| Taking our inspiration for a post from a discussion on | | | | Others felt slightly different, in that a lot rides on the |
| the Business Intelligence & Analytics Group on LinkedIn, | | | | technical abilities of the BI team itself, as well as how |
| we thought about whether Business Intelligence should | | | | well integrated the IT and the BI teams are. |
| be controlled primarily by the IT department or people | | | | Some came up with "both and neither" arguments, |
| from business functions. | | | | stating that BI should exist on it's own accord and |
| Divided opinions | | | | should simply liaise with business and IT functions |
| First of all, it's important to remember that the answer | | | | across the organization. |
| to this question depends on the type of BI provided. | | | | Several offered up their own personal experiences - |
| For example, in house specialists are vital for traditional | | | | "I've seen it working well both ways, and I've seen it |
| BI software, which require code to be written for each | | | | struggling both ways. Too often, IT lacks the |
| query as well as servers to be maintained and | | | | understanding of the business needs and the sense of |
| software to be integrated. SaaS BI is delivered over | | | | urgency. On the flip side, too often the Business |
| the internet so there is no software to install, no | | | | doesn't have any appreciation for structure, |
| servers to maintain and no integration to be done. It is | | | | consistency and sound fundamentals. From my |
| intuitive to use and does not require a single line of | | | | experience, the best combination happened to be |
| code. We can't speak directly for other software | | | | when IT was an active partner alongside the Business |
| vendors, but our software Bime is designed to | | | | team, and the solution was built mostly by IT |
| empower professionals outside of the IT department, | | | | professionals, with close participation from the |
| with a view to freeing up IT demand so that IT | | | | Business." |
| departments can focus solely on their strategic IT role. | | | | A common theme |
| Other voices thought it depended on how BI is defined | | | | One common theme that seemed to emerge from |
| in the organization: | | | | the discussion was that it was important for the users |
| "If the largely accepted definition, that BI = Analysis + | | | | to have a good understanding of the organization as a |
| DW infrastructure, is held in the organization, then the | | | | business, whether they were IT specialists or not. A lot |
| Analysis side should reside within the business, and the | | | | of opinions felt a mix of the two was the best way to |
| DW team should be within IT. Some people prefer to | | | | deploy BI, with IT functions taking care of the |
| use the term BI to describe just the Analysis part, if | | | | infrastructure part and business functions carrying out |
| that is the case, then it should be on the business side." | | | | the analysis and reporting. |