While 54 per cent of knowledge workers lose productivity from inadequate data access, Lester said successful organizations are those that have a data-driven culture.

A Toronto-based SAP customer, electronics manufacturer and supply chain services provider Celestica, recently created a business intelligence centre of excellence.

Tianbing Qian, senior director of business support solutions, said the company was driven to this BI initiative by several challenges. It wanted to turn its cross-industry supply chain data into useful information, and transform the company from a traditional electronics manufacturing services provider to an "end-to-end lifecycle solutions provider," said Qian.

There are four key factors that defined Celestica's approach to building a business intelligence centre of excellence from scratch: doing a proof-of-concept, asking the right business questions, taking a portfolio approach, and assembling a hybrid team.

The BI initiative started in early 2009 with a six- to eight-week proof-of-concept involving real customer data about return and repair cycles for defective electronics, a process that can cost some customers millions. One customer saved $10 million during the proof-of-concept alone, which was great for demonstrating return on investment, said Qian.