Several important technology changes, social trends and customer needs are driving the future development steps and functionality of Business Intelligence solutions. Although some of the effects of these changes and trends are already or are starting to be experienced, we can expect more innovation coming, not only from the main agents of the industry, but also from new smaller organisations.


Business intelligence (BI) includes several concepts that have proved valuable for providing insights to companies, allowing them to make better business decisions. BI has been around for many years and we could argue that since the introduction of the data warehousing concept in the early 1990s not much has changed. However, innovations in electronics, communications and social media have deeply changed the industries and their business models. Some of these innovations are already changing the landscape of BI.



Birchman is an international company that provides consulting services, solution delivery and managed services to many of the world's leading organisations.