A recent issue of Reseller News looked at the transition of some IT resellers from "moving boxes" to selling services - including Business Intelligence services.

But the article includes a cautionary comment from Stellar BI's Managing Director, Grant Broadbent (pictured).

"If you just drop the technology on the floor you might get some passionate soul to use it and show their fellow business unit [members] how great it is, but if that person leaves or if the business changes its focus, then a lot of those projects just end up dying. There’s a lot in BI that people don’t realise."

Paul Plester of Express Data adds that teaching users how to analyse and use data is a key part of a good Business Intelligence offering.

"That type of skill is going to be more in demand, it’s not a box move any more, there’s value add around it."

“With BI, you’re not really selling software,” says Richard Johnson,  sales director of consulting firm Cortell.

"I mean you are, of course. But you’ve got to understand [a customer's] data and then you’ve got to build the underlying data structure that you then report on and do your analysis.”