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Does Business Intelligence Consulting have a future?

By

Aleks Tiupikov

Dec 7, 2023

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Wondering if business intelligence consulting is over in 2024?

We were wondering too with all these AI tools that are coming out.

So we did a lot of research and…

TLDR: If your analytics stack doesn't allow you to do what you want, a Business Intelligence consultant is still necessary.

But their goal should be to improve your technology to serve you better, not to create dependency, by building stuff on top of it.

The ideal consultant helps transition your system to one that's more intuitive and self-sufficient, so you can retrieve any sort of insights on your own without keeping them in the loop.

What is BI consulting all about?

The core idea of Business Intelligence Consulting is to transform coding for data retrieval into something business users can understand.

Previously, only those who knew how to code could dig into a database and extract actionable insights. BI changed that. It turned complex code into a language anyone in a company could grasp, breaking down barriers to information.

Ironically, though, this solution bred a new problem. The no-code approach of BI, meant to simplify data access, grew complex itself. Users found they needed to invest significant time to master these tools, especially for advanced functions.

What began as a gateway for easy access to data insights somewhat circled back to the original hurdle: needing specific skills to get the most out of the data.

Learning BI tools is for sure simpler than learning to code from scratch. But it still demands a chunk of time and effort, a luxury many don't have. As a result, a new niche emerged.

Those who mastered BI began offering their expertise as a service. They became BI consultants, catering to those lacking the knowledge or resources to leverage BI tools fully.

It's a classic case of a solution creating its own demand. These consultants stepped in to bridge the gap, turning their mastery of BI tools into a marketable skill.

Why did BI Consulting Become a Thing?

As years rolled by, the core structure of BI software largely stayed the same, but the need for data insights didn't. This scenario birthed an entire industry: BI consulting.

Here’s why it caught on: Companies, regardless of size, are desperate to make smarter, data-driven decisions. BI tools tackle this opportunity, but these tools are only as helpful as your ability to use them. That’s where the need for Business Intelligence consultants comes in.

These consultants aren't just users - they're maestros of BI tools. They have the know-how to wring out every ounce of functionality from these platforms. This skill set is invaluable for companies that lack the necessary skills or engineering resources to leverage BI tools effectively.

At the end of the day, being data-driven isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a must. For many businesses, tapping into the expertise of BI consultants isn’t just a shortcut. It’s their last resort to stay relevant and data-driven.

That’s the crux of why BI consulting didn’t just become a thing – it became the thing.

Your Tech Stack Determines Your Consulting Needs

The way things stand, your tech stack often dictates your dependency on consultants, but it really shouldn't be this way.

Unfortunately, most technology in the market comes with a steep implementation curve. If this isn't something you can manage internally due to resource constraints, the default move is to outsource to consultants.

Consider how many different tools you use daily at work. Three? Five? Maybe ten? Research indicates that the average desk worker uses about seven apps a day, and this number is on the rise. Many of these tools hold customer data, which you'd ideally want to tap into for insights.

To make sense of this scattered data, you need to merge and connect it all in one place, then use a BI tool for visualization. And visualization is a beast in itself – it's intricate and requires quite a lot of expertise to set up really helpful interactive dashboards (unless you want to draw some basic charts)

Most software on the market isn’t designed with the end-user in mind. Instead, they end up either consuming your engineering time or pushing you towards consultants.

And it's not that these software creators are deliberately making life hard. It's more about the limitations of their infrastructure, which can't be fully leveraged unless you're ready to invest time in learning and money in setup.

So, if you're using platforms like Tableau or PowerBI, don't expect an easy ride without a consultant. Managing these tools internally is often a herculean task. This is why you need to choose your sales stack wisely.

Now, if there were ample tools making this process effortless, the whole industry of BI consultants and freelancers wouldn't exist. But 2023 might just be the turning point.

Generative AI is opening up incredible opportunities to redefine the BI experience. We're looking at a future where end users can handle all sorts of data manipulations independently.

I think this autonomy is a key for conducting impactful experiments, planning strategic moves, and have more chances achieving business goals – the very essence of what BI was supposed to facilitate in the first place.

Your BI Should Work for You, Not the Other Way Around

The idea here is simple: I believe that Intelligence should be fully manageable by the end user, demanding minimal upfront investment of time and money. Let’s unbox this.

Firstly, integrating various tools should be a job for software, not data engineers. This integration needs to be intuitive enough for non-technical users to handle with minimal error. Imagine a system so user-friendly that anyone, regardless of technical expertise, can navigate it with no effort.

Next, the process of retrieving insights. This shouldn't be a mental overload, bogged down by complex functionalities. Descriptive intelligence, which is about understanding and using available data, should be accessible and usable by all. The level of expertise a user has shouldn't be a barrier.

Why is this shift important? Because we're entering an era dominated by predictive and suggestive intelligence. There's no room for usability issues, maintenance headaches, or complex setups in this new age.

The focus is shifting towards predicting outcomes and leveraging technology to suggest the best course of action. Current BI solutions, while robust, often struggle to adapt to these new trends. Many businesses are locked into these systems, inadvertently capping their growth potential.

Sure, the day might come when you can simply tell a tool like Tableau what you need, and it will deliver. But even then, it will be limited by its inherent functionalities. Remember, Tableau is already a translation layer – it translates your requests into code.

Direct translation of human language into code, bypassing intermediary layers like Tableau, unlocks far greater potential. This approach isn’t just about making things easier - it’s about opening up a world of possibilities that current Business Intelligence solutions can't fully explore due to their foundational design.

The Future Role of BI Consultants

As advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive analytics continue influencing business intelligence capabilities, the role of BI consultants is evolving.

While some view these tools as replacing consultants, the reality is that human expertise is still essential for implementing solutions that transform raw data from various sources into meaningful insights that drive business decisions and improve key performance indicators around customer satisfaction, profitability, and supply chain optimization.

Effective BI solutions require a combination of skills like computer science, information technology, data science, and business analytics. BI consultants with technical mastery and domain expertise in areas like healthcare, logistics, and forecasting can help companies build their in-house analytics capabilities.

Rather than fostering dependency on an external provider, an ideal BI implementation enables self-sufficiency with intuitive data visualization tools like Microsoft Power BI that make insights accessible across the organization.

The future BI consultant serves as a strategic advisor that guides effective data management, collection, and analysis while setting up technologies like Azure that allow internal teams to perform optimization, data mining, metrics monitoring, and other functions that transform raw data into actionable business intelligence for accelerating growth.

With the right balance of human expertise and enabling technologies, businesses can leverage BI and their data assets to their fullest potential.

The Only Kind of BI Consulting You Might Still Need

Business Intelligence consulting services aren't disappearing – it's evolving. The shift needs to be from a model of "Tell me what you want, and I'll build it," to "I'll create a solution so you can directly tell it what you want, without needing me in the loop."

If you're looking for Business Intelligence consultants to simply build what you ask for, it's time to rethink. The goal is to find experts who can empower your team to interact with data independently, without the need for constant consultant involvement – which, let's be honest, often benefits the consultants financially.

These forward-thinking consultants might be rare. It's no surprise, given the BI software market is just beginning to embrace AI as a service tool, rather than the other way around. This shift will take time to permeate the consulting industry.

You might find yourself sticking with traditional BI tools for now, before transitioning to more autonomous solutions that existing popular tools don’t offer. This might not affect your business processes in short-term but might limit any sort of advanced analytics further down the line.

That’s precisely why we started Docugenie. Our aim is to spearhead this movement, bringing the power of Generative AI into the realm of business intelligence. We've designed Docugenie with an AI-first infrastructure, enabling it to function as your personal BI consultant.

Our platform is built from the ground up to ensure you won’t need ongoing external management. After a simple, quick setup – just a few clicks to connect your data tools and import existing BI reports – you're good to go. You can then talk with the AI about your data needs as if it were a BI consultant at your disposal.

Join our waitlist and we'll be excited to share the first version with you for free. And if this message resonates with you, do spread the word to your friends. Friends don't let friends guide companies with their gut!

Wondering if business intelligence consulting is over in 2024?

We were wondering too with all these AI tools that are coming out.

So we did a lot of research and…

TLDR: If your analytics stack doesn't allow you to do what you want, a Business Intelligence consultant is still necessary.

But their goal should be to improve your technology to serve you better, not to create dependency, by building stuff on top of it.

The ideal consultant helps transition your system to one that's more intuitive and self-sufficient, so you can retrieve any sort of insights on your own without keeping them in the loop.

What is BI consulting all about?

The core idea of Business Intelligence Consulting is to transform coding for data retrieval into something business users can understand.

Previously, only those who knew how to code could dig into a database and extract actionable insights. BI changed that. It turned complex code into a language anyone in a company could grasp, breaking down barriers to information.

Ironically, though, this solution bred a new problem. The no-code approach of BI, meant to simplify data access, grew complex itself. Users found they needed to invest significant time to master these tools, especially for advanced functions.

What began as a gateway for easy access to data insights somewhat circled back to the original hurdle: needing specific skills to get the most out of the data.

Learning BI tools is for sure simpler than learning to code from scratch. But it still demands a chunk of time and effort, a luxury many don't have. As a result, a new niche emerged.

Those who mastered BI began offering their expertise as a service. They became BI consultants, catering to those lacking the knowledge or resources to leverage BI tools fully.

It's a classic case of a solution creating its own demand. These consultants stepped in to bridge the gap, turning their mastery of BI tools into a marketable skill.

Why did BI Consulting Become a Thing?

As years rolled by, the core structure of BI software largely stayed the same, but the need for data insights didn't. This scenario birthed an entire industry: BI consulting.

Here’s why it caught on: Companies, regardless of size, are desperate to make smarter, data-driven decisions. BI tools tackle this opportunity, but these tools are only as helpful as your ability to use them. That’s where the need for Business Intelligence consultants comes in.

These consultants aren't just users - they're maestros of BI tools. They have the know-how to wring out every ounce of functionality from these platforms. This skill set is invaluable for companies that lack the necessary skills or engineering resources to leverage BI tools effectively.

At the end of the day, being data-driven isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a must. For many businesses, tapping into the expertise of BI consultants isn’t just a shortcut. It’s their last resort to stay relevant and data-driven.

That’s the crux of why BI consulting didn’t just become a thing – it became the thing.

Your Tech Stack Determines Your Consulting Needs

The way things stand, your tech stack often dictates your dependency on consultants, but it really shouldn't be this way.

Unfortunately, most technology in the market comes with a steep implementation curve. If this isn't something you can manage internally due to resource constraints, the default move is to outsource to consultants.

Consider how many different tools you use daily at work. Three? Five? Maybe ten? Research indicates that the average desk worker uses about seven apps a day, and this number is on the rise. Many of these tools hold customer data, which you'd ideally want to tap into for insights.

To make sense of this scattered data, you need to merge and connect it all in one place, then use a BI tool for visualization. And visualization is a beast in itself – it's intricate and requires quite a lot of expertise to set up really helpful interactive dashboards (unless you want to draw some basic charts)

Most software on the market isn’t designed with the end-user in mind. Instead, they end up either consuming your engineering time or pushing you towards consultants.

And it's not that these software creators are deliberately making life hard. It's more about the limitations of their infrastructure, which can't be fully leveraged unless you're ready to invest time in learning and money in setup.

So, if you're using platforms like Tableau or PowerBI, don't expect an easy ride without a consultant. Managing these tools internally is often a herculean task. This is why you need to choose your sales stack wisely.

Now, if there were ample tools making this process effortless, the whole industry of BI consultants and freelancers wouldn't exist. But 2023 might just be the turning point.

Generative AI is opening up incredible opportunities to redefine the BI experience. We're looking at a future where end users can handle all sorts of data manipulations independently.

I think this autonomy is a key for conducting impactful experiments, planning strategic moves, and have more chances achieving business goals – the very essence of what BI was supposed to facilitate in the first place.

Your BI Should Work for You, Not the Other Way Around

The idea here is simple: I believe that Intelligence should be fully manageable by the end user, demanding minimal upfront investment of time and money. Let’s unbox this.

Firstly, integrating various tools should be a job for software, not data engineers. This integration needs to be intuitive enough for non-technical users to handle with minimal error. Imagine a system so user-friendly that anyone, regardless of technical expertise, can navigate it with no effort.

Next, the process of retrieving insights. This shouldn't be a mental overload, bogged down by complex functionalities. Descriptive intelligence, which is about understanding and using available data, should be accessible and usable by all. The level of expertise a user has shouldn't be a barrier.

Why is this shift important? Because we're entering an era dominated by predictive and suggestive intelligence. There's no room for usability issues, maintenance headaches, or complex setups in this new age.

The focus is shifting towards predicting outcomes and leveraging technology to suggest the best course of action. Current BI solutions, while robust, often struggle to adapt to these new trends. Many businesses are locked into these systems, inadvertently capping their growth potential.

Sure, the day might come when you can simply tell a tool like Tableau what you need, and it will deliver. But even then, it will be limited by its inherent functionalities. Remember, Tableau is already a translation layer – it translates your requests into code.

Direct translation of human language into code, bypassing intermediary layers like Tableau, unlocks far greater potential. This approach isn’t just about making things easier - it’s about opening up a world of possibilities that current Business Intelligence solutions can't fully explore due to their foundational design.

The Future Role of BI Consultants

As advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive analytics continue influencing business intelligence capabilities, the role of BI consultants is evolving.

While some view these tools as replacing consultants, the reality is that human expertise is still essential for implementing solutions that transform raw data from various sources into meaningful insights that drive business decisions and improve key performance indicators around customer satisfaction, profitability, and supply chain optimization.

Effective BI solutions require a combination of skills like computer science, information technology, data science, and business analytics. BI consultants with technical mastery and domain expertise in areas like healthcare, logistics, and forecasting can help companies build their in-house analytics capabilities.

Rather than fostering dependency on an external provider, an ideal BI implementation enables self-sufficiency with intuitive data visualization tools like Microsoft Power BI that make insights accessible across the organization.

The future BI consultant serves as a strategic advisor that guides effective data management, collection, and analysis while setting up technologies like Azure that allow internal teams to perform optimization, data mining, metrics monitoring, and other functions that transform raw data into actionable business intelligence for accelerating growth.

With the right balance of human expertise and enabling technologies, businesses can leverage BI and their data assets to their fullest potential.

The Only Kind of BI Consulting You Might Still Need

Business Intelligence consulting services aren't disappearing – it's evolving. The shift needs to be from a model of "Tell me what you want, and I'll build it," to "I'll create a solution so you can directly tell it what you want, without needing me in the loop."

If you're looking for Business Intelligence consultants to simply build what you ask for, it's time to rethink. The goal is to find experts who can empower your team to interact with data independently, without the need for constant consultant involvement – which, let's be honest, often benefits the consultants financially.

These forward-thinking consultants might be rare. It's no surprise, given the BI software market is just beginning to embrace AI as a service tool, rather than the other way around. This shift will take time to permeate the consulting industry.

You might find yourself sticking with traditional BI tools for now, before transitioning to more autonomous solutions that existing popular tools don’t offer. This might not affect your business processes in short-term but might limit any sort of advanced analytics further down the line.

That’s precisely why we started Docugenie. Our aim is to spearhead this movement, bringing the power of Generative AI into the realm of business intelligence. We've designed Docugenie with an AI-first infrastructure, enabling it to function as your personal BI consultant.

Our platform is built from the ground up to ensure you won’t need ongoing external management. After a simple, quick setup – just a few clicks to connect your data tools and import existing BI reports – you're good to go. You can then talk with the AI about your data needs as if it were a BI consultant at your disposal.

Join our waitlist and we'll be excited to share the first version with you for free. And if this message resonates with you, do spread the word to your friends. Friends don't let friends guide companies with their gut!

Wondering if business intelligence consulting is over in 2024?

We were wondering too with all these AI tools that are coming out.

So we did a lot of research and…

TLDR: If your analytics stack doesn't allow you to do what you want, a Business Intelligence consultant is still necessary.

But their goal should be to improve your technology to serve you better, not to create dependency, by building stuff on top of it.

The ideal consultant helps transition your system to one that's more intuitive and self-sufficient, so you can retrieve any sort of insights on your own without keeping them in the loop.

What is BI consulting all about?

The core idea of Business Intelligence Consulting is to transform coding for data retrieval into something business users can understand.

Previously, only those who knew how to code could dig into a database and extract actionable insights. BI changed that. It turned complex code into a language anyone in a company could grasp, breaking down barriers to information.

Ironically, though, this solution bred a new problem. The no-code approach of BI, meant to simplify data access, grew complex itself. Users found they needed to invest significant time to master these tools, especially for advanced functions.

What began as a gateway for easy access to data insights somewhat circled back to the original hurdle: needing specific skills to get the most out of the data.

Learning BI tools is for sure simpler than learning to code from scratch. But it still demands a chunk of time and effort, a luxury many don't have. As a result, a new niche emerged.

Those who mastered BI began offering their expertise as a service. They became BI consultants, catering to those lacking the knowledge or resources to leverage BI tools fully.

It's a classic case of a solution creating its own demand. These consultants stepped in to bridge the gap, turning their mastery of BI tools into a marketable skill.

Why did BI Consulting Become a Thing?

As years rolled by, the core structure of BI software largely stayed the same, but the need for data insights didn't. This scenario birthed an entire industry: BI consulting.

Here’s why it caught on: Companies, regardless of size, are desperate to make smarter, data-driven decisions. BI tools tackle this opportunity, but these tools are only as helpful as your ability to use them. That’s where the need for Business Intelligence consultants comes in.

These consultants aren't just users - they're maestros of BI tools. They have the know-how to wring out every ounce of functionality from these platforms. This skill set is invaluable for companies that lack the necessary skills or engineering resources to leverage BI tools effectively.

At the end of the day, being data-driven isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a must. For many businesses, tapping into the expertise of BI consultants isn’t just a shortcut. It’s their last resort to stay relevant and data-driven.

That’s the crux of why BI consulting didn’t just become a thing – it became the thing.

Your Tech Stack Determines Your Consulting Needs

The way things stand, your tech stack often dictates your dependency on consultants, but it really shouldn't be this way.

Unfortunately, most technology in the market comes with a steep implementation curve. If this isn't something you can manage internally due to resource constraints, the default move is to outsource to consultants.

Consider how many different tools you use daily at work. Three? Five? Maybe ten? Research indicates that the average desk worker uses about seven apps a day, and this number is on the rise. Many of these tools hold customer data, which you'd ideally want to tap into for insights.

To make sense of this scattered data, you need to merge and connect it all in one place, then use a BI tool for visualization. And visualization is a beast in itself – it's intricate and requires quite a lot of expertise to set up really helpful interactive dashboards (unless you want to draw some basic charts)

Most software on the market isn’t designed with the end-user in mind. Instead, they end up either consuming your engineering time or pushing you towards consultants.

And it's not that these software creators are deliberately making life hard. It's more about the limitations of their infrastructure, which can't be fully leveraged unless you're ready to invest time in learning and money in setup.

So, if you're using platforms like Tableau or PowerBI, don't expect an easy ride without a consultant. Managing these tools internally is often a herculean task. This is why you need to choose your sales stack wisely.

Now, if there were ample tools making this process effortless, the whole industry of BI consultants and freelancers wouldn't exist. But 2023 might just be the turning point.

Generative AI is opening up incredible opportunities to redefine the BI experience. We're looking at a future where end users can handle all sorts of data manipulations independently.

I think this autonomy is a key for conducting impactful experiments, planning strategic moves, and have more chances achieving business goals – the very essence of what BI was supposed to facilitate in the first place.

Your BI Should Work for You, Not the Other Way Around

The idea here is simple: I believe that Intelligence should be fully manageable by the end user, demanding minimal upfront investment of time and money. Let’s unbox this.

Firstly, integrating various tools should be a job for software, not data engineers. This integration needs to be intuitive enough for non-technical users to handle with minimal error. Imagine a system so user-friendly that anyone, regardless of technical expertise, can navigate it with no effort.

Next, the process of retrieving insights. This shouldn't be a mental overload, bogged down by complex functionalities. Descriptive intelligence, which is about understanding and using available data, should be accessible and usable by all. The level of expertise a user has shouldn't be a barrier.

Why is this shift important? Because we're entering an era dominated by predictive and suggestive intelligence. There's no room for usability issues, maintenance headaches, or complex setups in this new age.

The focus is shifting towards predicting outcomes and leveraging technology to suggest the best course of action. Current BI solutions, while robust, often struggle to adapt to these new trends. Many businesses are locked into these systems, inadvertently capping their growth potential.

Sure, the day might come when you can simply tell a tool like Tableau what you need, and it will deliver. But even then, it will be limited by its inherent functionalities. Remember, Tableau is already a translation layer – it translates your requests into code.

Direct translation of human language into code, bypassing intermediary layers like Tableau, unlocks far greater potential. This approach isn’t just about making things easier - it’s about opening up a world of possibilities that current Business Intelligence solutions can't fully explore due to their foundational design.

The Future Role of BI Consultants

As advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive analytics continue influencing business intelligence capabilities, the role of BI consultants is evolving.

While some view these tools as replacing consultants, the reality is that human expertise is still essential for implementing solutions that transform raw data from various sources into meaningful insights that drive business decisions and improve key performance indicators around customer satisfaction, profitability, and supply chain optimization.

Effective BI solutions require a combination of skills like computer science, information technology, data science, and business analytics. BI consultants with technical mastery and domain expertise in areas like healthcare, logistics, and forecasting can help companies build their in-house analytics capabilities.

Rather than fostering dependency on an external provider, an ideal BI implementation enables self-sufficiency with intuitive data visualization tools like Microsoft Power BI that make insights accessible across the organization.

The future BI consultant serves as a strategic advisor that guides effective data management, collection, and analysis while setting up technologies like Azure that allow internal teams to perform optimization, data mining, metrics monitoring, and other functions that transform raw data into actionable business intelligence for accelerating growth.

With the right balance of human expertise and enabling technologies, businesses can leverage BI and their data assets to their fullest potential.

The Only Kind of BI Consulting You Might Still Need

Business Intelligence consulting services aren't disappearing – it's evolving. The shift needs to be from a model of "Tell me what you want, and I'll build it," to "I'll create a solution so you can directly tell it what you want, without needing me in the loop."

If you're looking for Business Intelligence consultants to simply build what you ask for, it's time to rethink. The goal is to find experts who can empower your team to interact with data independently, without the need for constant consultant involvement – which, let's be honest, often benefits the consultants financially.

These forward-thinking consultants might be rare. It's no surprise, given the BI software market is just beginning to embrace AI as a service tool, rather than the other way around. This shift will take time to permeate the consulting industry.

You might find yourself sticking with traditional BI tools for now, before transitioning to more autonomous solutions that existing popular tools don’t offer. This might not affect your business processes in short-term but might limit any sort of advanced analytics further down the line.

That’s precisely why we started Docugenie. Our aim is to spearhead this movement, bringing the power of Generative AI into the realm of business intelligence. We've designed Docugenie with an AI-first infrastructure, enabling it to function as your personal BI consultant.

Our platform is built from the ground up to ensure you won’t need ongoing external management. After a simple, quick setup – just a few clicks to connect your data tools and import existing BI reports – you're good to go. You can then talk with the AI about your data needs as if it were a BI consultant at your disposal.

Join our waitlist and we'll be excited to share the first version with you for free. And if this message resonates with you, do spread the word to your friends. Friends don't let friends guide companies with their gut!

Discover the 'why' behind your data today

Think about the last time you had a business question. How long did it take to answer it?

Discover the 'why' behind your data today

Think about the last time you had a business question. How long did it take to answer it?

Discover the 'why' behind your data today

Think about the last time you had a business question. How long did it take to answer it?

Copyright © 2024 Docugenie, Inc.

Copyright © 2024 Docugenie, Inc.

Copyright © 2024 Docugenie, Inc.