a significant opportunity, for both BI vendors and Microsoft. “While Microsoft’s influence is still quite large, our analysis and market research reveals a growing shift to an enterprise-centric approach that relies on BI software as a critical mechanism for streamlining the information publishing workflow and for improving information publisher efficiency,” Mr Rogge wrote in his report.

“Microsoft’s potential role in this process is hindered by the organisational reluctance to upgrade to the latest version of Office. This presents an opportunity for BI vendors that can enable Windows XP and Windows 2000 with add-ins that will streamline data flow into the Microsoft Office environment.”

Technology used to simplify importation of data into Microsoft Office:

Excel ‘Add-ins’ – Most BI vendors offer software components that can be installed into Excel to allow direct connections to incorporate the data sources

Report Export – Many BI vendors now allow export of all or portions of a report from within Excel

Reports as Spreadsheets – The ability to create reports in the form of spreadsheets, eliminating the need to import data into Excel

Technology used to make BI documents interactive:

Excel and Office ‘Add-ins’ – SAP and Cognos offer components that can be installed into Excel to allow direct connections to corporate data sources. Some companies now offer ‘add-ins’ for PowerPoint and Word

Reports as Spreadsheets – Vendors are now allowing companies to create spreadsheets as reports. These spreadsheets can be updated on a schedule basis or via a single-click control

Animation of data – Interactive spreadsheet data displays, allowing users to change inputs and observe calculation responses for ‘what-if’ analysis