The Challenges of Self-Service Business Intelligence

Abstract

Increasing the capacity of modern analytical software tools, where Excel with Power Pivot can be considered a pioneer, has enabled the expansion of self-service business intelligence. Advanced users can access a variety of data sources, retrieve information from data, compose queries, produce reports and dashboards. However, the expected general application has not materialised. This paper provides an overview of the available records of the reasons for the partial success of self-service business intelligence. The utilisation of self-service business intelligence has proved that it cannot be used without some analytical skills. They are a prerequisite for users to be able to successfully use the available tools. In this paper, the required knowledge is identified and collected using the descriptive method, the compilation method and the inductive method. It also points to potential opportunities for the development of tools that, by integrating some of the still necessary manual interventions in the production of analytical models and reports, could make these tools even more user-friendly and easier to use. In a special chapter, the paper presents good practices and tries to limit the scope of self-service business intelligence by listing its advantages and disadvantages.