BI, more BI, and even more BI. Every time I check a supply management or technology publication, I see yet another article on BI, like this recent article from Inside Supply Management on getting smart at business intelligence. Now, you think I’d be pleased at this as I’m always promoting advanced sourcing applications like decision optimization and spend analysis because good technology can help you do good analysis which helps you to make decisions which make you efficient and cost effective, but I’m not. Because every frickin’ BI article, just like every spend analysis article, always starts with mapping and cleansing, and then dwells on it like it’s the be-all and end-all.
Now, I probably shouldn’t complain because what is your average journalist supposed to think is important when even the high-and-mighty analysts — who are supposed to know that “It’s the Analysis, Stupid” — write long-winded thirty-five (35) question spend analysis surveys where twenty-nine (29) questions are about mapping, cleansing and categorization and only one (1) question is about analysis, but I am going to complain, because it’s not helping any of us. It’s not helping those of us trying to teach you what real high-end technology should, and can, do for you and it’s not helping you find the best tools for the job.
You see, real Business Intelligence, when you get right down to it, is not mapping and cleansing, not business unit involvement (because all you really need is the data), not rapid prototyping (because any solution you use should already be built as there are already lots of tools out there), not integration (because modern middleware platforms do that for you with point-and-click interfaces), and not canned reporting (which only tells you what you’re doing, not what you should be doing). Real business intelligence is making smart decisions based on insights gleamed from real data analysis … and real data analysis requires a tool that can cube, slice, and dice data any way you can think of looking at it. Face it, just like there’s no such thing as (a) spend intelligence solution, there’s no such thing as a business intelligence solution — because half of the “solution” is the brains in your head. Brains which won’t get to realize their full potential without a real data analysis tool to provide answers to their inquiries. So what is the definition of a real data analysis tool? I think I’ll let Eric answer that in his forthcoming series. (See the recent Spend Rappin’ repost for quick links to his previous ground-breaking and forward-thinking series on spend analysis.)