A good business intelligence service provider should aim to develop its clients' organisational cultures to become more analytical and data-driven.
This is according to Sean Paine, COO of EnterpriseWorx. "A company that aims to drop a box and leave will likely not deliver a solution that meets the business' needs nor help the business maximise the returns from its BI investment," says Paine. Instead, business intelligence service providers (BISPs) should develop a partnership approach, developing "mutual understanding and co-operation to meet the long-term BI goals of the client," he suggests.
An analytical culture in a business is essential for long-term competitiveness and profitability, emphasises Paine. "Decisions [must be] made based on statistically-sound analysis of data, not on 'cherry-picked' numbers, nor on gut feel, but on carefully selected, quantifiable measures. These measures may have originated from within the business (eg sales), or from external sources such as Statistics SA."
BISPs should focus on driving BI adoption and usage within a business, as well as increasing the depth of BI usage, Paine continues. "Businesses often start off with fairly basic BI (eg operational reports), and ultimately we want to get them to the point where they are using advanced BI, such as GIS systems and predictive analytics."
"We believe that not all skills should be retained exclusively by the BISP," he adds. "BI is a never-ending, evolving programme within businesses that adapts as business strategy and processes change. For this reason, having internal skills usually proves to be cost-effective. We have found that most businesses benefit from having at least some internal technical competence when it comes to delivery of BI solutions."
The BISP should still provide ongoing support where necessary, however, he notes. "The technical 'heavy lifting' of development and design work is best left to the BISP, and these skills are not usually transferred. The reason for this is that it is not usually cost-effective."
As data becomes more complex, large and diverse, the expertise needed to deal with that data will become more important, concludes Paine. "There are already many organisations that would benefit from someone who is devoted exclusively to the management and observation of the data. The analysis and control of data can and does lead to increased turnover and reduced costs time and time again. Therefore, investing in a data specialist or scientist can be a very profitable strategy for many businesses these days."
Share