Why So Many Business Intelligence Initiatives Fail

Why So Many Business Intelligence Initiatives Fail
is an article on DMReview with a few good points.

Specifically, the content delivered by many BI projects often does not need to be used by anyone. In fact, many BI projects have to constantly work to attract customers (or clients) who will hopefully be involved in the BI projects throughout their lifecycle. Typically, these clients must see the opportunity to leverage the information delivered by the BI project. This is in contrast to a mission-critical operational system that is inextricably tied into a key business process. As a result, what’s required in a successful BI project is for key executives, managers and other members of the organization to want to make use of what a BI project delivers.

One thing not mentioned here is the importance of the front end in finding users. In my experience, find a good, easy to use OLAP front end, show a KPI-over-the-last-year line graph for a number of products, and any solution will sell itself. Probably the best that I have run across is Databeacon, which has a version that connects to Analysis Services. It comes in the form of a web page plug-in, and requires no client installation, and is extremely intuitive. The graphic capabilities are what set it apart.

The thin web client that comes in the SQL Server Resource Kit is also nice as a free tool to demonstrate the type of data available from a cube.