BI software big in customer service, says Gartner

Business intelligence (BI) software is increasingly being deployed to improve customer service in end-user businesses, a survey from analyst Gartner has found.

38.8% of respondents rated improved customer satisfaction as the primary benefit expected when implementing BI as part of any enterprise application project. The secondary benefit was increased profit management at 27.6.

End-users surveyed by Gartner highlighted data quality, BI scorecard and BI framework development as the most important priorities at 68.4%, and 65.2% respectively.

Gartner predicted that by 2012, suppliers will provide over half of the skills and capabilities to support the implementation of business intelligence and performance management in end-user businesses.

As BI projects evolve into fully fledged IT strateggies, Gartner expects users to buy consulting services to implement BI rather than buy off-the-shelf software.