The availability and use of competitive and business intelligence in South African business organisations

Business intelligence (BI) plays a critical role in providing actionable intelligence to enable good business decision-making. International research shows clear evidence of the benefits of implementing sound BI practices. However, within a South African business context, an understanding of the practice, impact and benefits of BI is only partly addressed by existing research. Consequently, this article presents the most salient findings of a recent BI study, which was one of the few such studies that have been conducted in South Africa in the 21st century. Although the discussion reflects fairly high general satisfaction levels with BI among South African businesses, some problems related especially to external BI dimensions are highlighted. An equally important and major concern raised by the article is the apparent lack of companies capitalising on BI opportunities and coordinating BI functions effectively. Of concern at the general management level, in particular, are the low satisfaction levels with BI quality, as well as various aspects of BI collection, analysis and dissemination. Despite the fact that businesses use BI functions and planning support software, the survey findings reveal insufficient investment in sophisticated BI analysis tools.