Time and again, BI projects don’t meet objectives, don’t connect with users and don’t get the right information to the right people at the right time. In offices everywhere, business intelligence is the butt of endless water-cooler jokes—the corporate oxymoron, the poster child for overpromising and underdelivering. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Done right, BI is one of those rare strategic initiatives that has the power to deliver real value and make companies more competitive—especially now, as the volume of actionable data available to firms rises daily.