Is business intelligence still possible? Silly question. Of course, it is. Just keep the computer people away. My friend Hugh, who is a senior partner at an actuarial consulting firm, was making a blunt, but funny, joke. Or was he?Trying to find a common definition for business intelligence is a challenging task. What I have seen is wide ranging, confusing, and inaccurate. While reviewing the trade journals, I found that some definitions of business intelligence begin with: Business intelligence (BI) is a software solution that

Lets stop. Right here. We have our first problem outlined.Business intelligence certainly is not a software solution nor any other inanimate process or thing. Business intelligence first and foremost involves people. Moreover, it involves people making decisions. It is manifested best when people seeking solutions have their moments of aha. The role of business intelligence is to help them to get to those moments.Simple? A lot of empirical evidence tells us it is not. Two contributing factors stand out above all others:Overreliance on technology, andThe information glut.

Why We AbdicateThere are many good reasons people turn to computers to tell them what to do. Computers are faster, they are infinitely more accurate, and they are reliable. What we tend to forget is, a few exceptions aside, they cannot yet think at the level of human intelligence.