Business intelligence: a bull in a bear economy

By Madan Sheina

Business intelligence: a bull in a bear economy

As companies brace themselves for a recession, investing in business intelligence (BI) software might well be their best defense. BI, if implemented and used correctly, is sure to win over many more fans in the coming year. However, BI vendors will no longer enjoy their premium-priced policies of the past.

BI is a recession-proof technology

BI has proved to be an unusual segment of enterprise software in that it never seems to have a down-cycle. That's because BI is a Janus-faced technology. If the economy is doing well then BI and data warehousing helps companies optimize their operations and grasp new and lucrative business opportunities before their competitors do. However, if the economy isn't doing so well then BI becomes an effective cost-savings tool, allowing companies to squeeze greater cost efficiencies from their existing processes and resources, and identify and mitigate business risk.

BI's shift to the latter is all too evident today within the beleaguered financial sector, where many banks and financial services institutions are starting to refocus away from just customer relationship management (CRM) focused activities like up-/cross-sell and combating churn, to also understanding high-risk loans to avoid exposure to high debt.

The need for companies to have visibility into their business, in both good and bad economies, has therefore buoyed up sales of BI software despite other types of business applications tailing off.

BI is your best recession-fighting IT tool

BI is tailor-made for an economic downturn and becomes one of the hottest tools in corporate IT portfolios. With the dreaded "R" word on everyone's lips right now, companies are bracing themselves by tightening their budgets, scaling back their investments and operations, and maximizing efficiencies from what they have in place. To meet these challenges, companies have to be nimble and agile in terms of their key business operational processes and strategic decision-making. What they really need is greater visibility into their core business processes. And that's where BI comes into play.

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