This article presents a high-level list reflecting important standards or rules that should be followed to make Business Intelligence (BI) system, thus the team as well, useful and respectable by the business. The list is developed by the means of experimental observation and extensive communication with numerous European domain experts from relevant fields in the last couple of years. The list presented here is not meant to be exhaustive, reflecting the main aim of this paper, which is to provoke further discussion between industry experts and academics in the context of importance of business versus BI strategy. This article presents and explains seven strategy-based aspects to be seriously considered by the individuals having decision-making power in regard to BI in their enterprise.
Before one year, I wrote an article regarding avoiding productivity and efficiency loss in Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse (DW) environments. Article experienced noticeable attention by relevant public through various social networks reflecting acuteness of the issue. Initial list was then extended according to the feedbacks from relevant domain experts and business users. This list presents extended version of those issues, and is meant to be extended in the future as well, as new strategic-based issues are identified. So, here is the new list:
1. User acceptance and satisfaction are the most important factors for success of BI.
Just because your BI/DWH system technically works, does not mean you succeeded. In scientific literature, user satisfaction was identified as even more important aspect when measuring success of BI/DWH system than technical functionality [1, 3]. Never build a BI/DWH system which main purpose is to be visually and technically fancy. Build a BI/DWH system to be useful, loved and accepted by business users and other stakeholders – it should serve them to make easier and faster decision. It is the only purpose of BI system. Fancy BI report or Dashboard that is not used or practical to support decision making process is actual lost for the business.
2. Business Intelligence strategy must submit to the strategy of the enterprise!
Business Intelligence System is there to support everyday business. It is its only purpose. Full stop. Never fall into trap thinking that BI strategy is more important than the strategy of enterprise. BI strategy should never be an ultimate, and must be flexible and adoptable to the strategy of enterprise. If you have BI strategy that is not flexible and changeable than you are doomed to fail!
3. Never align BI strategy to the specific software. If software doesn’t work – change it!
Never align BI strategy on the specific software. If specific software doesn’t fit to fulfil BI requirements needed by the business, than replace it. Immediately. If it doesn’t work on one project, it will probably never work with any other project. Trying to find a way to make specific software work will lead to huge losses in the context of resources. In addition, eventually, you will be trapped into conforming to the strategy of specific software, and not to BI or strategy of the enterprise. I have spoken with many BI/DW developers and architects from various European companies and many of them identified this as the biggest obstacle to deliver most optimal reporting solutions to their clients. As we all know, DW and BI tools can be very expensive and complex, and because of that, less informed management thinks they can do anything or the best path for their IT departments is to follow the strategy of the software itself. This is the one of the biggest mistakes the management can make.
4. Building a never changing Data Warehouse is against its nature.
There is no ultimate and never changing Data Warehouse system. If you are building a Data Warehouse with an idea never to change it, then stop. Immediately. In that case, you are going against BI and DW nature. The main idea of Data Warehouse is to be flexible and expandable according to business needs [2, 4, 5].
5. Never change source system applications to fit the needs of BI/DWH systems.
Consequently to previous rule, never change source system applications to fit the needs of BI/DWH systems. Data from source systems should come to Data Warehouse in the form they are generated during operational activities [4]. Source systems are there to support everyday business and NOT to conform to the needs of Data Warehouse. BI/DWH is the place and the tool which main purpose is to extract needed data from source systems as they are, to clean them, transform, load, and to deliver them to business users in the form of queries, reports or dashboards. Remember, this is not the purpose of the source systems. BI/DWH must be seen as addition to business systems, not as a reason why source systems exist.
6. Don’t just believe in Power Point presentation. Ask for proof of concept. Several times.
You saw somewhere a visual demonstration of a new BI, DWH or Reporting tool, and you think it would be very useful for your organization. However, before actually buying it, ask not for one, but for several proof of concepts. You are not a first year undergrad student. So, don’t just believe in Power Point presentations made by sales professionals and various consultants working with that tool that promise heaven and earth. It can cost you. It can cost you big. Really, really, big. The best option would be to conduct minimum of three proof of concepts. If just one fail, even partially, refrain from the idea buying such tool.
7. If you have it, organize and maintain your Business Intelligence Competency Centre. Otherwise, turn it off!
Gartner Research and Oracle define BICC as a group of people, in the form of cross-functional team with specific tasks, roles and responsibilities working together established to promote collaboration and the application of BI conventions and standards across the organization [6,7,8]. Almost every large corporation using Business Intelligence or Data Warehouse solutions has its own Business Intelligence Competency Centre. This is extremely positive practice; however, large number of domain experts working in BI or DW field think that the BICC at their company is negligent, unkempt and foul. Moreover, most of them think that BICC causes more frustration and takes too much time than it helps. The reasons are frivolous approach in centre coordination, inadequate or not relevant members, complex documenting requirements including those without specific purpose and not clearly identified contact or leading person. Some of the colleagues said it would be more optimal and more effective to work without such BICC – which is devastating fact. So, if you don’t intend to apply BICC at your organization seriously, it is better not to have it all, as it will consume resources and cause additional frustration without any real purpose.
Competing interests
The author writes in a personal capacity and no competing interests have been declared.
References
[1] Dedić, N and Stanier C, Measuring the success of changes to Business Intelligence solutions to improve Business Intelligence reporting, Journal of Management Analytics, 2017, 4(2), 130-144; DOI: http://doi.org/10.1080/23270012.2017.1299048.
[2] Dedić, N and Stanier C, An Evaluation of the Challenges of Multilingualism in Data Warehouse Development, International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems – ICEIS 2016, 1, 196-206. DOI: 10.5220/0005858401960206
[3] DeLone, W H and McLean, E R, The DeLone and McLean model of information systems success: A ten-year update, Journal of Management Information Systems, 2003, 19(4), 9–30.
[4] Inmon, B W, Building the Data Warehouse, (4th ed.), 2005, Indianapolis: John Wiley & Sons.
[5] Kimball, R, Ross, M, Thorthwaite, W, Becker, B and Mundy, J, The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit, 2008, Wiley India Pvt. Limited.
[6] Miller, G J, Brautigam, D and Gerlach, S V, Business Intelligence Competency Centers: A Team Approach to Maximizing Competitive Advantage, 2006, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, US; DOI: http://doi.org/10.4018/jbir.2011070102.
[7] Oracle (2012), The Business Intelligence Competency Center : Enabling Continuous Improvement in Performance Management, Oracle Corporation.
[8] Sabherwal, R and Becerra-Fernandez, I, Business intelligence: Practices, technologies, and management, 2011, John Wiley & Sons.