Christchurch gets BI centre of excellence

Christchurch business intelligence specialist Montage Interactive has opened a centre of excellence in the city — for analytical business intelligence. The launch is largely a response to demand from from smaller organisations, the company says.

General manager Colin Andersen says medium-sized firms require the same sophisticated analytical information that large companies do, but they don’t usually have the specialised resources to deliver it inhouse.

“What we see in the market tells us that New Zealand businesses are not always well serviced in the analytical business intelligence area,” he says.

“Successful businesses are those that have a real-time grasp of their business fundamentals and the ability to make good decisions quickly. This is what business intelligence can deliver, but only if business outcomes remain paramount. The most common mistake we see is for the primary focus to be [put] on getting the technology to work, rather than on the delivery to managers of actionable business information.”

The new centre is staffed by six business intelligence specialists, all of whom have international experience. Andersen says it will have a national focus.

“The concept behind the centre of excellence is to provide a practical methodology that can be used to consistently manage things like scope, data validation and cleansing,” Anderson says.

“Many businesses and organisations have experienced frustration with data warehousing and business intelligence reporting projects that drag on, exceed budgets and fail to deliver value,” he says. “Others have hesitated to invest in BI through concern over cost and the drain on organisational resources.

“Our growth has been rapid because we can deliver BI in short development cycles that control costs and yield results quickly.”

Recent customer wins include PGG Wrightson, the Gough Group, the Canterbury District Health Board and the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board.

Montage, which was founded in 1989, has been operating in the US and the UK since 2000, offering enterprise web-management services.