BI has moved beyond traditional data warehousing solutions, which in turn has made it even more challenging to create the relevant business knowledge as well enable business users to determine what value they`re getting from their underlying data.
BI now spans all subject areas of business and according to Willie Bezuidenhout, business technologist: information management at Computer Associates Africa, it is now even more critical to understand the solutions your company implements - whether its technology, business or finance - in order to derive ROI.
Information that is readily available to the right people, at the right time enables a company to act quickly and decisively - crucial requirements if it intends on growing and remaining profitable.
Today, most organisations` information have already been collected, processed and stored by information systems. Indeed, millions of rands are spent annually on these processes. However, a lot of companies are still not benefiting from an "enterprise view" into their information.
The problem is that no company wants to invest in overhauling enterprise applications, especially if it has already spent thousands on implementing it in the first place.
On the other hand, there are already companies that are achieving significant ROI (return on investment) by investing in business intelligence (BI) solutions that integrate existing data and provide a better view on enterprise operations and performance.
How does BI enable ROI?
For one, BI enables more efficient reporting. Without it many companies often have teams of employees that spend hours gathering, aggregating and analysing information from different systems in order to provide timely reports to management.
Indeed, BI can significantly reduce the time - and subsequent money - spent on developing these reports.
Decision-making is also improved as companies can access, view and analyse numbers that were too unwieldy, distributed, or expensive to obtain.
Importantly, this enables companies to use the improved reporting information to identify where they are missing revenue generation opportunities, to reduce overhead costs based on utilisation, and to manage billing and accounts receivables.
Companies can also use BI to identify customer and market trends and use that information for forecasting, planning, marketing and promotions. And in cases where a customer is part of a supply chain, companies can also open access to its BI information in order to reduce management and streamline interaction.
Do your homework
OK, so the good news for CIOs is that a limited investment in BI can enable companies to leverage their existing enterprise applications and databases. The bad news is that - like other technology investments - BI deployments can go terribly wrong.
Companies, therefore, must make sure they do their homework before they invest in BI - this includes cleaning and validating data, and defining user requirements.
Also, know where the benefits lie. Will return from you deployment depend on more efficient reporting, improved information access or even customer management?
Identifying the key benefit areas and their components will determine which solution is best for your company.
It is also important that you look at breadth and repeatability. The greater number of users, and reports generated the more (potential) return. Indeed, BI delivers greater returns as the number of people who use it increases.
Be realistic about your data quality. Data preparation is necessary and preliminary BI deployment. Research group Nucleus has found that many companies underestimate the time and effort required to clean and validate data for a BI solution to be effective.
Become BI fit
BI is like any other technology deployment - if the users won`t use it, the ROI is always negative. Implementers of BI, albeit VARs (value-added resellers) or integrators must have an in-depth understanding of the technology in order to realise usability and subsequent business value. Secondly, training is also a critical part of a successful BI implementation. Although most solutions feature intuitive interfaces, it still important to make sure that users know how to quickly access and modify reports - thus benefiting from it. A BI investment can be the means to leverage existing enterprise data to improve performance and reduce costs. No IT investment is fail-proof, but a pre-deployment ROI analysis can help you determine where your key costs and benefits lie.
Lastly - and something to consider - research authority IDC recently stated that BI solutions can offer up 112% ROI within a year.
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