When the economy slows, many businesses react by retrenching and cutting costs in order to weather the downturn. While such cost reduction is important, companies often overlook equally critical strategic decisions – opportunities to use valuable business information to strengthen product and service offerings and emerge ahead of the competition.

Organizations need technology that can unlock the value of information. Information can drive new insights to help transform and significantly improve the business, especially critical in an uncertain economy. According to Gartner, “The economic crisis will reveal which enterprises have the information and tools to support management decisions and which do not.”

This paper highlights common mistakes companies make in a down economy and discusses how organizations can use business intelligence to avoid them. Use the self-assessment questionnaire at the end of this paper to determine the level of business intelligence opportunity across your organization.