Information Management Trends in 2005. Červen 2005
TechRepublic uspořádalo na webu rozsáhlý průzkum, v jehož rámci získala od 398-mi respondentů velmi cenná data o tom, jak firmy a instituce přistupují k problematice uplatnění moderní ICT, k informačnímu managementu a k "business analytics". Výsledky byly publikovány i na portálu TechRepublic, odkud si je můžete stáhnout. Bohužel jsem dosud nenašel čas k podrobnějšímu shrnutí obsahu v češtině. Podařilo se mi pouze z 19-ti stran vybrat to nejzajímavější ( cca 3 strany ) v angličtině. Jde o doslovné citáty vybraných částí článku. Získané poznatky se vztahují k červnu roku 2005.
Průzkum zasluhuje pozornost z řady důvodů. Cenné jsou nejen odpovědi, ale i otázky. Otázky přibližují okruh problematiky, který organizátoři průzkumu považují za důležité z hlediska IM.
To more fully understand how organizations are handling critical business data and business analytics, TechRepublic conducted a survey to explore several key trends of information management and related tools. While some companies are still focused exclusively on storage and access, others are leveraging their critical information to gain insight into business performance and make better decisions.
Among the most compelling findings:
• The need to find reliable business intelligence strategies is becoming increasingly important
• Currently, most organizations are not taking full advantage of existing business intelligence solutions
• The current focus for business data management solutions is on data access
The majority of IT and business professionals recognize the need to proactively manage growing amounts of data, and are turning toward business intelligence management solutions to meet their needs. The current focus is on increasing the capacity of the organization to access critical information in a timely manner to better inform business decisions that impact bottom-line profitability. The findings presented in this study indicate that business intelligence tools for managing data in today’s dynamic and challenging business environment are becoming increasingly important and critical aspects of linking IT technologies with business needs.
Businesses recognize the importance of information management for business analysis. Most respondents (75%) indicated that improving data accuracy and integrity is most important for their organizations. Other important objectives included the need to address decision-making ability (65%), obtain real-time information (64%), improve business planning (nearly 60%), and develop business-reporting capability (over 50%).
Over 90 percent agreed or strongly agreed that reducing query time would provide marked improvement for their organizations. Processing huge volumes of data efficiently is therefore a key opportunity for improving business operations.
Only about 20 percent of respondents deploy business intelligence tools widely throughout the enterprise, followed by 32 percent whose deployment is limited to specific problems, and another 30 percent who report “scattered” deployment. Nearly 15 percent roll out business intelligence tools widely only after initial deployment. These results suggest that few organizations are taking full advantage of data management solutions for their business needs, and hints at widespread current use of data shadow systems.
We found that respondents are most concerned with maintaining high security and compliance standards (mean rank of 3.6), followed by ensuring minimal downtime for updates, refreshes, and administration (mean rank of 4.3), and in ensuring high performance for complex query environments (mean rank of 4.8). Respondents were also somewhat concerned with real-time reporting, analytics, data warehousing (mean rank of 5.0) and ease-of-use considerations (also ranked 5.0). They were somewhat less concerned with low maintenance (rated 6.0), leading price/performance (rated 6.3), and fast deployment (rated 6.5). According to those interviewed, the least important feature of a relational database management system (ranked 7.9) is unstructured data management (e.g., e-mail, video, images, voice, etc.).
We asked participants to rate key capabilities of a relational database management system for improving their business data management practices. The most important capabilities included:
• Access to Historical & Real-time Data
• Volume of Query Support
• Multiple Database Access
• Scalability of Database Management
• Unlimited Access
• Uninterrupted Performance
Finally, we asked respondents to rate the importance of a number of benefits associated with an ntegrated business intelligence tool. Respondents used the same 5-point scale employed on the revious question. The rated benefits are summarized below:
• Faster access to information
• Store and access larger amounts of data
• Faster data loading
• Flexible scaling
• Maximized computing powering effectiveness
• Lower total cost of ownership
• Minimized storage costs
• Low entry costs
• Open standards
Results reveal strong consensus among IT and business professionals – most respondents agree that faster data access, increasing storage capability, and faster data loading are the top three benefits of adopting business intelligence solutions.
This study reveals several important aspects about business intelligence solutions that IT and business management professionals will find useful as they explore new solutions to existing data management challenges.
Emerging information management approaches: The importance of business
intelligence tools
This study shows that over 85 percent of respondents rated enterprise management for business analysis as critical to highly critical for ensuring the success of their organizations
Current state of business intelligence deployment: Breadth and depth
Many organizations are not taking full advantage of the flexibility offered by business intelligence solutions.
Organizations have a long way to go before they leverage business intelligence tools for enterprise-wide decision making. Nevertheless, we anticipate that the breadth and depth of business intelligence solutions will continue to grow as businesses struggle to meet new database management challenges.
Information management tools: Solving critical business needs
This research highlights the need IT and business professionals have for maintaining high performance levels while minimizing security breaches and downtime due to increasing server demands.
There is also growing importance placed on real-time data access, analytics, and data warehousing. In terms of current needs, this study identified the top three benefits of business intelligence solutions:
• Faster access to information
• Store and access larger amounts of data
• Faster data loading
Respondents rated many capabilities of business intelligence tools as important for addressing these needs. Interestingly, there was no clear “winner” among the identified tools—each was rated with nearly equal importance:
• Ability to support a high volume of queries
• Ability to access both historical and real-time data to inform business decisions
• Multiple database access
• Scalability of database management
• Providing unlimited database access , and
• Providing uninterrupted performance
These findings show that business intelligence tools are increasingly viewed as an important, if not critical, aspect of business data management in today’s constantly changing environment. Most information technology and business managers recognize the need for storing business-critical data with flexible and ready access to support better business decision making, which is key to an adaptive and profitable enterprise.
