Business Intelligence for the Small to Medium Sized Business.

Business Intelligence for the Small to
Medium Sized Business (SMB)
Analytics Reaches Down Market
October 2008
Michael Lock
~ Underwritten, in Part, by ~Business Intelligence for the Small to Medium Sized Business (SMB) Page 2
Executive Summary
As information flows more freely in the business world, decisions need to Research Benchmark be made quicker and based on sturdier data. The analytical capability that Aberdeen's Research was once reserved for large enterprises has now permeated the world of Benchmarks provide an in- Small to Medium Businesses (SMBs) and provided a solid foundation of depth and comprehensive look visibility into what really matters to these companies. Aberdeen's research into process, procedure, shows a marked uptake in the use of Business Intelligence (BI) solutions in methodologies, and the SMB market over the past year. Based on feedback from almost 650 technologies with best practice end-user organizations, this report serves as a roadmap for SMBs looking to identification and actionable improve their analytical capability and achieve Best-in-Class performance recommendationsthrough the deployment of BI.
Best-in-Class Performance Aberdeen used four key performance criteria to distinguish Best-in-Class SMBs from Industry Average and Laggard SMBs:
· Time-to-information. 58% of Best-in-Class SMBs provide access to key information in real-time or near real-time versus 21% of Industry Average SMBs and 5% of Laggards · Utilization of BI assets. 100% of Best-in-Class SMBs deliver self- service BI capability to non-technical end users, compared with 60% of Industry Average SMBs and 18% of Laggards · Employee productivity. Best-in-Class SMBs achieved a mean average 11% increase in employee productivity - defined as time spent looking for information - compared with a 2% increase for the Industry Average and an 8% decrease for Laggards · Cost-per-user of BI applications. Best-in-Class SMBs drove a 9% mean average reduction in cost-per-user of BI applications, versus a 0% reduction for the Industry Average and a 6% increase for Laggards
Competitive Maturity Assessment Survey results show that the firms enjoying Best-in-Class performance shared several common characteristics:
· Best-in-Class SMBs are nearly three-times more likely than Laggards to utilize a formal process of data collection and integration for BI projects · Best-in-Class SMBs are 2.5-times more likely than Laggards to automate report generation and deliver to end-users · Best-in-Class SMBs are almost four-times more likely than Industry Average SMBs to have the ability to monitor usage levels of the BI system (number of users accessing)
© 2008 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200 www.aberdeen.com Fax: 617 723 7897 Business Intelligence for the Small to Medium Sized Business (SMB) Page 3
Required Actions In addition to the specific recommendations in Chapter Three of this "We were using a variety of report, to achieve Best-in-Class performance, companies must: reporting methods for our different business systems. · Create a formalized training program for BI usage Some of that reporting was built into the system; other · Define the BI and IT skill sets necessary to meet their goals reporting was done in Excel by · Invest in BI dashboard technology exporting data out of the system. After implementing a BI solution, we solved several Figure 1: Top Departments Driving the Need for BI problems: 1) We established a common 61% platform for reporting for all Customer Service 63% systems. 50% 2) The BI tool allowed us to integrate data across multiple Finance: Expense 57% 57% business systems (ERP, CRM, Management 39% web data, etc.) to provide more 'intelligent' reports. 64% 3) We were given tremendous Sales 47% flexibility and capability in 48% developing reporting and analysis tools. 45% Finance: Billing 45% Now we can easily create 32% dashboards. Plus we can deploy reports across a web-based 35% Large Companies platform for anyone to view - Transportation / Shipping 32% Mid­Market Companies without the need to install 19% Small Companies additional software on everyone's PC's." 15% 25% 35% 45% 55% 65% ~ Allan Dziwoki, Senior % of Respondents Director - Business Services, Mitsubishi Electric & Source: Aberdeen Group, October 2008 Electronics USA
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