http://www.computable.nl/artikel/ict_topics/business_intelligence/2546402/1277145/bisuccesfactoren-the-wisdom-of-crowds.html

RT: There is a slowdown in the BI market (I think). The reason for this is that most organizations have some kind of BI solution in place. The next challenge will be information management. The problem is that we need a business case for this. IT is at a deadend if they cannot translate their house keeping in some kind of revenue versus costs calculation.  JH: I don’t know if there will be a slow down. BI is a slowly evolving system that needs constant attention and a incremental updates. RT: Organization need a BI house keeper. JH: New BI initiatives will probably slow down in the medium & large segment. Mainstream IT is on its way to be a commodity (like furniture). But BI is still such a specific type of IT with a lot of business involvement that it will remain a hot topic. Perhaps in a different shape than cubes and reports.  RT: Best in class companies can focus on tooling and information but all others have a data problem. JH: competing on data is tge nr1 challenge.  RT: We need a new subject at school! JH: Out with the CIO – long live the Chief Data Officer RT: Information Logistics RT: (CDO, see Yahoo)  JH: Are they doing this?  Smart of them to listen to the guru  JH: However if they are taken over by MS they are not as smart as I expected.  RT: lol, nice fight with NewsCorp, AOL, Yahoo, MS, Google … JH: Have to go – talk to you later RT: CU.

There is much talk about the impact of the (feared) recession on Business Intelligence. Most analysts are expecting a slowdown in customer spending and vendor revenues. I see their point and I am somewhat inclined to agree but there is another side to this. There is an expression that goes something like: you have to repair the roof when it’s not raining. In other words IT spending is obviously up during financial upturns. BI tends to benefit from this as well. But as the economic weather gets rough there is even more need for information. As the budget is cut back people are looking at smart things to save costs, recognize trends early, and identify the most valuable customers and so on. This is exactly what BI enables you to do. So my expectations are that an economic downturn will hit the general IT market much harder than it will impact BI.