A major cultural and technological shift is needed at many UK firms to take full advantage of the capabilities of business intelligence (BI) reporting systems, according to a new report from analyst firm Butler Group.

The Butler Group's report, Business Intelligence – A Strategic Approach to Extending and Standardising the Use of BI, says firms need to develop a more standardised BI strategy. It says that currently many are deploying different BI systems for different projects, resulting in higher support and integration costs.

The group's recommendations echo those made earlier this year by leading BI vendors including Business Objects, Cognos and Hyperion. "You would expect the vendors to recommend standardised BI," said report author Andy Kellett of Butler Group. "But in this case it makes sense. Too many organisations are paying out a dozen times for different systems, which are inefficient to support." Kellett added that firms are also slow to realise that reporting tools have improved and can now be rolled out to support the decision-making of more staff.

In related news, BI specialist SAS Institute bolstered its tools for marketing departments earlier this month by acquiring marketing resource management specialist Veridiem.

Jason Goodwin, head of solution strategy at SAS, said Veridiem's technology allows marketing professionals to model investments and optimise their mix of marketing activities to get the best returns. "SAS's tool offers [this functionality] for outbound contact marketing, but Veridiem extends our capabilities to model advertising, promotions and other marketing activities," he added.