Intelligent Enterprise

Business intelligence is expected to have the highest impact on organizations over the next two to five years, as they increasingly incorporate the technology in enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management software, a recent study shows.

In surveying more than 1,600 executives in 36 countries, the Aberdeen Group found that one in four identified BI and analytics as the software technology with the most pronounced effect in 2009.

"Companies are finding that BI has many uses within the organization, but the barriers to success lie in the ability to make access and use pervasive," David Hatch, VP of technology research at Aberdeen said in a statement. "The top performers are focusing efforts on creating a self-service approach to BI that enables non-technical workers to obtain information and analytic capabilities without burdening the IT staff."

The executives identified several business initiatives as driving BI use within their organizations. They included sustainability and green tracking, field marketing and promotions tracking and customer service and relations, Aberdeen said.

The focus on the three areas was due to a shift in BI projects from an emphasis on long-range strategic trending and planning to more tactical/operational applications within specific business units.

According to the study, BI is the most predominant extension/module planned for ERP systems. In addition, more than four in 10 respondents selected sales performance metrics as the top measure used in determining return on investment with BI. Other top ROi metrics were cost savings, customer performance and process efficiency.

The 108-page Aberdeen study entitled The 2009 State of the Market: Mid-Year Insights Report is available on the research firm's Web site