Business intelligence 3.0

Business Intelligence 3.0 (BI 3.0) is a term that refers to new tools and software for business intelligence, that enable contextual discovery and more collaborative decision making. BI 3.0 is socially enabled, which keeps it in line with the popularization of social media technologies and the demand for more intuitive self-service BI. Some executives, such as Venkat Iyer, the practice head of business information management for Capgemini, have called it the future of business intelligence in the face of new technology and rising data use.
According to industry thought leaders, BI 3.0 also implies a move away from current BI solutions which present poor adoption rates, limited reporting, and unsophisticated dashboards.
History
BI 1.0 involved mainly the presentation of data, and giving users a way to best store the exponential growth of data in business. It also allowed BI analysts a platform they could use to sift through data in order to give management information for informed decision making.
In the following years, computer advances for both users and managers, and the speed of business demanded the real-time access to information. BI 2.0 was built to fulfill this need, and introduced new tools such as scorecards, KPI data, and more advanced dashboards. This evolution in BI marked a shift from simply looking at the data to developing advanced insights that were more personalized to the user but could only pull hardcoded data points.
Technological progress and the pace of business cannot be slowed, so the BI 2.0 tools are now out of date. With mobile technologies and a need for urgency, business managers need immediate data analysis. BI 2.0 tools also did not spur enough adoption throughout a typical enterprise, with adoption rates of three to eight percent being normal. Opportunities to leverage BI to improve business processes were missed.
BI fell behind advances in other information technology that enabled instant access and personalized data. E-commerce sites developed personalized product recommendations, Bing and other search engines offer real-time news alerts, and LinkedIn allows social networking and research on a global scale. The time was ripe for a shift in BI to make it faster, more accessible, and more relevant.
Structure and Benefits
Main Components
BI 3.0 encompasses three key elements that define how it benefits users and organizations in decision making:
1. Relevancy
BI 3.0 solutions take user patterns and their individual profiles and use computational analysis to present the most relevant data and corresponding insights. Contextual information is easier to understand by users at all levels of the enterprise, and lets managers take actionable steps. The output of more relevant results is also more efficient, as users no longer need to sift through data or analyses which do not correspond to their job duties.
2. Socially Enabled
New BI programs are able to look at the interests and data interactions of users and then promote social connections with others in the enterprise. This type of interrelatedness opens up new avenues for team building, as users in various departments might now see similar interests and goals intersecting.

3. A user-oriented, self-service model.
An interactive user interface that is designed for business users is a hallmark of BI 3.0. The dashboard interface needs to be customizable, so users can build their own data views and reports to suit their personal taste. Such customization saves IT staff from having to spend time on the BI solution instead of other mission critical tasks.
Key Benefits
BI 3.0 is the latest generation of BI that combines several key attributes into a more integrated and efficient system:
1. The ability to manage and organize data in real time:
Advanced database technologies allow organizations to continuously examine new data and archive older data in new insightful ways. This means there is no longer the necessity to pre-define how data is managed.
2. All users have access to tools:
BI is essential for all business users at multiple levels as it allows the growth of the company’s social intelligence. Sales, marketing, business development, and operations should all be using BI to collaboratively pull insights and accomplish mutual goals. BI 3.0 therefore needs to be easy to use and intuitive, allowing non-technical staff to easily use tools to build insights and analyses for their specific needs.
3. 24/7 global access:
With the rise of mobile smartphones and tablets, BI information needs to be available at all times. Business continuity depends on this access, and it allows employees that work from home or are traveling the same access to data as in-office staff.
4. Relevant intelligence:
BI 3.0 provides the appropriate information to users, making it relevant for their job; they do not need to pre-define their desired data. For example, similar to a book recommendation on Amazon, smart BI is able to use computational logic to present information the user very likely wants to see. BI 3.0 provides users with insights they might not have ever reached through simple one-dimensional data analysis.
5. Social BI:
With Web 2.0 the world has become social, with the power of groupthink being able to handle large problems. BI 3.0 encourages connections between users within the enterprise, and outsiders who can provide their own insights.
Leaders of Business Intelligence 3.0
Panorama Software coined the term “BI 3.0” in 2011 to coincide with launch of its new product Panorama Necto .
The term has since caught on throughout the information technology industry. Research firms such as Gartner and Forrester Research have begun attributing Business Intelligence 3.0 as the culmination of analytics tools for the data created, housed and shared via modern technology
Socially enabled BI 3.0 solutions perform several key functions, including actively suggesting other users for the creation of ad hoc teams, recommending insights, and understanding user preferences.
The newest generation of BI solutions will foster more connections between data, users, and the most relevant insights. Social decision making will become commonplace as corporations push for the power of many to overcome complex multi-department problems.
BI 3.0 solutions are enterprise user-driven applications formed on three main tenets - Social BI, Automated Relevant Insights and Self-Service.
BI 3.0 solutions have an advanced kind of computational intelligence that is able to decipher user behaviour and present relevant insights based on that behaviour. They are collaborative solutions that encourage real decision making among groups that share a common task based on geography, product or service.
Analysts Expectations
Gartner 2012 predictions
Among all other technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations in 2012 (with strategic technologies defined as those having the potential for significant impact on the enterprise over the next three years) Gartner indicated three issues with direct implications for Business Intelligence 3.0.
* Contextual and Social User Experience: Computing that can recognize context pulls data from the end user’s connections, preferences, and activities in order to improve interactions. Contextually aware systems can anticipate user needs and then produce custom content to meet those needs. Socially driven information is now a main source of contextual data, and is enhancing search results delivery.
* Next-Generation Analytics: Gartner contends analytics is moving from offline data to in-line embedded analytics, with a movement from only reviewing historical data to looking at both historical and real-time information and using it to be predictive of future events. Forecasts call for analytics to move towards even more complex data analysis that looks at various types of data from many systems.
* Cloud Computing. Gartner believes the cloud is a disruptive force with the potential of having a broad, long-term impact in most industries. While it remains in early stages, big players such as Oracle, IBM, and SAP are moving to offer more cloud services over the upcoming years. Microsoft's (News - Alert) expanding cloud offering will also help boost competition and increase the number of enterprise-level cloud services.
Forrester Research on BI 3.0
Forrester Research analyst James Kobielus discussed the next generation of Business Intelligence solutions in an informative webinar. Below are his main conclusions:
* IT is becoming a bottleneck in the flow of intelligent data. User frustration is peaking because the task of accessing data is difficult, and adding information to a data warehouse is increasingly time consuming.
* Mr. Kobielus stated user empowerment is the main gain, compared to traditional analytics where IT held the key to reporting. Further empowerment through next-generation BI comes through the main features of BI 3.0, including relevancy, social enablement, and intuitive self-service.
* Relevancy means users are presented with data automatically, and the information is extremely pertinent to their job functions. Users do not need to pour through data in order to draw conclusions.
* The social side of BI adds another dimension to BI 3.0, with managers and end-users’ opinions becoming a part of the entire enterprise’s knowledge base, which is available for everyone in the business.
* Companies’ most valuable source of business intelligence might reside in the brains of its employees. BI is not powerful if it cannot “crowdsource” the brilliance of individual minds together to solve problems. Intelligence is the most powerful business asset for companies to experience long-term success.

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