Business users need to become self-reliant data explorers and IT departments need to empower them by providing the right tools and environment for fast, easy and wide-ranging data access, according to experts. The old model for analytics offered one way to deploy analytics: IT had to build a centralized semantic layer prior to allowing business users adopt BI. IT controlled analytics, they would build reports and dashboards and flood it out to the masses.

 But, the role of BI has changed exponentially in a short time as business users become more involved with the process. Self-service really has become that much more dominating in the world of analytics. However, to make insightful decisions on their own, business users demand instant access to data from multiple enterprise sources. The ideal scenario is that everyone in your organization is able to look at certified information, connect to the same data sources, and are essentially able to have a sort of standardization within the organization.

Src: http://www.dbta.com/