Do Users Go Both Ways?: BI User Profiles Fit BI Tools

A challenging task for a data warehouse team is identifying users by their information needs and skills, and then providing the BI (Business Intelligence) tools that support each group to do their job effectively and efficiently. Recent studies have shown that the BI market place is saturated with a bewildering array of capabilities, functions and software suites. The current lack of consistent interpretation of Business Intelligence has created some confusion in the market place. This paper defines a framework to identify different user groups in an organization and map their needs and requirements to the different functionalities offered by different BI tool vendors. Through literature review, clear definitions of users were created and a set of BI tools that identifies functional needs was established. From that information, a questionnaire was developed that probed for the relationships between user types, tools, functions and other perceived values. Responses from 154 professionals were then used to develop a road map for the data warehouse project team in BI tool selection.