When I was at the Gartner BI Summit last week, I was on a panel with three other business intelligence vendors. Towards the end of the talk, I shared something that seemed to touch a chord with the audience.

I’ve heard 100 stories where business intelligence helps companies make a dollar. I’ve only heard a handful of stories where intelligence makes a difference. I understand the importance of using information to gain a competitive advantage, to save millions of dollars in operating expenses, or to drive new heights of profit. And I know that competitive advantage will continue to be the number one driver of BI moving forward. However, I would love to hear more stories of how intelligence is making a difference.

I know that technology transformed the VA Hospital into a leading example of patient service and efficiency, but I would love to know how they are using intelligence to make life better for the veterans of the US. Where else can we use intelligence to make a difference?

What if we created a balanced scorecard that measured use of energy within the company and materials usage within the supply chain? What if all of that mapped to the company’s carbon footprint and efforts to reduce emissions?

What if we could band together, companies from around the world, to use our combined intelligence to change the world? We could take our supply chain algorithms and offer them to non-profit organizations to help them better distribute food around the world. We could join efforts to speed the increase of recycled electronics. (We’ve already recycled more than 1 billion pounds of electronics and our goal is to knock off another billion by the end of 2010.)

Alright, I’m excited about this! I’m off to talk to our engineers at HP, to see how we can do this? What about you? I would love to hear your stories of how you are using intelligence to make a difference!