“Vocal, demanding and influential users are increasingly driving BI purchasing decisions. They’re choosing easier-to-use data discovery tools over traditional BI platforms,” according to Gartner.

Gartner predicts that business units will soon control at least 40% of the BI budget, taking the control away from the IT department. “This is happening because the data warehouse architecture we built was fine in the past, but it's just too inflexible. Businesses must look to new technology,” said Van der Lans.

The beauty of data warehousing, according to Van der Lans, is that the business has one big database where information can be cleaned up and data can be coded correctly, making for more efficient decision-making. The problem, however, is that these data warehouses must be upgraded regularly to match the changing needs of the enterprise.

At present, most data warehouses are made up of a chain of databases. “This architecture has served us well for the last 20 years, but is it agile enough today?” Van der Lans asked. “Should the user need to change something, this chain architecture is not designed for flexibility and speed, which are necessary in today’s marketplace.” For Van der Lans, the fact that things need to be cheaper, faster, more flexible and capable of handling more data is one of the key challenges facing the database world.

What does this mean in SA?

“In countries such as South Africa, it feels as if we are getting close to the turning point in terms of data and BI. We’re starting to understand that we have to react. It looks as if we are slowly getting there, and I think by 2013/14 things will be different in this space,” said Van der Lans, referring to when he thinks South African businesses will fully embrace BI and data warehousing. He added that more and more companies are realising that the tools they have been using for the past 20 years need to be updated as technology changes.

Quoting a Dutch saying, “What the farmer doesn’t know, is what the farmer doesn’t eat”, Van der Lans believes that the issue for many businesses when it comes to BI and data is that they have heard about all the technologies, but they have never properly experienced them and thus are unable to conceive their true benefits.

He advises that businesses do a proof-of-concept to better understand what these tools do and how they can improve efficiency.