Development of a Model for the Implementation of Business Intelligence in SMEs

In Switzerland, SMEs account for 99% of the market and employ around two-thirds of all employees. Many of these SMEs already use BI systems and generate business and operational data. Nevertheless, in many cases the potential that could arise from the data is not exploited. As a result, SMEs are falling behind large companies, as empirical studies show. From this, the problem can be derived that despite existing data in Swiss SMEs, the benefit in terms of Business Intelligence (BI) is unrecognized. The goal of this paper is to develop a framework model for the introduction of Business Intelligence in SMEs. The model should be structured generically and show on a meta-level which points are important for the introduction of BI and what the procedure for this is. In this paper we work within a research framework for information systems, using a design science research approach and a method engineering approach for the development of the model. In the development of the model, findings from a previous work were included as well as other studies dealing with the implementation of business intelligence. For the evaluation of the developed model, SMEs as well as business intelligence consultants were interviewed. The answers to the scope of the model were positive. However, there were suggestions to improve the model. Especially for SMEs it is important that business cases are discussed and solutions and their benefits are clearly shown.