Easy and complete access - part 3 of 4

Let's be honest here, the BI world is changing; it is no longer the exclusive domain of an elite group of data analysts (the sort of people where being an extrovert is to look at someone else's shoes whilst talking). BI is now (or should be) part of every worker's daily life; from the CxO floor to the shop floor, everyone who can used information to influence a decision has a use for BI. But to do this BI should not look nerdy, it needs to be accessible as part of the everyday applications that people use, that is spreadsheets, email, web pages and even some SOA add-in to the CRM and call-centre applications that are used as major part of the day-job. People that use BI should really do this without thinking that they are using BI at all, it is just a tool to get a job done; this is much the same as people saying that they are "preparing a budget" rather than they are "using a spreadsheet".

So, easy could be considered unnoticed but it could also mean be simple to use. Some BI users do not need a wealth of features to get the job done, a simple dashboard perhaps with some drilldown to investigate exceptions is often enough. But others need to be able investigate more complex issues and this often equates to building their own analysis and reports; and these days this task is likely to fall to the user so this task needs to be both simple and intuitive (and also need to produce performant queries!)

And then there is complete. It is highly unlikely that all of the information in any BI system that adds real value to an organisation comes from one place. Spotting low sales in report is not helpful if you don't know if it caused by poor stock levels, bad pricing, the highway being closed by snow or whatever. This data will come from ERP, CRM, logistics, asset management and even the humble spreadsheet; if the BI system does not hold it users will either stop using the BI system or just use it as a source for their own private (and uncontrolled) system - one, from bitter experience, written in an inappropriate desktop database! Either way incomplete information is a big negative for successful BI use.