The greatest challenge in gaining results from a business intelligence (BI) solution is not the integration of data or the ability to quickly and easily extract intricate reports. As many a company has learnt the hard way, the value of a BI system does not become apparent until a paradigm shift occurs in their approach to information gathering and communication.
A BI implementation typically ends with the relevant employees being left with a new set of tools, a nicely completed training course and perhaps a few relevant text books. What doesn`t always happen, the pivotal element to the success of any implementation, is a complete metamorphosis in the thinking and working habits of the people expected to make use of the BI system.
The system needs to be adopted as an overriding concept in how the business is run. BI is not an IT function, it belongs to the business itself and is simply enabled by the tools provided IT, BI is intended to free up IT staff by providing management with the capability of running reports and analysing data all on their own.
Key stakeholders like a CEO or COO are usually instrumental in the procurement of BI systems, and are always delighted with an excellent method of extracting the KPI measures they have fought so hard to obtain in the past. However, the old premise of "garbage-in, garbage-out" could not be more relevant.
The challenge for any organisation implementing a BI solution is how to effectively communicate information needs and processes to their business units. The culture of measurement must filter through to enable users to run their businesses units in line with corporate requirements.
According to Adrian Rupp, BI consultant at iSolve Business Solutions: "All too often in our experience we find a gap between the company heads and the staff, so it is important for a CEO to engender a culture of measurement on employees which will ensure the company is able to capitalise on the BI investment. Effective change management when implementing BI ensures the solution doesn`t become a white elephant."
The concept of the co-ordinated business is also brought to the fore and is all too often an area where companies fail despite the best intentions. Decisions made in marketing need to be filtered to production if the strategies are to be truly aligned. Business in no longer departmentalised; it is a whole organism and each division is interdependent on the others.
Historically, BI has been the domain of the large corporates due to the prohibitive costs of the back-end systems. iSolve`s goal is to provide small and medium companies, who historically couldn`t afford a data warehouse, a solution that gets results relatively quickly. There is a phased approach, working first in the areas of the business where intelligence is most needed and then as funds become available, grow the solution through the teams and division that have embraced the information requirements and processes - the companies own evangelists of the BI concepts.
One way to aid the adoption of any solution is through familiarity. According to Peter Clark, Managing Director of iSolve Business Solutions: "We aim to marry the best solution for the project, as a certified Microsoft partner we believe that Microsoft solutions are the most affordable and are robust for everyday business. Providing an entirely Microsoft-based solution means the BI solution is provided on a familiar platform which is a big factor in the adoption of the new technology."
A key challenge for many companies is that few users can use complex BI systems. With IT left to run the BI solutions, business divisions would come with ad hoc requests for information resulting in IT becoming a group of report writers, rather than enablers of technology. With the advancements in BI, users now have access to tools that suit their needs. Five percent to 10% of the business will be "power-users" with a deep understanding of how to generate information through various analysis tools, while the majority of the company still has access to the operation reports required to allow them to measure their own performance.
"Our approach is to deal directly with business issues using IT as a facilitator rather than a driving force. We work with the key stakeholders to understand how they drive their business and then customise a solution tailored to give the competitive advantage that the business wants. We like to tailor an OLAP solution unique to each customer`s needs, there is no such thing as a standard solution," concludes Clark.
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