The Challenge of BI for Small and Medium-sized Businesses: Resources, Organization, and Gaining a Strategic Edge

Business Intelligence (BI) is still a synonym for expensive and complex solutions that require skilled IT workers. The market is ruled by front-end vendors and BI service providers that focus on the enterprise segment, not on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and their unique functional and organizational needs.

SMBs desperately need better insight into their businesses and most would benefit from an affordable, easy to use BI solution that does not require ongoing IT resources. Microsoft's definition of small and mid-size segment, and the one we will work with in the three scenarios that will follow, is:

1. Small business: 1-49 employees using 1-24 PCs
2. Mid-sized ...

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