Turning Failure Into Success
Business intelligence (BI) software emerged in response to the need for accurate and timely information to support informed business decisions. With origins in COBOL-based, green-line reports in the 70s and 80s, BI has evolved into a complex market comprised of tools and platforms. Tools exist for report design, ad hoc query, and online analytical processing (OLAP), while BI platforms combine these tools with databases, integration technology, and portals to deliver sophisticated BI applications. Whereas COBOL required IT involvement and months to generate a single report, today’s solutions are targeted toward business users and boast real-time reports. Why is it then that the majority of organizations still feel that their information access and reporting needs are unfulfilled?
BI software – tools, platforms, and applications alike – holds great potential for helping organizations readily access the enterprise information needed to make informed business decisions and, ultimately, achieve their business objectives. But, as with any technology, the implementation, roll out, and usage practices play a critical role in the success of BI. In tracking mediocre results, and even failure, in the implementation of BI software over the years, many common threads, or “worst practices,” can be found. The top-four worst practices for BI include:
- Assuming the average business user has the know-how or the time to use BI tools
- Allowing Excel to become the default BI “platform”
- Assuming a data warehouse will solve all information access and delivery requirements
- Selecting a BI tool without a specific business need
These worst practices set companies on the auspicious path of BI failure. They have been repeated by some of the best run and smartest companies in the world. Typically, these worst practices are the result of wanting to ride the latest technology wave without balancing the hype with practical knowledge and experience.
Designed to help organizations learn from the mistakes of others, this paper provides insight into the top-four worst practices for BI. It also provides guidance on how to avoid and/or overcome worst practices in order to tap into the true power of BI. By reading this paper, you will have a solid understanding of how to avoid BI failure and achieve success with your BI initiatives.
Worst Practice #1: Assuming the Average Business User
Has the Know-How or the Time to Use BI Tools
BI tools – report design, ad hoc query, and OLAP tools – provide a valuable service and play a critical role in a company’s overall BI strategy. They are not, however, what business users need. Business users need readily available, actionable information that supports educated decisionmaking. While BI tools offer the ability to uncover information, they are simply too complex for the majority of business users.
Unfortunately, the end-user market is flooded with misguided hype from the vendor community, indicating that, “BI tools are for everyone.”Today’s BI tools are typically targeted at business users because they no longer require specific programming or database knowledge and primarily use graphical, drag-and-drop interfaces to allow businesspeople to compose questions and retrieve formatted results from databases. Even with these advances, however, they are still too complex for the average end user to adopt as a part of their day-to-day routine.
Furthermore, few business users are involved in the decision process when it comes to BI. Because of this, their need for simplicity is neglected and BI tools are forced on them from the IT developers and business unit power users – a sure recipe for failure.
Overlooking the True End User
Often, the first (not to mention the most damaging) mistake that organizations make when assessing BI solutions is neglecting to include business users on the selection committee. This seems counterintuitive because business users will be the predominant users of the solution, but it happens all the time.
More often than not, it is the participants in the tool selection committee that are at the source of BI failure. If the assumption is that business users need a BI tool, then the committee is typically made up of IT developers and other advanced users who understand how to use them. Individuals of this skill set tend to look for tools with extensive features and advanced functionality with little regard for their overall usability. In other words, the selection committee only represents the needs of a small percentage of the business user population.
