Thoughts from the Dataspace

Most business intelligence efforts start with a statement like the following, “Let’s build a BI system so our employees can get whatever data they need, when they need it.”  While well intentioned, statements like these are misguided.

The truth:

• If folks do their jobs today without using a shiny, new BI tool, why are they going to put extra effort into learning your snappy new tool?
• Most folks don’t get a big thrill out of accessing data - BI is like a dishwasher, a tool for getting a job done.  Do you want to go to classes and learn a panoply of new things just to use your dishwasher?
• Most folks’ data needs are limited to a relatively narrow range of topics (e.g. sales folks typically don’t need to access HR data).
• Even with data warehouses and strong metadata, BI tool vendors have not yet produced a tool that gives anyone simple access to every piece of data in an organization.

The implications:

• A few folks do have the need, desire & technical skills to get and analyze their own data.  These folks are called data analysts.
• While it’s not sexy in terms of BI (is anything sexy in terms of BI?), the vast majority of folks have structured jobs that require access to a limited range of data and they usually need it in some set format (e.g. this week’s accounts receivable aging report).  Assume that these folks need BI tools that provide predefined reports into which they can enter a few parameters - tools like WebFocus, Crystal Reports, and SQL Server Reporting Services.  Also assume that these folks will NOT create these reports on their own - you will need technical experts to create and maintain these reports.
• You are far more likely to see wide usage of your BI systems if your business processes are designed to be data driven.  Business process design, along with a culture change towards being data-focused is a prerequisite to widespread BI adoption.  It is also hard, time consuming work.
• Widespread BI adoption isn’t always the correct measure of success.  A $2 million BI system that serves just one user could be a major success if that one person makes or feeds input into multi-million dollar decisions. 

So, if you want a clear path to ROI, rather than starting out to build a BI system, start out to change your organization.  Then, figure out how and where BI is necessary to enable that change.