Why Business Intelligence is a Bad Word

We're off and running with discovery (in depth evaluation) of an initiative that could be termed Business Intelligence or Analytics but we aren't going to call it that. Business Intelligence has become a bad word and in the never ending quest to support the needs of our hospital administrators we can't afford bad words. The challenge of communication between the clinical and IT communities is much too important. I was once told by an ex-boss that "why?" is my favorite question. Actually "how?" is my favorite. I like to understand things sooooo....

How is it that Business Intelligence became a bad word? In looking back I think there have been a variety of factors.

• Business Intelligence (BI) is a technology label and technology labels are usually dreamt up by salespeople to make product offerings sound cool. Over time best practices cause the labels to refer to some sort of architecture or other anatomy that is recognizable. The label endures however and lacking the newly evolved context suffers.
• Recently in reading an enterprise architecture text the difference between deploying IT solutions vs IT capabilities was highlighted. Deploying IT capabilities is a more forward looking and strategic endeavor. The difference however isn't always clear and when (as I have on occasion) heard IT folks talk about deploying a "robust business intelligence application" the wrong picture emerges. BI is an IT capability and should be treated strategically. Individual projects should focus on solving problems.
• When working with business leaders on developing IT capabilities it's extremely easy to fall into the "solution looking for a problem" trap. Unless the value of the capability can be defined in terms of business value or mitigation of risk it's like telling a joke and forgetting the punchline.

So again the challenge of communication between the clinical and IT world highlights itself. So if you want to start being pro-active and develop IT capabilities you best watch your language.