"Especially in this poor economic climate, I still feel that most companies won't want to make the investment in time or resources that they really need to build a great BI system."

I understand exactly what Steve is saying here and I agree there are many companies who will think this way. But in a sad kind of way it's sort of a funny way of looking at things. It's a lot like saying "When it is most important to be making the best decisions (an economic climate that may threaten our survival) - we are not going to focus on systems (BI) that let us do exactly that."

Looking at it the other way around, and many companies are, is why Gartner, IDC, and Forrester are saying BI spending may very well see an increase this year, even while they are continuing to revise their other IT spending forecasts downward.