If you believe the statement from Michael Chui, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, quoted below is true then you must believe in self-service BI & Analytics.

The challenge in the past has been to reconcile the needs for localised, self-service BI with the need for security and scalability. Some BI/Analytics tools vendors have made the leap- some more than others.

So make sure you explore an analytics platform that combines enterprise-wide scalability and security. That the IT group can implement with confidence including extending self-service BI  to information creators and information analysts.

Better still, overcome one of the limitations of most BI technologies- they are poor at write-back.

Why is write-back important

Write-back is the ability to update source systems, such as databases, to maintain systems of record while staying within the context of a BI application. This is essential to the concept of embedded BI.

With support for database write-backs and the ability to initiate backend processes from within the analytic content, end-users can update source systems directly in the same context as their analysis. A good BI application will enable these data updates in a secure and managed way.