Abstract
Business Intelligence can bring critical capabilities to an organization, but the implementation of such capabilities is often plagued with problems. Why is it that certain projects fail, while others succeed? The aim of this article is to identify the factors that are present in successful Business Intelligence projects and to organize them into a framework of critical success factors. A survey was conducted during the spring of 2011 to collect primary data on Business Intelligence projects. Findings confirm that Business Intelligence projects are wrestling with both technological and non-technological problems, but the non-technological problems are found to be harder to solve as well as more time consuming than their counterparts. The study also shows that critical success factors for Business Intelligence projects are different from success factors for Information Systems projects in general. Business Intelligences projects have critical success factors that are unique to the subject matter. Major differences can be found primarily among non-technological factors, such as the presence of a specific business need and a clear vision to guide the project. Success depends on types of project funding, the business value provided by each iteration in the project and the alignment of the project to a strategic vision for Business Intelligence at large. Furthermore, the study provides a framework for critical success factors that, explains sixty-one percent of variability of success for projects. Areas which should be given special attention include making sure that the Business Intelligence solution is built with the end users in mind, that the Business Intelligence solution is closely tied to the company’s strategic vision and that the project is properly scoped and prioritized to concentrate on the best opportunities first.
Highlights
This article originated from a Master’s Thesis that the authors wrote as part of their MBA studies at Blekinge Institute of Technology, supervised by Dr Klaus Solberg Søilen.The aim of the article is to develop the tools necessary to analyze, predict and manage the success of Business Intelligence, data warehousing and competitive intelligence initiatives in contemporary organizations
The hypotheses of this study are focused on the factors that make Business Intelligence initiatives successful
6.1 Non-technological problems dominate in Business Intelligence projects
Summary
The aim of the article is to develop the tools necessary to analyze, predict and manage the success of Business Intelligence, data warehousing and competitive intelligence initiatives in contemporary organizations. It is possible to identify critical success factors (CSFs) of BI initiatives and they are different from the CSFs of information systems (IS) in general. Because the aim of this article is not to define the term of Business Intelligence, but rather to investigate its success factors, both conventions are accommodated. The literature referring both to data warehouse systems/projects and Business Intelligence systems have been reviewed. For each of the independent variables analyzed, a direct dependency between success and that variable is analyzed
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