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Ensuring your BI project succeeds

Why is Business Intelligence so difficult to implement? It's not the technology that's to blame, it's business ownership and accountability.


Johannesburg, 18 May 2018
Manqoba Msimang, Head: Data and Analytics, Falcorp Technologies.
Manqoba Msimang, Head: Data and Analytics, Falcorp Technologies.

Here is a figure few of us will take comfort in: according to Gartner, as many at 80% of business intelligence (BI) analytics implementations fail. That's right: a mere one out of every five companies that attempt modern BI get it right.

It's not hard to make a case for such a venture. Today's access to different types of data is a massive opportunity for companies, from creating strategy to refining processes and predicting events. But, while the potential of BI analytics has dazzled organisations, they generally fail to get the most value out of their BI initiatives, says Manqoba Msimang, Head: Data and Analytics at Falcorp Technologies.

"With the recent moves to digital platforms, a lot of companies are not using those platforms for a lot of their internal processes. Digital interactions are mostly outward facing, to external consumers and clients, rather than for internal process optimisation."

All too often, BI is used for limited line-of-business work and little else, ignoring its ability to reach across business units and even the company's wider partner network. Finding future trends is important, but so is gaining efficiencies through concepts such as content intelligence, analytics intelligence and continuity intelligence. BI tools offer powerful functionality and capability to the entire enterprise, but are often under-utilised, even in successful implementations.

Getting BI wrong

At the root of the problem is a familiar situation: ownership. BI analytics systems are highly technology-driven, so the reflex is to make it IT's project. We can call it 'build it and they will come' syndrome: the belief that a technology's transformational power is enough to instigate change. But, as many digital modernisation efforts have shown, this is putting the cart in front of the horse.

"We've seen that a lot of the time companies don't pay enough attention to the three pillars of people, processes and technology. A lot of the focus is put on technology and that's the least of the organisation's worries, as technologies have become readily available and affordable. User adoption has a lot to do with people, and change management processes need to be looked at to ensure the most value is extracted out of those platforms."

When BI is placed at the door of IT, it lets business off the hook. This is a critical mistake, often leading to a fatal blow to the project. Think about it: what is IT supposed to do with the BI outcomes? They can, of course, use the analysis to improve their own systems, but that doesn't serve the rest of the business. The BI project must, from its genesis, be business-driven and owned.

"Business must take ownership of the BI initiative. There is operational reporting that can be achieved without that ownership, but that reduces the BI tools in place to delivering MIS style reporting. This leads to reduced harnessing of the technology's functionality from an analytics perspective. There are a lot of tools in the market for predictive analytics that can add value to business. But because the ownership is not fully with business, they are not getting the most out of it."

Build your BI strategy

It all starts with a BI strategy. This should be aligned with the company strategy as well as its line of business unit strategy. Naturally, BI can also be brought in to focus on more operational tasks, but it stands to reason that LOB will see the fastest gains when tying in the BI initiatives with LOB strategy, which will encourage adoption across the different business functions. The BI strategy will help define the journey, which is crucial: BI cannot be viewed as an add-on anymore. It should challenge and change business thinking.

"This is happening at a lot of companies: there is no BI strategy in place. Organisations often just want reporting, without aligning or having a proper strategy on how that will affect the departments and their KPIs," says Msimang.

Another crucial element is communication. Even though the project should be business-owned, it will still be implemented by IT. There will be many conversations about expectations and disturbances. Though the business should invest in skills to manage the data, it foremost needs people who can bridge this communication gap between different units.

To alleviate some of that pressure, Msimang recommends companies bring in partners to help develop their BI strategy: "Specialty organisations can help focus on BI strategy implementation and alignment to LOB strategies (KPIs). You can have consultants that can speak to the strategy, speak to the C-suite and also translate requirements from the C-suite downstream."

An 80% failure rate is appalling and very off-putting. Yet the results are equally notable: companies with successful BI cultures routinely report double-digit growth in sales, revenues and many other areas. It's absolutely worth doing. So don't let your BI analytics solution languish in a vacuum, tied to IT and kept away from the business's many parts. That will make you one of the 80% who don't get anything.

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