KPMG in the UAE announces the results of their business intelligence survey

This is according to the results of a survey released today by KPMG in the UAE at their offices in Emirates Towers, Dubai.

The fact that the firms in UAE are on an aggressive growth path is clearly visible when we look at the reasons for increase in the data. Geographical expansion and the increases in the number of products and services offered have been cited as the top 2 reasons for the data overload according to Rajeev Lalwani, Partner, KPMG Lower gulf.

While analyzing the survey findings, the primary reason for the information needs not being met despite the proliferation of data was that 50% of the executives surveyed pointed to the presence of disintegrated systems as a possible root-cause. Executives have also reported that they get multiple unconsolidated reports and that the data invariably lacks quality.

He goes on to say that when we asked organizations which are initiating a BI project, as to what kept them from going for a BI (Business Intelligence)/DW (Data Warehousing) solution earlier, they reported that the lack of data quality followed by long timelines and shortage of BI skills were the primary roadblocks.

BI initiatives are driven by a variety of internal and external factors. The 3 main factors that influenced the decision to implement the BI program were Business Planning, Business Performance monitoring using KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and sharing information with the top management.

The survey identifies 3 primary areas where BI has been deployed in this region; which are Management Reporting, Financial Planning & Budgeting and Performance Management which implies that companies are laying major stress on strategy, operations and planning.

An overwhelming majority of the executives said that they expect either considerable or significant savings by getting the right information at the right time.

Integration challenges followed by shortage of BI skills are the key pain-points that organizations have faced. The survey points out that the need for a simple BI solution and user-friendly data model have also been felt by some of the companies.

Rajeev adds:

"when we asked companies to rank the top 3 factors that influence their decision to go with a BI tool, complementing current investments like support for existing platform and integration with key systems has been rated as the No.1 priority by our respondents, followed by matching the detailed requirements and ease of use. "

It is surprising that performance and scalability have not made it to the top 3 factors, indicating that the data volume expected to be handled by the BI solutions in the region may not be significant at this point in time.