Best business intelligence articles, 13 - 20 October

I wrote about future business intelligence and analytics trends back in May 2014. At that time, I was keeping a pulse on the following trends: Embedded Analytics (already prevalent today and simply growing) Cognitive BI (the IBM-Watson effect, Siri, Cortana, Natural Query, etc.).

Business Analytics has assumed such strategic importance that it has evolved from a purely IT activity into a core business activity touching upon various business functions, such as marketing, R&D, etc. well into Corporate & Business strategy. As a result of this shift in importance, there is an increasing focus on greater speed-to-insight than on platforms or technologies.

It is easy to get lost in the business intelligence (BI) jungle. We constantly try to get more businesses to see the value in BI, which we all know there is, but in doing so we forget the fact that most people, even the ones looking to invest in it on behalf of their company, don't even know what it is.

Much of the world's best data comes from the U.S. government and much of the best data in government comes from the Commerce Department, which publishes weather information, demographic numbers, economic stats and scientific standards.

Interest in business intelligence (BI) is surging, as big data is expected to explode into a $50 billion market in 2015-nearly doubling its current size. Why not, when BI supports so many business-critical functions, such as analytics, business performance management, text mining and predictive analytics.

In a world where pay-for-performance contracts and accountable care arrangements now dictate how many hospitals are getting paid, the more data available to a healthcare organization, the better their business decisions can be. Understanding how an organization's utilization of resources compares to other providers in their geographic region or size range can help pinpoint poor treatment decisions, improve quality, and trim costs.

Emerging technologies like dynamic data visualization promise to change business intelligence for the better. My third assessment of business intelligence focuses on upcoming technologies that may or may not have a significant positive impact on effective use of BI.

Self-service business intelligence users are now in the majority according to The BI Survey 14 - BARC's annual survey of over 3,000 business intelligence professionals.