The Adoption and Use of Business Intelligence Solutions in Australia

The global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems industry blossomed in the 1990s automating back office operations. These systems have now become essential infrastructure for many companies. These companies are now extending these transaction-based systems to support more strategic and complex decisions. Accordingly, the ERP vendors have developed a range of solutions focusing on Business Intelligence (BI) in various functional areas. However, the question must be asked is there an evolutionary nature to the adoption and use of these various solutions similar to that which occurred with ERP systems. This paper adopts a two pronged research methodology to investigate the adoption of BI solutions in Australian companies. The first methodology involved a web-based survey to identify BI implementation patterns. This was then expanded upon using a case study approach. The research identified an evolutionary maturity to how BI solutions are adopted in Australian companies.