Data value in decision process: Survey on decision support system in small and medium enterprises

This paper describes a survey on the actual use of Business Intelligence (BI) methodologies in Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of Udine district, a medium industrialized area in the North East of Italy. The companies were asked to give answers to a questionnaire prepared by our staff; we got also deeper information through specific interviews. The sample was composed of 45 enterprises different for geographic area, dimension and product specialization. In the paper we describe the rationale, the knowledge target and the methodology of the survey. We review the economical and cultural contest of the district. At last we analyze the results about the effective and desired use of BI as Decision Support System (DSS). We describe business specializations, company fields and typology of enterprises where BI has higher appeal. We remark the different implementations of data-warehouses, the tools of analysis mostly used, the personal involved. In the conclusions we summarize all the result and we discuss about the difficulty of developing correct and effective BI systems in SMEs.