Executives and managers are awash in business intelligence information, but the benefits of analytics tools are barely trickling down to frontline workers, according to a recent survey.
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This is very unfortunate, according to Jake Freivald, vice-president of corporate marketing for the software maker. For instance, he said, frontline workers are often in direct contact with customers and have the opportunity to provide clients better service and experience with the company if they have appropriate customer or account information on hand.
Organizations also stand to benefit in areas such as smoother coordination and product delivery by judiciously sharing key BI data with partners and suppliers, he said.
“Customers, when provided appropriate visibility into products and services or their own accounts, will likely develop stronger rapport and trust with their provider,” said Freivald.
The top roadblocks limiting the deployment of BI are:
- Data quality and reliability (39 per cent)
- Internal politics or organizational culture (29 per cent)
- Technological challenges (38 per cent)
- Concerns about cost of technology investments (34 per cent)
When asked which approach would deliver a better user experience and more adoption of BI tools with less training, 55 per cent of respondents chose “powerful analytic tools used to perform ad hoc analysis” while 45 per cent selected “an app store experience with a selection of information apps to answer business questions with point-and-click.”
“This suggests that firms still view information management from the perspective of knowledge workers and other data intensive roles,” said Freivald. “A better alternative is to use tools that will sift through big data and deliver BI pervasively to all employees, external partners and even customers in the context that they will understand and find useful.”
