Aligning Business Intelligence initiatives with business strategies : Identifying alignment challenges and mitigators in SMEs

Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this study is to enrich the literature, by increasing the understanding of how business intelligence (BI) initiatives can be aligned with the business strategy in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Thus, prior research is insufficient in terms of BI and IT alignment research in SMEs. To fulfill the purpose the following research questions were addressed: RQ1: What are the challenges when aligning business intelligence initiatives with the business strategy in SMEs? RQ2: How can the identified challenges be mitigated, when aligning business intelligence initiatives with the business strategy in SMEs?  Method: This study is a qualitative single case study carried out at a Swedish IT-consultant firm. The primary data was conducted through 15 interviews in three different interview iterations exploratory, semi-structured, and validation interviews. The semi-structured interviews were analyzed through a thematic analysis.   Findings: The findings of the study are divided into two parts, where the first part addresses BI utilization, implementation, and BI alignment challenges and mitigators in SMEs. Where five challenges were identified: (1) management support, (2) data quality and quantity, (3) strategic ambiguity, (4) measurability and KPIs, and (5) miscommunication and conflict. Moreover, the study identified four mitigators to the challenges: (1) driver identification, (2) champions, (3) communication, and (4) strong data foundation. In the second part, the findings are summarized and put in context in a BI alignment roadmap, that describes how BI initiatives can be aligned with the business strategy in SMEs. Implications: This study contributes to the immature research field of BI and IT/business alignment in SMEs. Identifying BI alignment challenges and how they can be mitigated, resulting in a BI alignment roadmap. The roadmap can be used as a guide for SMEs who want to align their BI initiative. Furthermore, BI consultants can use the roadmap as a material of discussion, to determine their client’s BI maturity or readiness. Moreover, the roadmap can be built upon to include more challenges or perspectives.  Limitations and future research: This study is limited in terms of data collection, in a single case study setting, which affects the generalizability. Therefore, future studies could expand the scope of the data collection, in a multi-case study setting.