On the Impact of a Business Intelligence System on Analysis Effort

A Case Study of Flensburg Municipality in Germany

Abstract

Background: Business intelligence provides decision support to decision-makers in public administrations. So far, researchers have studied the use of business intelligence systems concerning, for example, efficiency gains of the organization. However, based on our literature study, researchers have yet to focus on the impact of business intelligence systems on the efficiency of analytical processes in the public administration context.
Objective: This study's objective is to investigate the impact of introducing a business intelligence system in public administration.
Method: A case study was conducted to investigate the impact. We studied four departments at Flensburg Municipality in Germany. We used interviews and analyzed documentation to describe the analytical processes and to estimate efficiency gains.
Results: The BI system led to efficiency gains across departments. The gains varied from 1.77% to 47%. Losses were observed regarding media changes.
Conclusions: The impact on efficiency varies with the attributes of the analytical process (e.g., repetitions in the process). Hence, further investigations are needed to build theories regarding the relationship between efficiency and the use of BI systems in public administrations.