"Otherwise, organizations will fail," he said.

Popkin urged business to factor-in the number of systems retired and re-used into the definition of value.

Gartner research has predicted a "mass platform migration" in which all enterprises with platforms built 10 to 15 years ago will be forced to update to newer applications in the short term.

A local organization that recently standardized its BI platform is Centrelink which upgraded to Cognos 8 earlier this year.

Centrelink, has rationalized the number of "presentation tools" it uses, including Cognos and Hyperion, and replace its existing data warehouse platform.