Business Intelligence Solution for an SME: A Case Study

Business Intelligence (BI) leverages the usefulness of existing information. It equips business users with relevant information to perform various analyses to make key business decisions. Over the last two decades, BI has become a core strategy for the growth of many companies, in particular large corporations. However, studies show that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lag behind in implementation and exploitation of BI solutions. To stay ahead of the competition, SMEs must be able to monitor and effectively use all of their resources, in particular information resources, to assist them in making important business decisions. In this paper, we examine the challenges such as lack of technical expertise and limited budget when implementing a BI solution within an SME in the UK. In light of our experiences in tackling these issues, we discuss how these challenges can be overcome through applying various tools and strategies and the potential benefits.