I think one has to be careful about judging this.

There are a lot of extravagant claims touted by manufacturers of "Business Intelligence" tools (quotes are to allow for the wide range in quality or fitness for purpose in the products out there). Many companies will buy into these tools in an attempt to empower their decision makers and have data trends that aren't immediately apparent identified and then delivered to these people as potentially strategic information.

Of course, in the short term, assuming a company picks a tool that actually delivers what it claims, a competitive advantage will be gained, but very soon competitors will realise the tool's value and buy into it too with the net result that everyone has an application maintenance overhead with no competitive advantage to be gained. The best that can be said is that you'd lose by not having the tool. Simply, it's an arms race.

What will, however, provide a consistent competitive advantage is to get the data in front of a competent analyst - someone who's trained to understand data, play with it and disseminate profitably. And, of course, IT can provide the tools to make that person's job much more effective.

It's my belief that IT is not a strategic resource; it's part of a strategic answer. If a company forgets the human element, they're making just as big a mistake as forgetting the IT element.