BI solutions - the key to surviving the economic storm

By Enterprise Innovation staff | Dec 15, 2008

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Hong Kong IT professionals are betting on business intelligence solutions to help their firms weather the financial tsunami according to a new Hong Kong Computer Society (HKCS) survey.

The results of the survey conducted by the Business Intelligence Special Interest Division (BISID) of the HKCS were revealed at Hong Kong's 1st "Vendor-Neutral" BI User Group Knowledge Sharing and Gathering seminar organized by the HKCS's BISID.  The survey will continue until the end of December 2008 and the final report will be available in early January 2009.

"As business conditions become more volatile, a firm grasp of fundamental strengths and leading indicators has never been more important. The results of the survey clearly show that technology has a role to play," said Toa Charm, the Chairman of the HKCS' BISID.

"Some 70% of respondents indicated that spending, at least in key areas such as BI, will remain steady over the next five years or even increase despite the poor economic conditions," said Charm.

Business intelligence is becoming a major factor in the decision making process in many organizations. The survey also shows that the two main bottlenecks for implementing BI are lack of interest from business users and lack of internal expertise.

"It is critical that management play a more active role in the BI process. This is already happening in larger firms, however smaller businesses may find it harder. One of BISID's key objectives is to help business managers understand the value of BI.  One solution might be for the government to support SMEs and help them gain access to more IT resources in implementing BI. It is also the BISID's key goal to enable SMEs to leverage on BI to improve their competitive edge and seek support from the government," said Charm.

"This survey has been significant in highlighting the business importance of ICT applications in today's economic environment," said Dr Raymond Lau, Department of Information Systems, City University of Hong Kong.