Magazines are filled these days with stories of business triumphs powered by business intelligence (BI). The good news is that you can believe the hype — BI almost always helps improve performance, and its capabilities are much greater than they were even a few years ago.

Getting the most out of your investment, however, is still hard work.

What separates the best from the rest? One factor is that they share a well-reasoned BI strategy — an element companies are finding to be nearly as important as the technology itself for gaining the maximum value from their investment.