Working with data in a beneficial way is one of the main drivers of Industry 4.0, as is being said on all channels. Business intelligence is the collective term for all the software systems that are designed to help companies pool their data and information, gain new insights and make them accessible to all employees in a form that enables them to make decisions. Business intelligence is therefore one of the driving forces behind this economic development. This is nothing new. After all, this has been the theory behind business intelligence since the 1960s.

But the truth is that even more than 50 years later, only a fraction of employees in companies actually benefit from data-driven insights in their day-to-day work. To be precise: Only 13 percent of the workforce is actually connected to a BI system. Conversely, this means that on average, 87 percent of employees in companies today have no access to information management systems such as business intelligence (BI) or performance management (PM) [1]. One in five employees still makes a quarter of their business-relevant decisions based purely on gut instinct. A data-driven decision-making culture definitely looks different.

There are various reasons why this is the case. Firstly, the implementation of BI initiatives and the BI software on offer are often too expensive to equip all of a company's employees with it. Secondly, BI tools are still too complex to use for all employees of a company to be able to work with them intuitively without major training measures. Due to this complexity, many employees find it difficult to understand the benefits of the BI application.

Another reason is apparently so banal that it is often simply forgotten: Many companies still do not realize the benefits of BI and the potential that lies in their data. Beneficial means "bringing a tangible benefit". In companies, this is often equated with "value-adding". For today's companies, data is a key prerequisite for shortening time-to-market and remaining competitive. However, the discourse on business intelligence is characterized by technology debates, feature comparisons and software methodology. This is due to the fact that BI - like so many other things - started out in a niche market and raised its own experts. It didn't matter how complex the tools were, because the experts knew how to use them. Technological progress over the years did the rest: requirements increased. The systems became more and more complex. An entire industry focused on supporting BI experts in companies in their work with increasingly sophisticated functionalities. Expert systems for experts.

Width instead of depth

BI systems have thus advanced into ever deeper realms: Advanced Analytics, Data Mining, Big Data. No question, all disciplines and challenges of BI. The target group: experts. But if the digital transformation is to succeed, BI must also grow across the board and include all employees - horizontally and vertically. However, BI tools have historically not been geared towards a broad target group - neither in terms of the user experience nor the price and license model. But if BI is to become an operational decision support tool, it needs to shed its conceit. It must be quick and easy to use and yet not trivial. Because BI is not trivial. It never will be. Concepts such as self-service BI have made it easier to become an expert. But does it make sense to turn every employee into a BI expert?

Benefit comes from benefit

Peter Küssner is Managing Director of Cubeware. © Cubeware

My answer is no. As BI providers, we need to ensure that BI systems can be used by more employees without trying to turn everyone into an expert. And we need to explain to all employees how data can be used in a way that is beneficial to them using concrete, tangible examples and show them the value-adding contribution to their daily work. Resistance from employees must be recognized and overcome at an early stage. Companies should take into account the fact that this does not happen overnight, but is rather a change process.

How can this be achieved? By changing the corporate culture - both on the user and provider side. Because if you want faster, data-driven decision-making processes, you also need to ensure that working with data and information is a high priority for all employees. An important first step is to realize that technology alone will not be enough. Not only the use of tools, but also the reception of analyses, dashboards and reports must be trained - from the process-executing employee to management. BI tools should also be easy and intuitive to use so as not to put users off. Then it is also possible to motivate employees to make decisions based on data and not on instinct. This not only increases agility and flexibility in the processing of information, but also raises employees' awareness of the value-adding use of data. Data literacy - the ability to handle data competently - is the buzzword of the moment. Because before the smart factory comes the smart organization.

Peter Küssner, Managing Director of Cubeware / ag

Literature:
[1] BARC study "The BI Survey 2012-2018".