Tableau Software : Three reasons your business intelligence adoption has stalled

Originally published on CIO.com.

Today's approach to business intelligence and analytics software favors easy-to-use, self-service-based platforms accessible to everyone within an organization. This is in stark contrast to the traditional BI model, which is built on technology that requires specialized skills and is best suited for IT developers curating data models, reports, and executive dashboards.

A similar comparison could be made to the disruptive impact that integrating a camera into a smartphone had on the world of photography. Prior to this innovation, photography was a craft with a high barrier to entry, reserved for specialists with technical skills, knowledge, and expertise gained through training. You also needed access to expensive equipment. As camera-rich smartphones proliferated society and supporting technology or apps made tasks easier and more intuitive, these barriers were virtually removed. Today, almost everyone has access to a capability that only a decade ago was considered out of reach. Now, capturing, editing, and instantly sharing your images with the world is part of everyday culture.

The dynamics of BI and photography are strikingly similar, so why haven't we observed BI and analytics adoption following the same trajectory? The answer isn't technology. From a product perspective, the shift has already occurred with visual analytics-based platforms clearly establishing market leadership. The reluctance to adopt BI has been, and continues to be, about workplace culture. Here are three primary reasons your organization's BI adoption is stagnant: