Business intelligence is often treated as an afterthought in many organisations. This is rapidly changing, and the current success of many BI suppliers illustrates the central role the technology is taking. The best returns from BI investments come from a well-managed environment where benefits are estimated and results scrutinised by people with in-depth domain knowledge. Over-reliance on the technology, without filtering the relationships it throws up, could be nothing short of disastrous.

Planning and implementing a BI environment is a long-term project – with few short cuts. Risk management dictates that projects should start small and grow with experience and skill. One of the real dangers with BI projects is that management try to accommodate every possibility during the building of the data warehouse – this will be expensive, time consuming and unproductive.

Finally it should be remembered that BI can transform an organisation and its fortunes. The benefits of BI will often far outstrip the costs, provided that the implementation is phased and the use is well managed.

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