"What we've seen over the past few years is that a large part of what's driving that growth now is the business user. The buying influence has shifted back to the line of business," says Rita Sallam, vice president of research and BI expert with Gartner Group.

Aligning the technology with corporate strategy is one of the first things a company should do. Too often, CEOs become enamored with glitzy technology and fail to start with the key business questions, says Myron Weber, founder and managing partner of Northwood Advisors. A better way to approach it is to focus on the people you're trying to empower. "Who is making decisions today but not able to make the decisions you want them to make because they don't have the right information? Who is making fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants decisions when you want them to make data-driven decisions? That way, you're aligning the strategy with the business. The software can be just right, but it doesn't mean it's supporting the right activities."

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Keywords: business intelligence, Big Data, supply chain IT, supply chain solutions