The shift from traditional to Self Service Business intelligence : A case study in a large enterprise company

Abstract: Background: Business intelligence has been used in businesses for many years. The technology evolves and there is enough ground covered to see how it became an integral part of ICT in corporations and even medium sized companies. The IT applications are evolving in all areas, consumers get educated about various aspects of different analytics software together with the growth of businesses. Moreover, fast pace of business requires rapid decisions being made. This synergy creates a new type of business intelligence called Self Service Business Intelligence (SSBI). Gartner (2020) says Self-service business intelligence is defined as end users designing and deploying their own reports and analyses within an approved and supported architecture and tools portfolio. The literature review showed a fair amount of skepticism related to the value a SSBI implementation can bring. Purpose: The main aim of the thesis is to address the concern of missing recent insights into SSBI roll-outs, and firstly identify the potential in value of the SSBI implementation. After this is done, scientific methods are applied to structure the knowledge, evaluate it in the context of chosen value identification theoretical framework and show how a transition from BI to SSBI can generate value to the organization through implementing SSBI. The thesis will aim to answer the main research question: "What are the main aspects shaping the Self Service Business Intelligence implementation, as seen from participants views?" Methodology: This is a qualitative case study of a transition from traditional BI to Self Service BI in the selected case company. The theoretical background is based on scientific journal publications retrieved from Scopus database and academic literature. The empirical data is collected with a means of semi- structured interviews and internal documentation received from the case company. The data is collected from five internal respondents related to SSBI transition in the case company. Findings: The interviews indicated there were numerous expectations from IT and Finance departments which have materialized successfully as well as several that were not expected. The case company data analysis using the adapted SSBI value generating model helped the researcher to pinpoint and enhance the value generating areas list in the SSBI transition process. Keywords: Self-Service Business Intelligence, SSBI, Business Intelligence, SSBI Value, SSBI skepticism, SSBI implementation, Organizational Benefits, Business Value, Analytics Use, Organizational Transformation, Case study.