Reconciliation of two separate worlds is a challenge
BA4BI is out since the end of October 2012 and after almost seven months, it is time to give you an overview of the first reactions on the publication. Sure, there are good reviews like these on Amazon.com.
But there is also a general, recurring critique, namely the book is taking too much of a central position between the ICT BI specialists, the business users of the BI products and the strategic decision makers. What this critique means is in fact “you are not choosing our side”.
I am very happy with this general critique because that is what the book meant to do: to create a bridge between the technicians and the strategy designers and executors. The only firm choice it makes is for mutual adjustment! But it also makes me a bit sad. It means that we still have a long way to go in the painful marriage between IT and “the business” as the latter are called by the “nerds” which is a description often heard by the non-technical people…
As every business enterprise today uses or creates an IT component by default this marriage will have to improve. A marketing campaign needs IT to execute, logistics and warehouse management without IT is a dead end, finance? IT has been there for ages,…
More than any other biz or tech hype is this where the true business value is situated: the alignment of the information management with the strategy process. For those who don’t agree: keep optimising your own narrow perspective, take all credits for success and blame the other guys for your failures and one day you will find out you are both sharing the organisation’s loss of market share, efficiency and ultimately the cash that pays your overrated salaries and bonuses.
Have a good day!
