An evaluation of business intelligence tools: a cluster analysis of users’ perceptions

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and evaluate the use of business intelligence (BI) tools by professionals and students to help designers of these tools get the most efficiency out of a monitoring process. This paper explores the business and competitive intelligence literature. BI is considered to be a new area in information systems, so literature research was conducted in the area of management information systems (MIS) with two evaluation models: task-technology fit and technology acceptance to evaluate BI tools. A questionnaire was sent to users of business intelligence tools addressed to French companies in different trades and engineering students and the most pertinent replies were examined. The responses were analyzed using the statistical software SPAD. Results showed a typology from the various profiles of users of this technology using the method of classification. We note different perceptions between professional and student users (the clients). Although this study remains focused on individual perspective, it requires more examination of the organizational impact of the use of BI tools. The identification of the different user profiles was done by using a cluster analysis. For the designers of BI tools these results highlight the importance of user perception, suggesting designers take into account the perception of all user types. As these tools develop, more and more companies will be looking for skills for monitoring and management of strategic information.