Business Intelligence Thwarted by Technology Silos, Execs Say

A new survey out by Deloitte Consulting found that about one third of technology executives and business decision-makers say their organizations don’t have business analytics capabilities at all or they don’t know whether their organizations utilize the capabilities they do have.

Conducted among more than 1,900 tech executives during a recent webcast, the informal Deloitte poll results were ‘mind-boggling’ according to John Lucker, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, leader of its Advanced Analytics and Modeling practice, who says that with such a breadth and depth of information at the ready these days and the technological means available to synthesize the data so mature at this point, it’s a wonder that such a large chunk of organizations still lag.

Approximately 52 percent of surveyed organizations said that their top two challenges in managing data and extracting business intelligence  from analysis were due to departmentally siloed information and limited cross-functional interaction. In other words, many businesses are suffering from the inability to cross the bureaucratic divides within their organization.

"Although organizations understand the value of business analytics, most are still struggling with fundamental technical and business process foundations that will allow their organization to implement and use business analytics in a strategic and sustainable way," Lucker says.

The survey showed that 40 percent of organizations think that improving operational efficiency is their number one priority for business analytics. Another 17 percent of organizations gave the nod to customer segmentation and target marketing as the second biggest priority for business analytics and business intelligence functions.

All in all, channel partners with expertise in addressing the key challenges and getting the most out of organizational priorities for business intelligence stand to reap ample rewards in the coming few years.

"That emerging understanding and pent up demand is why these types of investments are going to continue to explode and the demand for business analytics capabilities will continue to increase in the coming months and years," Lucker says.