Self-Service BI Still Has a Little Ways to Go

BI

Self-Service BI Still Has a Little Ways to Go

A new survey of business and IT pros finds a great deal of interest in self-service business intelligence, but the ability to implement it is lagging.

Importance of Self-Service BI Tools

91% of respondents said it is important for business users to access the data and information they need without IT.

Future Investments in Self-Service BI

95% said their organizations plan to invest in self-service BI in the next two years.

Actual Use of Self-Service BI Tools Today

Only 22% of business users said they have access to and use self-service BI tools when they need to do so. Less than half of business users (43%) said they have access to everything they need.

Level of BI Independence

A quarter of businesses (25%) have purchased BI tools without IT. More than half (58%) said the process involves both users and IT.

Impact of Self-Service BI on IT Department

On average, respondents said self-service BI reduces IT requests by 47%. The top data sources planned for self-service BI apps are relational databases and Web applications.

Limits of Self-Service Adoption

Four in 10 cited budget issues, followed closely by limits to end-user skills, at 38%.

Use of BI Tools vs. Spreadsheets

80% of business users primarily use spreadsheet software over other BI tools. The biggest issues with spreadsheets cited are no single version of the truth and lack of governance.

BI Workflow

63% of IT organizations have processes in place for new insights discovered by the business to make their way into production reporting managed by IT. But that is the case for only 36% of business users.

Primary Areas of BI Investments

49% cited end-user training as a key area for investment, followed by addressing data quality issues (40%) and implementing new tools and apps (37%).