Informatica Perspectives

Can business intelligence benefit from the current excitement around the rise of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0? Some say the intersection of BI and Web 2.0 will advance us into “Business Intelligence 2.0,” which promises up-to-date information and actionable insights about every aspect of the business. Fellow blogger Rick Sherman recently observed that BI 2.0 isn’t just about tools and technologies, but about “getting more comprehensive, consistent, correct and current data…. We can finally interweave data from the data warehouse with real-time and event-driven data via our data integration efforts.”

Can Web 2.0 make the promise of BI 2.0 more of a reality? The intersection of Web 2.0 and BI is clearly taking BI to a whole new level of interaction among a much wider audience of users, and it’s interesting to see what observers are saying about the phenomenon. There are two directions Web 2.0 is taking BI – as a collaborative environment in which users can tap into the “wisdom of crowds,” and also offering a way users can build lightweight applications.

For example, a few months back, I had the opportunity to host a Webinar with Dan Tapscott, co-author of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Don said that BI is on the verge of a revolutionary transition, and explained how the Web 2.0 world — with its high degree of collaboration – is changing the face of BI to what he called "collaborative intelligence." Prior to the introduction of Web 2.0 methodologies, he explained, internal data had "been accessible in various limited ways through traditional ERP reporting systems, MIS and business intelligence."

Don talked about the collaborative nature of Web 2.0-powered BI, in which information is exchanged through online communities, providing opportunities to mine information on customer attitudes.

The other aspect of Web 2.0-powered BI is seen in user-generated applications, which could either be for spur-of-the-moment ad-hoc purposes, or for more long-term needs. The mashup is a composite Web-based application that can draw data and applications from multiple sources into a single presentation, usually supported by lightweight, Web-centric protocols such as REST and AJAX.

In Part 2: Examples of Web 2.0-driven BI in action.