Business Intelligence: Not just tools and data
I wanted to point out an interesting article worth a read for those of you looking to implement some Business Intelligence tools, Dashboarding, and KPIs for keeping tabs on your organization's important metrics.
Tom Wailgum of CIO magazine talks in his article about how this can be a confusing undertaking.
I took particular note of this information because of how I see it impact our consulting business. Two main points Tom made that stood out to me were the confusing and changing landscapes in this market, and a significant lack of technical expertise to create such applications. The cost for even licensing some the platforms mentioned in Tom's article can also be enormous.
A significant number of our clients engage us for these exact reasons. SharePoint represents a reduced initial cost (often many of our clients already own it as part of their Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft) for the platform. It also enforces much less rigidity in design. For example, the Business Data Catalog can be used to extract and index data from disparate applications, Excel Services, or simply standard .NET development. The SharePoint platform represents more aspects of a blank slate in the ability to choose your direction and tolerance for adhering to foreign software products and lifecycles. It's extensibility and compliance with standard and known development practices make it a logical choice for many organizations.
The final point is that lack of internal expertise or available time has also driven many of our clients to us as well. Most companies spend the vast majority of their IT budget maintaining current systems, not training and expanding their application base. This leads them to look externally for a temporary workforce. They also understand the efficiency gained with bringing in specific skills to complete targeted objectives.
I hope this helps,
-Ryan