KLAS: Use of BI tools increasing

Providers are experiencing increased knowledge dissemination and end-user adoption within their organizations as a result of work with their business intelligence (BI) tools. According to the KLAS report, "Business Intelligence: Influencing Change?", measuring and improving performance and outcomes are at the forefront of the 381 surveyed providers' BI efforts today and will continue to be so in the near future.

Dimensional Insight and Humedica receive the highest marks from providers for both their product and their partnership impact toward change. Behind these two BI vendors, QlikTech, MicroStrategy and McKesson also receive high scores for the impact their products have toward change.

Products' influence toward change is only part of the story. "To drive improvement, providers recognize that they need to better understand their data and make it more usable to their staff," said Joe Van De Graaff, research director, in a release. "This research validates that vendors' BI products are helping influence change but also confirms that providers feel the responsibility to influence change themselves. BI is about much more than just producing reports or snazzy dashboards."

Vendors measured in the report are shown in three categories: enterprise vendors (Dimensional Insight, QlikTech, McKesson, Information Builders, IBM Cognos, SAP Business Objects, MicroStrategy and Tableau); mostly clinical vendors (Altosoft, Cerner, Harris, Humedica, Mediware and Omnicell); and mostly financial vendors (athenahealth, Infor and Oracle Hyperion).