Financial, operational and business performance
information is held in multiple locations and multiple formats,
according to an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)
study.
This lack of consistency is making it difficult for companies to
gain accurate information across the whole business and leads to
bad decision-making.
Workers make poor decisions because of inadequate data,
according to 40% of the 386 senior executives surveyed. Almost half
the respondents say they use tools within individual departments or
groups, without any central control.
Information rarely trickles down below senior or middle manager
levels, even though 80% of the executives say it would improve
performance if more people could see it, finds the report ‘Business
Intelligence: Putting information to work’, sponsored by Intel and
SAP.
“For effective business performance management, it is essential
for operations-level employees to have full access to up-to-date
analytical data,” says EIU report editor Rama Ramaswami.
“Unfortunately, companies have yet to integrate business
intelligence tools into mainstream business processes and analysis
or to co-ordinate them in a coherent way.”
More than a third of the companies use BI tools from two to
three vendors and 14% are using tools from up to seven vendors,
which can produce conflicting results and make managing the
information very difficult.