Vendors should focus not on 'the potential value of BI', but on how BI can be used to solve business problems, and once this becomes the focus, vendors can begin to show the kind of unparalleled benefits BI is capable of achieving.
"In my experience, executives want solid, relevant BI solutions for their organisations," Theo Spickett, manager at Accenture, told delegates to the recent SAS Forum, South Africa's premier BI user group conference.
"They are not that interested in solutions that cannot address particular challenges within the organisation - no matter how good the ROI.
"Too often business intelligence (BI) vendors use the wrong approach to sell intelligence into organisations. They bring targeted solutions without targeted problems.
"They focus too much on BI value, return on investment or quick payback - instead of focusing on how BI can solve the specific problems of the organisation."
Not that these concepts are mutually exclusive, but that the value should be targeted at particular problems.
According to him, most intelligent businesses need to improve sales margins, grow revenue, reduce costs, improve market share, etc.
"We therefore need to map business intelligence offerings to these objectives and concerns. Executives are unlikely to relate to relatively intangible benefits like 'better decision-making' or 'more timely information'.
"Discussions can then focus on what value BI solutions deliver, such as the burning issues for the business, be these AIDS, the exchange rate or increasingly complex compliance legislation, for example," he said.
"When the conversation starts with these objectives in mind, BI solutions can deliver real value."
Spickett suggested an approach which focuses on shareholder value analysis. He suggested that vendors start by asking questions around the value drivers for the business.
"Only when they understand how these drivers contribute value and address issues for the organisations are vendors qualified to recommend BI solutions to the business," he said.
BI providers should be targeting economic value - around revenue and margins, cost and capital.
"Address net operating profit after tax, and return on invested capital, rather than a 90% reduction in the time it takes to produce a report," he advised.
"Other benefits should be considered in addition to the business case, not in support of it."
A BI solution should be sold by showing the business that you can make their problems go away. Target the pain points in the organisation to deliver real value. First list the target value drivers that talk to the pain points, then set the target and identify the interventions.
"Only then should a business case be drafted to evaluate the value of these interventions," he stressed.
Once the BI project is finished, the value, or contribution, must be measured, and the effect on the value driver assessed.
"It is ultimately not about the success of the BI project, but about the value created," he said.
Spickett described SAS as sitting "at the top of the advanced analytic food chain".
"I admire the business acumen that SAS staff brings to the table," he said.
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