The 2020 Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study is out, which provides an annual look at key trends in business intelligence (BI) and provides user scores on 27 vendors using Dresner Advisory Services’ 33-criteria vendor performance management system.
For the 11th straight year, Dimensional Insight performed very well in the survey, improving upon its results from last year and earning a perfect recommend score. The report had several other interesting insights about the state of business intelligence. Here are the most important takeaways.
1. There’s room for innovative technologies to displace old ones
While most business intelligence tools have been in place for 5 or fewer years, 26% of respondents say their tools have been in place for 6 or more years. This suggests that there is room in the market for newer, more innovative technologies to displace old ones if the technology hasn’t kept pace.
The primary reasons for replacing BI tools are functionality (76%) and modernization (52%). Cost (27%) and corporate standards (20%) are less compelling reasons for replacement.
Given that cloud-based tools and services represent the bulk of newer implementations, there is an opportunity for more organizations to take advantage of the benefits of the cloud. This technology has been especially helpful to organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic as many employees have been working remotely.
2. Organizations’ success with BI is rebounding
In 2019, organizations reached a low point in how they rated their success with business intelligence. In 2020, success is starting to rebound, with 32% of organizations saying they are “completely successful” with business intelligence vs. 28% in 2019. An additional 54% of organizations say they are “somewhat successful” with BI.
What are the biggest contributors to success?
- Support from senior management or other BI champions (72%)
- Decision-making culture (59%)
- Good communication between developers and users (59%)
- Meeting business objectives (51%)
Source: Dresner Advisory Services
3. Tried and true BI is still tops
When it comes to the initiatives and technologies that are most strategic to business intelligence, there hasn’t been much change over the years as to what is most important. Out of the 41 topics that Dresner Advisory Services studies, the ones that are considered most strategic are reporting, dashboards, data integration, and data warehousing. Lower priorities are edge computing, robotic process automation and analysis, video analytics, and voice analytics.
Source: Dresner Advisory Services
4. The COVID-19 effect on business intelligence
The 2020 Wisdom of Crowds survey was fielded in February through April this year. That means the data may reflect some findings on how companies reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic, but might not be fully reflective of the impact.
Dresner Advisory Services has compiled some COVID-19 specific insights. Some of the biggest pandemic-related findings include:
- Users overwhelmingly indicated COVID-19 significantly affects projects and budgets.
- The most affected roles are operations, executive management, marketing, and finance.
- Industries most affected include higher educations, consulting, advertising, healthcare, and manufacturing.
- Mid-size organizations are most impacted.
5. Dimensional Insight continues to outrank peers
For the 11th straight year, Dimensional Insight earned stellar user scores in the Wisdom of Crowds report. In fact, our company improved upon 2019 scores in most categories, and earned a perfect recommend score for the 3rd straight year.
Source: Dresner Advisory Services
The report confirms that our laser-focus on customer success and ensuring that they see improved outcomes as a result of analytics works.
Learn more
To learn more about the Wisdom of Crowds report and see detailed user rankings on 27 business intelligence technologies, please download the full report
Kathy Sucich