the process of business intelligence drives business performance

© 2011 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited2 © 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

The process of business intelligence drives business performance

Bryan Wang, Vice President & Principal Analyst

October 2011


Key IT Market Trends – 2011/2012


Mobile Enterprise…empowers its employees to access information, communicate, and collaborate in real-time, on an as-needed basis, anywhere and any time.

- Smartphones has server-like capabilities


Cloud Computing Reshaping the Economics of IT- Low CAPEX, manageable/justifiable OPEX - dynamic scalability

- Increasing integration with collaboration and social media

- Targeted at SMBs but LoB may well lead/follow


Global Tech Markets Will Expand By 11.5% in 2011 But Slow to 5.5% in 2012: Uncertainties on Spending


Other Key Trends

Collaboration

– Integrating messaging, conferencing, document/screen sharing

Social computing/Web 2.0

– Information sharing – posting/publishing, not messaging/data transfer

– Popularism/wisdom of the crowds/social analytics

– Invitation-based access control

Content management

– Bringing more context to data driven insights


Impacts on Business Intelligence/Analytics - 2011

Major data warehouse investments stalling

– Reporting and end-user tools driving market growth

Information complexity increasing – not just volume overload

– "Big data“ - driving a focus on information management affordability

– Master data management

Business demands ever-increasing

Multiple BI/Analytical platforms, frameworks, applications and appliances to deal with

– Platforms have been a starting point – to build and customise

– Frameworks are a template – a jump start

– Optimisation and standardisation across verticals inherently drives towards creating specific, targeted applications

– Optimisation and performance benefits achieved through integrated ‘stacks’ of software and hardware

Increasing interest and adoption of BI/analytics outside ‘traditional’ financial and non-financial data

Most still expect ROI far too soon


Avoiding the annual data quality ‘event’

Reliability

Crit

ical

ity

LowLow HighHigh

HighHigh

Data quality is not about data transformation (ETL). It’s about fixing business processes.


The ‘architecture’ of business intelligence

Operational data Operational data storesstores

Data martsData marts Data martsData marts

Data warehousesData warehouses

Virtual data storeVirtual data store

DashboardsDashboards ReportsReportsMashupsMashupsPlanning Planning

toolstools

*example for illustrative purposes only









toolstools

Repositories

Collections

Views


The process of business intelligence







toolstools


The process of business intelligence: measuring value and effectiveness

Measuring the value of a “business intelligence” process

Time to discovery

Mining, analytics, reporting

Time to decision

PublishingCollaboration

Time to action/change

Workflow, process

automation, project

management etc

Time to benefit realisation

Reporting, analytics,

collaboration& publishing

Tools, techniques, technologies

InnovativeCompetitiveCost Conscious

Standardise or automate to directly affect bottom

line

Standardise or automate to drive efficiency

Standardise or automate to drive new ways of doing business


BI’s impact on productivity

Information productivity (easier)

+ Ease of finding and accessing relevant information

– More information can be ‘never enough’

Decision productivity (better)

+ Speed at which quality decisions are able to be made

– Potentially inhibits intuitive & cognitive decision making

Process productivity (smarter)

+ Speed at which something can be done

– Not all time saved is appropriately re-applied

Better/easier access to information doesn’t necessarily ensure its more intelligent use –

neither does the use of more complex tools!


Not so much about the data…it’s about the process - and users!

Past IT trends were all vendor-driven

– But the balance of power has shifted!

Consumer-driven demand is changing market dynamics

– Collaboration and social networking are a given

– Business implications are significant

‘Generation i’ users rule – it’s not all about ‘Gen-Y’

– Not a demographic – a psychographic

– Image driven, information rich, instant response, interaction ready, internationally savvy

– They think, act, and work differently

– We may not understand them.... but we must embrace them

The process of business intelligence drives business performance – but users must be engaged

“Gen-Y’s are more

likely to buy

‘disposable’

housing...but life-time

lasting tattoos.”


Collaborative BI: enhancing information quality, governance, compliance and audit efforts Helps to drive semantic consistency and business information

alignment

– Reduces “definitional disagreements”

– Helps improve master data quality and relevancy

– Limits duplication and version control issues

Improves visibility

– Who has access to what information?

– How is information being shared and used?

Enhances compliance and audit capabilities

– Provides a more unified, comprehensive and consistent approach for auditing

– Tracks activities, permissions, access and distribution of information

Stimulates greater value of business insight

– Stimulates and improves collaborative analysis and decision making

Collaborative BI, properly implemented, can enhance the organizations quality, compliance, governance and

audit initiatives.


The process of business intelligence – a starting point

Master data management - crucial...but not key

– “Repositories, collections and views” often provide

more compelling insights

Understand “trainability”, not just usability

– Improve use and understanding through exposure to

users – some use of simple tools is better than no use

of fancy/complex ones

Capitalise on benefits of collaboration

– For training, data quality and process improvements

Though standards remain important, beware the psychology of the desire for unnecessary control.

Institutionalising the process of BI is more important than standardisation of tools, data structure and/or

data repositories.

Evidence based

organisation

Responsive organisation

Reactive organisation

Insight driven organisation

Intelligent organisation

Knowledge organisation


Key Takeaways

The process of business intelligence drives business performance

Creating a sustainable process means creating a culture of business intelligence

Culture is best developed by exposure and experience to business intelligence - throughout the organisation

Exposure and experience are (most cost effectively) achieved by embedding business intelligence tools, process and outputs in as many systems throughout the organisation as possible

External data can add insight and value to internal data

– Focus on improving ‘degrees of conformance’, tolerances and ‘acceptable margins of error’.

Good-enough data can often provide more valuable insights and indicators than “perfect” data


Are we there yet?

“Right now I’m having amnesia and déjà vu at the same time. I think I’ve forgotten this before.” – Steven Wright

© 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

Thank you

Download the Forrester report “Trends 2011 And Beyond: Business Intelligence”, March 31, 2011 at www.forrester.com/Microsoftbigpictureintelligence

Bryan Wang+86 10 5900 2972

[email protected]

www.forrester.com

the process of business intelligence drives business performance

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