The basic problem with most business intelligence applications is that they are too difficult to set up and use. As a result, IT people spend a massive amount of time and money setting them up only to find that a very small set of the end user population has the skills to master the application.

The good news is that providers of business intelligence applications are starting to make some progress on the problem. Tableau Software is rolling out a 4.0 release of its namesake client and server software that adds new a new visual approach that allows people to navigate the application more easily. The company has also added tools for embedding various reports directly inside other applications so they can more readily share data with colleagues.

These enhancements speak to is the fact that a lot of usability associated with enterprise applications has been less than stellar. That means that even if IT chooses to roll out an enterprise application, most end users never really derive any benefit from the effort.

Tableau, which was spun out of a Stanford University project for the Department of Defense, also takes a unique approach to setting up business intelligence applications. The DoD required Stanford to not only come up with a more visual approach to business intelligence, but one that was also substantially easier to set up.

To solve that requirement, Tableau decided to forego the whole concept of setting up a proprietary data model. Instead, Tableau pulls data directly from sources such as SQL Server, Excel or other existing applications rather than requiring IT people to export that data into another proprietary system. This means that Tableau functions like a true application as opposed to another database system that has its own set of proprietary applications and related data models.

What all this amounts to is a major step in the right direction towards developing the next generation of business intelligence applications. From a usability perspective, people are looking for tools that look and feel akin to the Apple iPhone interface. From a set up perspective, they want something that doesn't require all kinds of specialists to set up and manage.

If we can actually make that happen, then there's a good chance that business intelligence applications will finally take their place alongside mainstream productivity applications as opposed to being something that only appeals to the few and the privileged.