This review is based on an article by Ramesh C. Manghir Alani. In his article, the author praises automated business intelligence systems that are tailored and adapted to the needs of the specific organization and are not "off-the-shelf" solutions or ready-made products, based on the concept that such a solution allows organizations to get a broader and more accurate picture than using traditional BI tools.
Despite the growth and centrality of BI in organizations in recent years, along with the enormous investment of efforts and resources that organizations devote to business intelligence systems, implementing these systems is not simple at all. It tends to encounter significant difficulties during implementation. There are several typical challenges in the implementation processes of these systems. Here are some of the main ones:
Often, these are BI tools that are not sophisticated enough and stand separate from organizational systems (Stand-alone)
Building a new BI solution requires a lot of resource allocation (workforce and budget)
High maintenance costs
After implementing the solution, sometimes disappointing or unsatisfactory system performance is encountered.
According to the author, these ailments are born out of the business world, where the customer/organization purchases a business intelligence tool and "receives" in the same package additional tools that continue to maintain the approach of separate systems within the organization, where synchronization and data extraction between them is very complicated and requires constant investment of resources.
For example, the author cites the tools and systems of SAP, which offers BI solutions that require very long implementation processes because they were developed as separate systems without connection between them and certainly without any connection to existing systems in the customer's environment. ETL systems, OLAP, databases, and dashboards are offered to organizations as an end-to-end solution but constitute unconnected islands lacking synchronization and harmony.
An automated or automatic BI system allows for overcoming many of these difficulties. It is characterized by a comprehensive and uniform solution tailored and adapted by a single supplier to the organization's needs. The uniform envelope resembles a seamless suit that was solved especially for a specific customer.
When a single supplier writes one code and uses a single and uniform metadata to encompass all organizational systems - a fundamental change in the value born out of the BI solution occurs.
This ensures that the system's development, implementation, and maintenance flow smoothly and does not encounter recurring obstacles.
The result is easier and more convenient data use and faster, clearer, and cheaper processing for the end user.
However, beyond the author's words, it's important to remember that not every organization is prepared to introduce a BI house that will provide it with a 360-degree business intelligence solution. A single supplier who performs needs characterization and writes the software has many advantages. Still, such a move could create operational and managerial difficulties that manifest in complete dependence on individual development adapted to the organization's situation at that given moment. What will happen to that code with the replacement of an organizational operational system? With any structural or organizational change? How do you upgrade versions? Advance, move, change?
It should be remembered that implementing "off-the-shelf" BI systems, with all their disadvantages, offers a solution that has had a lot of thought invested in it; behind it stands a large and stable software house, and its acquisition costs are lower than a comprehensive BI solution.
It should be remembered that such software can often be fine-tuned and customized, allowing for more convenient and straightforward system implementation in the organization.
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