BI needs to be highly specific to your industry and to how your company competes in that industry.

successful organizations can be distinguished by their ability to leverage IT capabilities to transform their businesses (structures, processes, and roles) to obtain powerful sources of competitive advantage in the marketplace.” —John Henderson and N. Venkatraman, Center for Information Systems

The most meaningful way to differentiate your company from your competitors, the best way to put distance between you and the crowd, is to do an outstanding job with information. How you gather, manage and use information will determine whether you win or lose.

Rather, we see the strategic issue as a lack of top management recognition that business information and its exploitation by knowledge workers via relevant analytical techniques can be a core strategic competency that can make the difference between success and failure in the marketplace.