Harnessing the Power of Business Intelligence

Business intelligence software can translate masses of data into insights that drive better decisions—if you do it right.

Five Steps to Successful BI

  1. Align the technology with corporate strategy. Too often, CEOs become enamored with glitzy technology and fail to start with the key business questions, says Myron Weber, founder and managing partner of Northwood Advisors. A better way to approach it is to focus on the people you’re trying to empower. “Who is making decisions today but not able to make the decisions you want them to make because they don’t have the right information? Who is making fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants decisions when you want them to make data-driven decisions? That way, you’re aligning the strategy with the business. The software can be just right, but it doesn’t mean it’s supporting the right activities.”
  2. Get your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in a row. Surprisingly, often, executives in an organization cannot agree on the definition of various metrics, says Cris Hadjez, BI practice director for itelligence, an SAP implementation partner. “They’ll talk about the ability to have a nice enterprise BI solution and how it allows for automation and allows them to get their information faster. But if your foundation is based on business rules that are incorrect, the only thing the BI solution does is help you arrive at an incorrect solution much faster.” Organizationally and culturally, the various business unit heads must agree both on what will be measured and how it will be measured. “How do you define revenue? How are you defining sales? Am I allowed to have two different definitions for margin—from a financial perspective vs. sales perspective? There are a lot of nuances to those definitions and they have to be decided upon up front.”
  3. Don’t rely solely on vendors for BI competency. “Have your own people, who are trained and well educated and knowledgeable about whatever BI solution you’re implementing, [consider your BI],” advises Steffen Kleinmanns, VP of business development for BI provider Cubeware. Ask your internal experts the high-level questions: Can these processes be measured? Which are the most important? Once we can measure, what are the appropriate targets we should be measuring going forward?
  4. Be disciplined. “Once people get religion, they want to boil the ocean,” says Birst CEO Brad Peters. “They think, ‘I could do this, this and this—and that reduces the odds of success. The companies who have the discipline to do it in pieces are the most successful.” TriCore’s Kevin O’Rourke suggests starting with a manageable project with clear goals and well-defined success metrics. “A quantifiable, quick win with minimal investment on the first phase,” he says. If a vendor tries to upsell you on the first phase, start shopping for a new vendor.
  5. Believe in your people. You hired smart, good employees. Now it’s time to trust them with more information. Too often, says Peters, lower level employees are seen as assets to be controlled rather than empowered by data and analysis. But with relevant, intelligent data, they can make better decisions more quickly. “That’s a problem particularly for very large companies. The more nimble, small or midsize organizations, that’s less of a fear for them. They’re trying to compete more effectively and trying to get [the] most out of their employees.”


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