Business intelligence and its relationship with the accounting function : a local study

Abstract

Objective This research, which has never been attempted locally as yet, aims at firstly determining whether local banks apply business intelligence; then most importantly, at identifying whether the accountant is one of the major influences on business intelligence and to what extent he exerts such an influence.

Design This study was performed in the local banking industry and involved the use of semi-structured interviews. The Chief Financial Officer and a Business Intelligence or Information Technology specialist from each of the six participating banks have been interviewed in order to achieve the objectives of this research.

Findings This study suggests that even though most of the participating banks do use business intelligence or are in the process of deploying it, some CFOs do not make proper use of it. This leads to failure in extracting the benefits business intelligence may bring to their finance function. Consequently, business intelligence was not considered to increase the accountant’s level of confidence in giving business advice. Nonetheless, it was found that all respondents recognise that a strong relationship exists between business intelligence and their accounting function. One major deficiency, however, is observed in the local banking industry; business intelligence is only applied tactically in most cases leaving the finance function detached from the rest of the business functions. Conclusions The level of involvement of the CFO in decision-making at banks having BI is found to be no less than that at banks which do not use BI. Moreover, the level of confidence of CFOs in giving business advice is not directly related to the use or otherwise of BI.

Values It is hoped that this study will encourage more research in the field and that it will increase the awareness about the benefits a strong relationship between business intelligence and the accounting function can bring to an entity.