All in all, Business Intelligence allows the company to better analyze the myriad of forces in the micro and macro environment and to make better informed decisions. It as such supports analytics, which in turn creates competitive advantages for the economic agent (Davenport, 2006), but it also creates internal strength and stability in the face of external pressures; it supports the processes of decision making.
Still, regardless of the benefits of Business Intelligence and Knowledge Management within the organizational setting, fact remains that the two concepts are more difficult to apply in practice than they are to define in theory. Otherwise put, economic agents face a wide array of challenges when actually implementing BI and KM in their institutions. Some of the more notable of these challenges include the following:
Rapid development of the IT community, which generates the need for continuous updates, maintenance, technology replacements and the adjacent costs which are brought about (Bardoliwalla, 2009)
The need for highly skilled staff members to be in charge of the processes of Business Intelligence and ensure that the company adequately uses BI to attain its objectives
The scopes for which BI is implemented could be delayed by the fact that the information is compounded with the regular use of machines, which might not adequately filter the pertinent information, as a human would do (Staples, 2009).
The reticence of the employees when being faced with the change in their daily operations.
Business Intelligence is the new competitive edge. It now represents...
In the future however, it is expected to be present in all economic agents and to no longer represent a comparative advantage, but an actual everyday necessity. In such a context then, economic agents are recommended to overcome the challenges they face in the implementation of Business Intelligence and to come and embrace it as the full and integrated business model.
