The business owner role needs to be filled from the business user groups by enthusiastic fans of the BI project who are also subject matter experts in their fields. Each set of business users from within the organization that will be using the BI tool (finance, operations, HR, etc.) should appoint a business owner. Business user involvement is critical and care should be taken to keep them involved from the very beginning of the project. Without business owners and users, a BI project is merely an academic technical exercise.