Depending Solely on Dashboards, for a Successful BI Solution, Is a Mere Illusion

You can’t simply buy a BI solution and wait for the magic wand to hover over and turn around tables for you,

enhancing your business to its best…It just doesn’t happen on its own. There is much more to it. The general

impression that enterprises carry is once you start getting visually appealing dashboards, the magic has begun. But it is

not so. Prior to dashboards, there are many vital elements that are heavily responsible for the success story of any BI

application, in whatsoever industry segment it is or whatever maybe the size of the organization. The big myth that

companies have is that once any Business Intelligence solution is implemented, the dashboards that represent the bulk

of information are the windows to their business efficiency and productivity. But, it is not so. There is more behind the

screen, which plays a pivotal role in extracting the best out of any BI solution and harnessing its power to gain the

maximum output.

For any Business Intelligence Solution to work at its best, it has to be treated as a wholesome solution and not

software that simply has to be installed. On a general note, BI projects do not possess inbuilt strategy, planning and

management expertise. For any such solution to work wonders, it is essential to treat each and every phase with equal

importance and judge the outcome of each of them and link it to the next.

5 Prime Ingredients, apart from Dashboards, required for a Successful BI Solution

Setting up the right team

One of the most important things required for a Business Intelligence solution to succeed is to have the apt team,

comprising of the right combination of experts, be it technical, managerial or analysts. Till you don’t have that, it is

highly impossible to extract the requisite information from the solution since there is lack of planning and guidance all

along the way. Having only some of those may not necessarily help. A balance combination of expertise is very much

needed.

Following Best Practices

You have the required solution but do not possess the actualities of the industry standards and the best practices that

should be followed in order to implement a hassle free solution. This is what is the scenario in many enterprises. It is

highly important to firstly cull out the best practices and strategies that need to be kept ready and handy prior to

implementing the solution. Only then, can the solution work in the right direction in the right manner. You cannot

simply neglect the standard practices set up by the industry and move on.

Systematic Data Planning

What any Business Intelligence service would need, to function at its best, is appropriate and regular streaming of

data. Without it, what else would it manage and maintain? The entire crux of any application is a regular streaming of

required data in the required format. And what needs to be done prior to implementing these solutions is to strategize

and work out a proper plan of how and which data is to be streamlined and make it available at regular intervals so that

appropriate dashboards are generated. A thorough data warehousing needs to be planned and executed.

Intelligent Inputs to Data

Simply looking at the data doesn’t suffice. You need to use your brains intelligently to analyze and work out the best

possible solution. For a swifter and efficient decision making, you need manpower to enhance the understanding of the

bulk of data that is being processed. Adding value to your time and combining your data with your brains is what

could give you the most ideal combination of an ideal data warehouse for a BI solution.

Data Integration

Business Intelligence is all about data, from here, there and everywhere. However much we try to keep out dashboards

in place, if the data at the very base, is straying around, what could you do? What if the data coming from varied

sources gets haphazard? That is where the importance of data integration and warehousing comes into play and are

primarily essential elements for these solutions to succeed.

These are few of the many important elements that play a significant role in the success story of any BI solution.

Possibly, on the front, what are seen are dashboards and reports, in attractive and lucrative formats, but, there is much

prior to it that needs to be done and that too, in a planned and systematic fashion, to ensure the maximum optimization

of the data that is being collated.

SPEC INDIA has its BI solutions and Big Data wings spread out across various industry domains like healthcare,

finance, E-Commerce, Retail, FMCG, education to name a few, implementing various solutions in a multitude of

technologies like Pentaho, Jaspersoft, Microsoft and Tableau, most of which are now into embedded analytics. We are

global certified partners with Pentaho.

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