Egham, UK, January 21, 2011 (December 13, 2010) -- CIOs must ensure that business intelligence (BI) programs are treated as a cultural transformation of the business, instead of as an IT project, according to Gartner, Inc. Leading organizations are using key parts of BI, such as decision modelling and support to ensure all workers, managers and executives can make the right decisions in a given business situation.

“Traditionally, BI has been used for performance reporting from historical data, and as a planning and forecasting tool for a relatively small number of people in an organization that relies on historical data to plan ahead,” said Patrick Meehan, research vice president at Gartner. “Modelling future scenarios permits examination of new business models, new market opportunities and new products, and creates a culture of opportunity. In this way, workers not only see the future, but often create it.”

Using information to provide intelligent insight to improve business performance is a major challenge. CIOs can provide leadership by developing a cross-enterprise perspective of information and processes supported by technology. Gartner has highlighted three initiatives that use BI to create intelligent businesses:

1. Focus BI Efforts on Delivering the Right Information to the Right People

Apply a business process orientation to BI that connects horizontally across functional areas and outwardly to partners, customers and partners. To keep strategy execution on track, BI must address all staff and management levels in the organization.

2. Change the Mind-Set from More Information to Answering the Right Questions

Champion the value of decision impact. Ultimately, a relentless focus on a very limited set of burning business questions will guide users toward BI-enabled decisions that have maximum impact on business strategies and goals.

3. Create Project Teams Based on Information Needs

Create project teams based not just on who owns the data, but also on departmental interest in the information that will be generated. Breaking down silos of data ownership will send information flows up and down management chains as well as across functions, which in turn will create decisions with higher impact. Unless business decisions exploit organizations’ interdependencies in this manner, their impact will fall short. The business decisions with the biggest impact never exist in isolation.

Additional information is available in the Gartner report “From Business Intelligence to Intelligent Business." The report is available on Gartner’s website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1467718.

About Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2011

The Summit will provide Gartner’s latest insight on how to make BI in organisations meet the new needs of business after the recent economic shift. Business strategies, organizational structures and BI and performance management (PM) architectures are being 'reborn' to reflect changed priorities – helping organizations maximize the potential of these new opportunities by providing the insight that business leaders need.

About Gartner:

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the valuable partner to 60,000 clients in 11,000 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role.

Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,400 associates, including 1,200 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.