Most Companies Don't Use BI Tools to their Fullest Potential According to Market Survey Sponsored by Noetix.

Effective ROI analysis would make it easier to get BI projects approved, justify the cost of purchasing hardware and software and support the roll-out of BI applications to larger user communities.

REDMOND, Wash. -- Noetix([R]) Corp., a software provider that automatically generates business intelligence (BI) content from enterprise applications, today announced results from a market survey conducted to better understand the challenges and alternatives for conducting return-on-investment (ROI) and total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) studies for BI implementations. The results reveal that most companies do not believe they are using their current BI tools to their fullest potential. Moreover, if enterprises could conduct ROI studies more efficiently, it would be easier to get BI projects approved, justify the cost of purchasing hardware and software, and support the roll-out of BI applications to larger user communities.

"The expectation for today's BI applications is that corporate content and analytical reports will be available to front-line managers and customer-facing personnel in a very timely fashion," said Morris Beton, CEO of Noetix. "However, BI customers are instead handed tools at the programming level and are tasked with building a customized solution. Therefore, once a sale is made, there is much work that must still go into the development of the BI solution and widespread adoption is typically months or even years away."

Though BI is becoming a key differentiator in many industries and is widely seen as giving companies the ability to extract more value from their data in order to improve corporate performance, most survey respondents stated that companies are not making good use of their BI infrastructure. Reasons for this included the following:

* Lack of training was listed as the biggest obstacle to making better use of BI, followed by limited staffing resources.

* Most custom reports remain very sophisticated, drawing on two to ten data sources, and typically take from several hours up to five days to create.

* IT staffs still create the majority of BI reports, followed by business analysts.

* Dissatisfaction with BI technology is found among all user communities and is most widespread in IT staff groups. Only 46 percent of IT respondents were satisfied with their organization's BI infrastructure.

* The idea that BI applications can create more work is also a significant reason why enterprises are not getting the most out of their BI implementation.

"The stakes here could not be higher and the key question becomes: how can companies justify increased investment in BI in order to address existing challenges?" said Dr. Elliot King, research director at Unisphere Research, which conducted the study on behalf of Noetix. "And the answer is, by demonstrating a significant return on investment."

A previous Unisphere Research study showed that while 89 percent of all companies conduct ROI studies for technology implementations, fewer than 45 percent conduct ROI studies for BI implementations and only 23 percent had ever conducted a TCO study.

According to this most recent study, there is widespread agreement that companies should conduct ROI studies for BI implementations that cost more than $50,000, however, there are many challenges to doing this, including the following:

* Neither IT nor financial staffs possess all the right skills to conduct an ROI analysis for BI investments.

* It is difficult to measure and track the ongoing costs of a BI implementation including updates of the software, consulting fees, service and support, hardware maintenance, and licenses.

* It is difficult to aggregate and quantify the direct benefits of BI investments.

While it is difficult to conduct ROI and TCO analyses, survey respondents see these studies as being critical to the success of enterprise BI efforts. Effective ROI analysis will make it easier to get BI projects approved, allow for forecasting and justifying the cost of purchasing hardware and software, and support the roll-out of BI applications to larger user communities.

Respondents stated that ROI calculations could be improved with metrics such as the ability to document the use of BI tools, the ability to document time saved creating custom reports, and documenting that fewer IT resources were consumed.

"For several years now, BI projects have been at the top of the IT priority list," said King. "If companies could better measure the benefits they derive from BI as well as better ascertain the costs, they would invest more aggressively in this area."

About Noetix

More than 1,400 customers worldwide use Noetix to quickly and cost-effectively access the enterprise application data they need to make important business decisions every day. Noetix provides software that automatically generates metadata from enterprise applications, enabling immediate access to data. Unlike most business intelligence tools that require weeks of extensive manual mapping to be set up and maintained, Noetix uses patented technology to automatically discover and produce metadata based on customers' specific implementations of Oracle E-Business Suite or Siebel Business Applications. Noetix provides this business intelligence content with easy search and navigation capability, empowering users to quickly generate the ad hoc, operational reports needed to make critical and timely business decisions. Noetix's proven technology is being used by industry-leading customers worldwide, including: CompUSA, Motorola, Starbucks, Toshiba, Welch's, and Visa. The company is headquartered in Redmond, Wash., with international operations in London and Hyderabad, India.

Noetix is a registered trademark of Noetix Corp.