Business Intelligence Implementation from a User Perspective : A case study of an international company implementing BI in the procurement function

Abstract: This case study investigates what factors are important during the business intelligence implementation, and also how those factors affect the perception of the BI project according to the end-users. The study was conducted as a qualitative single case study where the data was mainly collected using semi-structured interviews in two rounds. The studied case was a proof of concept project in an international company, where they implemented business intelligence within the procurement function in three of their subsidiaries to determine if they would implement BI in the whole group. During the first round of interviews, three factors were identified as important namely, ownership, involvement and evaluation. During the second round, the end-users expressed some deficiencies that could be improved in regard to the three factors. The study concludes that the factors ownership, involvement and evaluation were important even though evaluation was the only factor that affected the end-users’ perception of the implementation. However, their acceptance of the project was not affected due to the fact that they had expressed such a strong need for BI a long time before the project.