<p>Introduction</p><p>Organizations are exposed to a rapidly changing business environment with never ending challenges. Investments in information technology (IT) have been one common approach to support organizations. Business Intelligence (BI), an off-spring from IT, is a system that assists many organizations in taking more accurate and timely decisions, improving process monitoring and providing better support for decision making. Recently organizations have started to realize the value of investing in BI, by discovering its analytical methods and capabilities to create business value.</p><p>Problem</p><p>Investments in BI have increased substantially over the past years and one reason for this might be due to vendors praise about BI’s ability to deliver business value. Significantly increased business value, better decision making, and high returns on investments are only a few benefits that have been claimed for. When considering the fact that it is very difficult to measure any direct benefits from IT investments in general, and BI as a consequence, an interest for analyzing the arguments used for selling BI emerged.</p><p>Purpose</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to identify what arguments vendors and suppliers use when selling BI solutions, and explore their value by analyzing them through the use of existing theories from literature.</p><p>Method</p><p>A qualitative approach has been adopted, where unstructured interviews with BI vendors and suppliers were conducted. An inductive approach has been applied to gather arguments and then shifted to a deductive, in order to finalize the study and analyze arguments with appropriate theory. The research has been performed from without the Swedish market with well-known organizations.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>A single version of the truth, control, and time savings are credible arguments for investing in BI. Furthermore, cost savings and improved analytical capabilities are fairly credible, whereas increased efficiency has least credibility when analyzed against theories. In general, we believe that the ability to gain from these positive effects from BI, organizations have to take an active role in realizing these.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 261-272).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wyoming, 2007. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 11, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 82-89).

Thesis (M.S. in Computer Science)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): Man-Tak Shing, Richard Riehle. Includes bibliographical references (p. 89). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S. in Information Technology Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): Alex Bordetsky. Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-85). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S. in Information Technology Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Joshua Gordis, Dan Boger. Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-86). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 161 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 49).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri--Columbia, 2002. / "May 2002." Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-114).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2003. / "May 1, 2003." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-118).

M. Tech. Business Administration / An Enterprise Resource Planning system is complex software that ties together and automates the processes in a business. The benefits of having an Enterprise Resource Planning system included having a single database that allowed the data to be available across all business units. Small, Medium Enterprises, and Large South African companies, have introduced Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems as a means of improving productivity and efficiency over the past few years. Various South African companies have experienced difficulties in the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning systems because they are costly in terms of finance and time. This study aims to analyse the degree to which the South African company Iliad Africa has benefited from the implementation of an ERP system.