The notion that midsize companies have the same BI and EPM requirements as large enterprises is partly true. However, the survey makes clear that these requirements evolve as companies grow from single locations to multiple locations, expand internationally, or change from private to public ownership.
The first few questions in the survey focused on BI and EPM usage and investment plans. In terms of current BI and EPM deployments, the areas most often cited as being currently deployed by midsize companies were budgeting and planning and management reporting. These were followed by financial modeling, query and reporting, dashboards, and performance scorecards. More-advanced functions such as statutory reporting and advanced analysis were less-frequently mentioned. The BI and EPM usage trends for midsize companies were very similar to those for large enterprises surveyed. The results differed more when respondents were asked about future deployment plans.
When asked about the tools currently being used to support BI and EPM processes, spreadsheets were the most of ten used tool, followed by a combination of spreadsheets and general ledger (GL) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The number of companies relying mainly on packaged applications and tools to support their BI and EPM processes is much lower in the emerging business segment (8%) than in large organizations (24%). A large percentage of respondents (25%) rely on a combination of packaged applications, GL or ERP solutions, and spreadsheet.
For the full survey report, please visit MindStream Analytics.
