6 steps to create a successful business intelligence strategy
TRANSCRIPT
THINK BIG, START SMALL AND DELIVER VALUENovember, 2015
6 STEPS TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE STRATEGY
www.coopersoftware.co.uk
Introduction: Why Do You Need BI Strategy? .........................................Why is a BI Strategy Important? ..............................................................The Consequences of Failing to Develop a BI Strategy ...........................Scope of BI Strategy: Driven by Business Objectives ...............................Developing a BI Strategy: Where Do You Start? ......................................
Step 1: Start With a Mandate ...............................................................Step 2: Understand What You Have the “As-Is” ..................................Step 3: Understand The Business’s Goals of BI, Create the “To-Be” ...Step 4: Get Ready for Change .............................................................Step 5: Appraise Options .....................................................................Step 6: Implementation and Transition................................................
Achieving Adoption of BI Solution from Stakeholders ............................Tips for Success ........................................................................................Conclusion: BI Strategy, an Evolving Document ......................................
6 Steps to Create a Successful Business Intelligence Strategy
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Table of Contents
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Introduction: Why Do You Need BI Strategy?
For the fourth consecutive year, BI and analytics remain a CIOs No. 1
investment priority, according to a new Gartner survey of more than 2,800
CIOs. In addition to this, Gartner estimates that the market for BI platforms
grew 9% in 2013, and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth
rate (CAGR) of 8.7% through 2018. This makes BI platforms one of the
fastest growing of all enterprise software. However, Gartner also say that
the number one biggest flaw of organisations investing in BI is “the
lack of a documented BI strategy, or the use of a poorly developed
or implemented one ”. If you’re considering any type of investment
in or appraisal of your BI, analytics or reporting functions within your
organisation, then it will pay you to think about your BI strategy.
Simply put, a BI strategy is a document defining the objectives of an
organisation, in relation to how it uses and capitalises on information. It
will explain, at the very minimum, the how, the what and the who; it will be
aligned with the strategic goals of the overall business. A BI strategy will
span the entire organisation, with all key stakeholders and departments
within an organisation having a hand in defining the strategy and having
an involvement in its successful implementation.
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Why is a BI Strategy Important?
Having a clear BI strategy can
provide an organisation with all the
information it requires in order to
understand the many changes and
challenges that occur within their
own business and the market in
which they operate. BI can support
both operational and strategic
decision-making and by having a
historical, current and extrapolative
view of a business, the decision
making process is made much
easier.
The ability to evaluate large
amounts of data and subsequently
use this data to identify new
opportunities and create an
effective strategy based on these
insights, can provide businesses
advantage and long-term stability.
According to a joint study carried
out in 2014 by Gartner and
Financial Executives Research
Foundation (FERF), BI, analytics and
performance management are the
top areas for CFOs’ IT interest.
The top business process area that
needs technology investment is
to facilitate analysis and decision
making (62%, which is an increase
from 59% in 2013), followed by the
ongoing monitoring of business
performance (57%, which is an
increase from 50% in 2013), and
then measuring product and
customer profitability (50%, which is
an increase from 43% in 2013).
BI strategy should include a broad
set of processes, technologies,
and stakeholders for collecting,
integrating, accessing, and
analysing information for the
purpose of helping an organisation
make better business decisions.
BI solutions should enable users
to be able to quickly adapt to new
business requirements and evolving
sources of information.
Overall, a vision of what a BI
strategy will entail should be
planned in advance of any iteration
being implemented. It is vital to
establish a BI vision to ensure
that implementation of specific
components fits in with the overall
BI strategy. An organisation’s BI
strategy should state and document
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the needs as identified by the
stakeholders, highlighting how
BI fits into the broader enterprise
vision. The strategy should take
into consideration the appropriate
framework, methodology,
processes, governance, systems,
and technology in order to deliver
value that is aligned with the
business objectives and priorities.
The Consequences of Failing to Develop a BI Strategy
You may already have various
functions within your organisation
engaged in managing and
reporting on information. However,
the lack of strategy to guide, steer
and consolidate these functions will
have negative consequences for
your organisation, for example:
• A reliance on poor quality data
to make business decisions will
result in sub optimal decision
making.
• Data, which is stored on
separate databases, of differing
quality, results in multiple
versions of the truth and hinders
strategic decision-making.
• Increasing pressure on IT
departments to extract data for
multiple departments across the
business, taking them away from
more critical tasks.
• High costs of maintaining
overlapping, disparate BI
software solutions and the
purchase of licences to run
these systems.
• A lack of cohesion, significantly
reducing opportunities for
sharing information and working
collaboratively across the
organisation.
• Creation of “data islands”,
where an organisation has no
single view of information and
no intelligent ‘insight’. This can
only be achieved when you
bring disparate data sources
together into a single view.
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The scope of BI strategy should include making the best use of
information for strategic, tactical, and operational needs. The purpose
of building a BI strategy is to help the business with long-term planning,
assist middle management with tactical reporting, and help operations
with the day-to-day decision making required in order to run the business
efficiently. BI is all about providing people with the information they need
to do their jobs more effectively. To achieve this, a number of BI services
have to be provided in order to meet the wide range of requirements
across a business. The scope of the BI Strategy should be determined by
the business drivers and goals and should always account for the changing
nature of these requirements, in order to ensure that the - BI strategy is
properly aligned with the business.
Scope of BI Strategy: Driven by Business Objectives
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Page 1
No two BI strategies are the same. Each one will have similar themes and
topics that must be considered and both will attempt to solve a similar
question. The biggest mistake you can make is devising something
that is not appropriate for your organisation. Your strategy has to be
proportionate, realistic and above all, achievable. If your organisation is
large and you are consolidating existing services, you may find it necessary
to write a business case, develop a project management methodology
to plan the resources and time needed to write the document and also
involve a procurement function to oversee the selection of any new BI tool.
A small organisation may choose to short circuit some of these steps and
the red tape associated with them to create a more streamlined approach,
potentially using outsourced services and external data feeds.
A Successful BI Strategy Can Be Created Following a Simple Six-Step Approach.
Developing a BI Strategy: Where Do You Start?
6 Steps to Create a Successful Business Intelligence Strategywww.coopersoftware.co.uk/qlik 7
Step 1: Start With a MandateThe chances are you are reading
this because you already have
one. If you don’t, you need one. A
mandate is simply permission from
someone senior enough to provide
you with the authority and the
resources to ask the essential and
often sensitive questions you need
answers to before a BI Strategy
can be developed. Without
this authority, your BI Strategy
immediately has a far lower chance
of being successful. If you can’t get
a mandate then stop now. Your
organisation is not ready to join the
analytics revolution and your time
would be better spent conducting
a ‘hearts and minds’ campaign with
whichever senior managers will
listen.
Step 2: Understand What You Have the “As-Is”Document what you have first.
This will provide a gauge of
your organisations current BI
capabilities. This is usually best
achieved by conducting interviews
with the people involved in
reporting. Most organisations will
already have some function within
their business responsible for
producing information in one form
or another.
Start there, even if it’s just a part
time role of a junior employee
to produce a sales report once
a week. Follow the trail. Where
does the data for that report come
from? Are there any bottlenecks
or single points of failure? Who
uses the reports? How easily are
they updated? What processes
and technologies are in place
to facilitate distribution and
updates of the reports? Find out
about security, sign off and any
governance considerations. What
works well, what doesn’t?
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Then, conduct an audit on existing technologies to include items such as
license and maintenance costs, what version of the software is currently
used, who supports it etc.
Do this for every type of reporting function in your organisation. The more
you can find out at this point the more likely your BI Strategy is to succeed.
By documenting your current BI model, you enhance your ability
to identify problem areas, which, in turn, helps to develop solution
definitions. It is also useful to determine the BI readiness of the business.
Once the issues that need to be addressed have been identified it is easy
to fill in the gaps and a clear vision is created of the overall objectives and
the direction to follow in order to get to the desired future state.
Once you have this, document everything in an “As-Is” document.
Key Steps:
• Identify the existing reporting functions within the organisation.
• Identify the technologies used to support these functions.
• Conduct interviews with the key people involved in running the existing
operations.
• Identify existing people, processes and governance.
• Establish costings, licensing and maintenance agreements.
• Document in an “As-Is” document.
Figure 1: Creating As-Is Document
Reporting Functions
People
Processes
Governance
Technologies Used
Costings
Licensing
Maintenance Agreements
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the organisation, reporting lines,
financing of the function, objectives
and remit, governance, quality
levels, service level agreements
and how the function supports the
overall business. It may also make
a statement about the technology
and software tools or capabilities
to be adopted. The operational
strategy will be more involved with
the finer points for example role
descriptions, internal processes
and coding standards, in addition
to how in general the BI Business
Strategy will be supported. Your
“To-Be” document should aim to
cover the following areas:
1. Objectives and Remit2. Roles and Responsibilities3. Quality Levels4. Governance5. Toolset6. Architecture
This can be achieved by conducting
a series of interviews with key
stakeholders, heads of department
and even members of the executive
board. You may have already
gathered some of this information
in Step 2 as it is not unusual for
people to open up about their
frustrations as soon as you start
to ask questions about how they
currently go about their reporting
processes.
Step three is about creating the all
important “To Be” document. It is
important that you are up to date
with the overall business strategy
as your BI Strategy will need to
support this. At this point, it is often
useful to make a clear distinction
between a BI Business Strategy and
a BI Operational Strategy. Simply
out, this is the difference between
what you are going to do and how
you are going to do it.
Your business strategy will be
concerned with topics such as
where the BI function sits within
Step 3: Determine The Business’s Goals of BI: Create The “To-Be”
Figure 2: Creating To-Be Document
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Your “To-Be” document is one step away from becoming your BI
Strategy, however it still needs some work. In most cases, the “To-Be”
will point towards activities that will involve a degree of change within the
organisation. Roles may need to be created, organised or reassigned.
Old technologies may need to be decommissioned and new, more
appropriate technologies selected. This will often involve a procurement
function, an invitation to tender and the assessment of a number of
potential solutions. Although these activities will not be started until you
are in a transition period, it is important that they are alluded to within
the “To-Be” document, to ensure that the executive and stakeholders are
aware of what they are buying into to.
This step is only completed when your stakeholders have signed off the
document.
Step 4: Get Ready for Change
Congratulations, You Now Have a BI Strategy!
6 Steps to Create a Successful Business Intelligence Strategywww.coopersoftware.co.uk/qlik 11
Step 5: Appraise OptionsYou have a BI Strategy at this
point, but you also have various
ways of implementing it. For
example, many organisations are
now opting to contract out their
entire BI function to a specialist
‘managed service’ provider. It
may be cost effective to bring in
consultants to set up the service
before handing over to an internal
‘Business As Usual’ team to
maintain and enhance the service.
Building in-house may also be a
choice. Whatever decision you
make, an appraisal of the options
for implementation will ensure
that you are using the most
appropriate delivery method for
your organisation.
Step 6 : Implementation and Transition
At Step 6, your BI Strategy
is ready to be implemented.
Implementation will undoubtedly
involve change within your
organisation which may be best
managed by a programme or
project office. A phased approach
to implementation has been proven
to be more effective than a sudden
large scale change. A phased
implementation process, breaking
the project down in to distinct steps
and delivered through a series of
sub-projects determined by the
specific needs of the business at
that time, is more likely to succeed
as it can be effectively managed
and organised, leading to greater
buy-in across the organisation.
During the implementation stage,
existing BI applications may be
decommissioned, migrated or
upgraded. There may also be
some restructuring of roles, new
teams created and new processes
and controls which will require a
degree of training. Keep your BI
Strategy document up to date as
the transition progresses.
“Think Big, Start Small, and Deliver Value”
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Achieving Adoption of BI Solution from StakeholdersTrue returns can only be achieved
when the BI strategy is adopted by
the enterprise and it penetrates into
the business processes. Too often
what is missing from BI is the ability
to move from insight to action and
an overall failure to exploit the
true potential of BI. The ultimate
aim of a successful BI strategy is to
help the organisation to improve
information management and
facilitate better decision making. A
robust BI strategy should address
the steps required for the successful
adoption of the developed BI
solution by stakeholders.
Your BI strategy should detail
the necessary education and
communication requirements
regarding the new BI initiatives in
order to help your end-users derive
value from the BI environment.
As the data is introduced in the
BI environment, training sessions,
data forums, and metadata need
to be made available to the BI
community.
Be sure to offer good metadata (a
data dictionary including definitions
and data sources), business logic
(tie the data to the business
goal), key dimensions and metrics
(including how to use them for best
results), and data availability (when
and where data can be found) to
enable BI adoption.
A plan to enable successful
adoption of the BI solution is the
key component of the BI strategy.
You should create enterprise-wide
processes for collection of data
and transformation of data into
information and knowledge. You
should plan to support end-users
with education and communication.
Establish cross-functional support
for the BI solutions at different
levels in various functions of the
enterprise. You should also plan
for usage analysis to support and
enhance the use of BI platform.
Determining usage patterns is
critical to determine the success
of your overall BI strategy as this
will help you in determining the
ROI to create and maintain the
environment. The creation of a
successful BI strategy that is widely
accepted by users in the enterprise
is one that delivers true value.
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Tips for Success
Remember, BI is a supporting function. It won’t make your widgets or
answer your service calls, but if executed properly, it will make everything
more efficient and will drive the direction and opportunities of your
business.
This is not a technology initiative. It is a business initiative, supported by technology.
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Page 15
Top Down v.s. Bottom Up
Decide where best to establish the service – centrally or aligned to a department.
A resolution from the CEOs office, or a push from the bottom up, often driven through necessity and one or two ‘agents for change’.
BI Operational Strategy v.s. a BI Business StrategySplit your overall strategy into two. Align the BI Business Strategy to the overall business strategy. Ensure that what you are proposing supports the overall direction of the business. If possible, try to embed the BI Strategy into the Business Strategy.
What type of data are you recording? External data sources. Are you throwing away good data? Most operational systems (excluding financial systems) overwrite things like statuses. Disk space is cheap and technologies (Hadoop) exist to allow you to stockpile data until you know how to use it.
Tactical and Strategic – Putting Out the Fires While Building Long-term Defences
Get your staff ready for change.
Set expectations with the business. Roadmaps and release dates are two very easy to use tools which can quickly get your service requests under control.
Consolidate applications and tools. Don’t pay for two licenses, when one will do!
Get enthusiastic and excited. Watch it transfer onto your internal business customers.
Hearts and minds campaign.
Most importantly, have patience. “Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day”
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Reference
www.gartner.com/imagesrv/cio/pdf/cio_agenda_insights2015.pdf
www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/774912
Gartner, Survey Analysis: Critical CFO Technology Needs: 2014 Gartner FEI Study, 23 June 2014
Conclusion: BI Strategy, an Evolving Document A BI strategy should be agile and adaptive. Once a
strategy is created it does not mean it is the end of the
project. Your strategy document should be treated as
something which is continuously developed to meet
the objectives of the business. BI strategy must focus
on communicating what you are planning to build,
how you plan to build it, and when users can expect
their individual BI needs to be met. It should start with
broad policy statements, general guidelines, and high-
level diagrams. As the BI environment matures, so
will the formal documentation and the level of detail
contained within the strategy. You should aim to evolve
your BI strategy as part of the enterprise vision as you
implement iterations and as more details become
available. Plan to continually asses and reinvent BI
according to changing business needs. Look towards
current BI trends and forward-thinking approaches for
guidance on building and maintaining a successful BI
strategy.
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About Cooper Software
Cooper Software is a leading technology consultancy that delivers successful and innovative business change.Founded in 2005, Cooper Software has grown to become one of Europe’s largest independent providers of products, consulting and support for Enterprise Business software and Business Intelligence Solutions.
Cooper Software is the No.1 Qlik Solution Partner for ERP systems in the UK and the single source for transformative Business Intelligence solutions.
More information on Cooper Software, visit www.coopersoftware.co.uk
About the Author
George Beaton
George Beaton is a Cooper Software Associate, a
network of industry leading professionals.
An experienced Business Intelligence Professional with
wide ranging and extensive experience in Business
Intelligence. A proven track record in developing and
implementing innovative, appropriate and practical
business intelligence strategies and growing BI
maturity within a business. A dependable, friendly and
approachable team player with a hands on attitude. In
depth technical knowledge, strong business acumen.
Possesses first-class communication skills at all levels
and an established record of achievement and success.
linkedin.com/in/georgebeaton
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