BI and analytics have come a long way.  For years, BI has grown and helped select groups make better decisions within the enterprise. Over the past decade, we have witnessed improvements in equipping more staff with dashboards and reports through ease of use, simpler deployment, or more favorable licensing models. Visionary BI leaders, super software engineers, tireless QA engineers, stretched product managers, and early adopter customers are playing major roles to innovate and improve business success with each new offering.  

While the journey of enterprise BI and Analytics continues, a ginormous new channel for data intelligence is emerging. It focuses on the need to empower a different user, the customer or consumer, with insights to take actions that improve outcomes every day.

What are the decisions to make and why it matters? With more insight, consumers can enhance personal outcomes, achieve better experiences, and improve health and wellness with less effort, money, and time. At home, better insights can mean more  comfortable temperatures while lowering utility bills or less hassle on car maintenance  and grocery shopping. In diet and health, early insight solutions are beginning  to harness signals sent from our bodies, diet, and activity, helping us  change behavior and improve our health and wellness. The consumption of almost every good,  resource, or service that we purchase will be a source for insight that allows us  to improve continued experiences with that good or service.  

What will it take to succeed?  We will need to evaluate the available time, analytical sophistication, and access devices that marks consumer BI and analytics (insights). The variability and range in each of these characteristics will likely eclipse what we see in enterprises. We will need to define and determine what delivery models make the most sense based on where, when, and why our customers need insight. Similar to department KPI’s, we may need to understand deeply personal drivers to provide the best insight. Innovators seeking better insight for their customers may find it critical to undress corporate-style analytics and define new looks and sounds that allow valuable customers to synthesize a complex situation with only a split-second glance. The ability to securely provide customers with insight that promotes continued product or service success will be a differentiator for some markets.

The time is right.  Sensor-enabled devices and IoT are entering our lives. Mobile is here and growing fast. BI and analytics are full steam ahead in the enterprise.  Use-based economies are on the rise. New insights will enhance value and experience for consumers. They can give sustainable practices a lift.  But what will these insights for consumers look like?  Where will they appear? What will they tell? When will they be accessed? The journey to explore and define this evolution begins.