Business Intelligence was out of reach for most mid-sized companies for nearly two decades. Between 2024 and 2026, four things changed. So did the math.
Feliks Golenko has spent 35 years in Business Intelligence. For most of that time, the verdict on BI for mid-market companies was the same: the investment simply didn’t justify the return. Building a BI system often cost between €250K and €400K, with annual maintenance costs of €150K or more.
The result was frequently a complex reporting environment that few people actually used. Today, those barriers no longer exist. What changed between 2024 and 2026 wasn’t a single breakthrough. It was the convergence of four powerful shifts. Legacy vendor lock-ins are coming to an end. A new generation of BI tools operates at a fraction of previous licensing costs. AI in business has crossed a commercial threshold, structuring data in days what once required a four-person specialist team.
Cloud architecture has entirely removed the need for heavy on-premises infrastructure. Together, these shifts produce a different price point and a different timeline. What used to require an 18-month capital commitment can now be validated in weeks for a fraction of the cost. If you are a CEO, CFO, or Head of Controlling, this video breaks down the new economics of Business Intelligence in plain numbers, and what the four shifts mean for your budget, your team, and your timeline. Feliks also outlines a low-risk approach to getting started: begin with a single business question, a single dataset you already own, and get a real answer in weeks rather than a six-figure commitment to a platform you may not need.
