Patterns of business intelligence systems use in organizations

Abstract

Business intelligence (BI) is often used as the umbrella term for large-scale decision support systems (DSS) in organizations. BI is currently the largest area of IT investment in organizations and has been rated as the top technology priority by CIOs worldwide for many years. The most important use patterns in decision support are concerned with the type of decision to be supported and the type of manager that makes the decision. The seminal Gorry and Scott Morton MIS/DSS framework remains the most popular framework to describe these use patterns. It is widely believed that DSS theory like this framework can be transferred to BI. This paper investigates BI systems use patterns using the Gorry and Scott Morton framework and contemporary decision-making theory from behavioral economics. The paper presents secondary case study research that analyzes eight BI systems and 86 decisions supported by these systems. Based on the results of the case studies a framework to describe BI use patterns is developed. The framework provides both a theoretical and empirically based foundation for the development of high quality BI theory. It also provides a guide for developing organizational strategy for BI provision. The framework shows that enterprise and smaller functional BI systems exist together in an organization to support different decisions and different decision makers. The framework shows that personal DSS theory cannot be applied to BI systems without specific empirical support.