Information Technology Reference
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Figure 3. BI-FIT framework (After validation)
It appears that in each organization explicitly
or implicitly —after some time of BI usage—end-
user groups are formed, which in general can be
compared to the end-user types as defined in the
model, although using different terminology. An
overview of the used terminology is depicted in
Table 4. In addition to terminology differences in
practice an additional level of BI usage exists, as
found in organization A, C and E. These end-users
are defined as “receivers” or “consumers”, con-
ducting solely routine analysis, using predefined
reports, in most cases send out by e-mail. The
main difference between receivers and novice
users is that they are not required to have any BI
tool/computer proficiency, do not require tool
training, and tool license (or a cheaper license,
depending on the BI-tooling). In the segmenta-
tion model these end-users belong to the group
of information consumers, and are placed above
the novice user, as entry level BI users.
Furthermore, an interesting finding is that
the power user has an important role, which is
to support the novice user. In most organizations
novice users are by far the largest amount of end-
users. While conducting their standard analysis, it
often happens that the novice user is in need for
further analysis or has a request for change. As
explained earlier, in this case the novice user can
obviously consult an analyst of the BI department
or competency centre (BICC) in place. However,
as in most cases BI support is integrated into the
generic IT departments, usually it takes a long
time for change requests to be handled (as IT
departments are often optimized for supporting
operational systems). If this happens more often,
the novice user will lose his or her trust in the
system, and stop using it and start developing
his or her own solution in e.g. Excel. Or maybe
even try to adapt the reports themselves, if they
have access to the required tooling. Either way,
ad-hoc development is not efficient in general, and
abandoning of the BI system does not positively
influence organizational results.
However, as one of the respondents stated “a
change in today's business, needs to be reflected
in tomorrow's reports”. This basically means that
Table 4. Terminology overview
User Segments
Terminology
Novice User
Information consumer, Knowledge worker, Manager, Receiver.
Power User
Power user, Analyst, Business user, Tactical user, Builder.
Expert User
Expert user, Data-miner.
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