We have reached a tipping point sometime in the last few years when analytics is being driven by business people rather than
technologists. It has truly become business analytics. Although the “cash cow” of business intelligence is still pre-built dashboards and production reports, much of the business value from BI is coming from ad-hoc analysis, data visualization and predictive analytics.

This advanced analytics requires more data but not just in the sense of size or structure but more so in the sense of a variety which may not have been used before and likely is not in an enterprise data warehouse and often not even known to the IT group. The ad-hoc nature not just of queries but also of data needs is causing many business people with the latest and more sophisticated analytical tools to be data starved.

How can enterprises address this problem along with the perpetual queues they have in getting more data into their data warehouse or into their new Big Data platforms? In my latest white paper “A Better Way to Fuel Analytical Needs” I discuss the key constraints on advanced analytics, what changes (not just tools) are needed to address these constraints and an enterprise should setup analytical environments for their data hungry business people.

Self-service BI and advanced business analytics need data. Business people need to be empowered.