who needs bi
TRANSCRIPT
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Business and IT Management, in companies o all shapesand sizes, are acing this question. Is Business Intelligence(BI) something we need to take on board? Is it critical, or
can we get by without it?
Are we too small to play in this league? Are we too large to even need BI?
What are we really asking here?
It is a complex question and one which leads in to
several other questions. Making the determina-
tion as to whether or not your company is going tobenet rom BI is achieved by examining several
actors surrounding your business environment,
nature o business, types and volumes o data you
retain, uture growth and improve-
ment plans, and more.
A key actor is your corporate
strategy or handling a wide variety o
business drivers such as, competitive
positioning, marketing, public rela-
tions, expansion dynamics, together
with a myriad o questions regarding
your companys eorts to improve its
overall protability and success.
To what stage has your organization evolved?
Is it a relative newcomer, well established or even
a long-standing household name?
What is your organizations business process
maturity and what is its IT maturity? A oundation
or BI is a supply o high-quality data, regardless o
the extent o historical data available (BI is about
pressing orward not just delving into the past) .An assortment o actors are to be examined
to arrive at the answer to our question, all o which
will reveal pointers to the viability and necessity o
BI or you and your company. These
pointers may act as guidelines o
your decision to go with BI now, set
a start date in the uture or just deer
the whole enterprise to a later time.
More contributing actors you
are almost certain to be wanting to
explore, revolve around the burning
issue o ROI. You may have heard o
cases where, larger, budget-rich cor
porations have invested huge sums in Data Ware
housing projects, to see them zzle out to nothing
or all well short o expectations. Even i it becomes
a critical initiative or your organization, the ven
ture into BI should be very careully considered. It
BI is aboutpressing
forward notjust delvinginto the past
The ollowing areas will be explored in more detail in order to answer the burning
question, Who Needs BI?
Size and evolution o organization.
Availability o appropriate and usable data.Competitive challenges.
Opportunities to improve status and protability.
Business and IT readiness to adopt.
Availability o technology and skilled resources.
The impact o a uture without BI.
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is almost paramount that your eorts should start
out very ocused, with minimal outlay, to provethat it works or your people and that you have the
people to make it work.
Sometimes the all at once approach is justiable
and necessary. One very large banking client de-
pended on its BI initiative to achieve compliance
with the Basel II Accord. However, there are many
reasons why most enterprises will make the great-
est long-term gain rom a gradual implementation
o BI, and this is especially true or any organiza-
tion that has yet to understand BIs demands, com-
plexities and benets.
We are about to explore the areas that will
help you make the right decision or your company.Firstly, however, we need to briey state what is
meant by the term Business Intelligence.
A Brie Description o BI
With the advent o low-cost storage hardware and
the automation o data capture, we are now at a
point where the volumes o data being held across
organizations is growing exponentially. We hear o
the data explosion that has arrived unannounced
and unexpectedly on our doorstep. Most corpo-
rate (and government) data repositories now con-
tain ar more recorded data than can be looked at
or used by the people in those groups.
This is where BI steps in. Pouring over vast
amounts o business records, even when summa-
rized, may not always be an economic and ruitul
exercise. Remembering that most o this data is justtransactional recordor business entitydata (such as
Customer, Vendor, Employee, etc.). Our conven-
tional means o looking at data typically only a
produce statistical view. Further, we have to put
in place a programmed report or each o these
(usually xed) views. Obtaining more and dierentreports become the thorny issue o an IT requesto
some sort, that creates back-log, wait times and an
uncomortable demand on IT resources.
BI has grown into a technology set that over-
comes the fxed nature o conventional reporting.
BI takes the elementary data, repackages it into
ormats that allow dynamic selection o content
(or analyses) and provide the means whereby reaand actionable inorma
tion can be extracted
rom the masses o
stored data. BI is gener
ated such that questions
about your business
that have not yet even
been asked or imagined
can be answered im
mediately. Insights into
your operation become
available, that them
selves spawn the next set o questions and thenthe next.
True intelligence in the BI denition is the ca
pability to get much more than statistics, in count
less dierent ways and to have the answers ready
beore the question is asked. A orward-looking or
ganization wants to be sel-examining and to ac
cess critical perormance, predictive and compara
tive insights that can enable optimal and inormed
decision making. It can turn to BI as the vehicle to
next generation computing.
Explore Your Situation
Many actors will contribute to the conclusion as
to whether an organization should or should not
consider an initiative to implement BI. Let us now
explore the areas o strongest inuence.
The ollowing set o comparisons illustrate the
pros and cons o a BI initiative or a small organ
zation. This chart, and those that ollow with the
same ormat, use a row or each aspect o the bus
ness or organization, with the let columns (red)
showing the end o the scale least likely to avor B
and the right columns (green) showing the mosavorable. Think o the red and green as being the
lower and upper end o a scale. Much o the time
the organization under scrutiny will lie somewhere
along the scale between the two extremes.
Prove that itworks for your
people and thatyou have the
people to makeit work
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Organization Size and Evolution
The panels state eachextreme o a view ormeasure o a givenscenario that is rele-vant to the discussion.
Try to gauge your or-ganization along eacho these scales.
It would not be correct to rule out those organi-
zations that are small or in their inancy. In act a
edgling company is in a good position to lay the
oundations or BI, beore the opportunity to re-
tain valuable analytical data passes by.
I it is possible to start capturing useul BI
source data right rom the outset, there will be
benets that long established corporations do not
enjoy. Companies with a long history oten meet
with hurdles to their BI implementations in the
orm omissing data or disjoint data, due to system
conversions with incomplete data migration or
substantial data architecture changes.The type o challenge aced by small or young
organizations range rom lack o unding, time and
resources to other pressing priorities that are more
closely involved with survival as a new player in an
established market.
The challenge o survival during those rs
years o entering into an existing marketplace are
oten sufcient distraction or an overworked man
agement so that sophisticated analysis o business
data hardly seems to make it onto the radar screen
However, the neglect o data retention and deve
opment o analytic capabilities must not become
a habit that endures beyond ormation and into
the mature years o operation. As start-up woes
melt into distant memory and it becomes more
imperative to engage and deeat competition, intelligence rom accumulated data denitely starts
to play a critical role.
Not ready tound suitabletechnology
Already have, or canprocure appropriatesotware
Organization not yetable to utilize BI Businessindividuals
ready to
leverage BI
capabilities
Currentinitiatives
would benetrom advanced,
dynamicanalysis o data
Currentimprovementgoals are notrelated to datausage
Systems wellestablished
Computerapplications notyet stable
Overwhelmed with challengesrelating to startup.
Can accommodate BIinitiative schedule
BI notexpected tocontribute tocurrent goals
BI seenas clearadvantageto gainingoothold
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Availability o Appropriate and Usable Data
This investigation will determine i the organiza-
tion owns data that is both the right type or BI and
in the right condition or BI. The very act that data
is inormation means that it is unlikely that there
could be no useul analytical content embodied
in the data generated within an organization. Pro-
vided that there is relatively high volume, consis-
tent and accessible data, there is almost certainly
an opportunity or the introduction o BI.
The types o data that are likely to be useul
or analysis will vary by organization but generally
includes transactions (sales purchases, etc.), busi-
ness events (marketing programs, services used orprovided, targets, thresholds or limits reached or
exceeded, and many more.
Such data is usually ound in the companys
relational databases and is recorded as a mix o
gures (nancial amounts, quantities, time per
ods, scores, estimates and various other values)
and descriptive elements (codes, classiers, text
descriptions, etc.). These two groups o attributes
(quantitative and classiying) are the types o data
central to the core unctions o BI where they are
reerred to as acts (or measures) and dimensions
respectively.
The availability o well-populated tables o
clean data is what enables a BI initiative.
The more consistent the data is, the better the
results. I application upgrades and replacementshave been requent and/or radical, there may be
discontinuity in the historic data, oten a challenge
to the BI designer.
No data isduplicated,or isconsistentwhereduplicationdoes exist
The same datais represented(duplicated) inmany dierent
systems andhas little
consistency
Data existsbut contentis o verylow quality(poorlyvalidated)
Data hasbeen
checked orvalidity andconsistency
Currentapplicationsdo not produceor retain datasuitable or use
in analysis
Good analytical data is producedand retained (see sidebar)
v
Applicationshave a high level
o mandatorypopulated data
Many dataelements have notbeen populated
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Competitive Challenges
Some organizations are not placed in a competi-
tive marketplace or operate under strict regulation.
I an operation need not, or can not
seek to improve its scal perormance
or quality o service in any way, it will
have less justication or the introduc-
tion o BI.
One international client enjoyed an
almost unilateral monopoly and, al-
though investing enormously in
world-class marketing, concerned it-
sel largely with internal issues in the
absence o a need to compete externally. For themajority o organizations, competing or market
share and protability are the core business drivers.
Every manager knows that there is a thin line be
tween protable growth and many less desirable
outcomes. Depending on the bus
ness, there can be many parameters
requiring careul adjustment in orde
to achieve optimum perormance.
Business analytics can help make
those choices more prudently and
generate eedback to aid in assessing
their eectiveness. This is the reason
dtre o Business Intelligence. The
direction a company takes is based
on the decisions o its leadership. Managementmakes those decisions based on available inorma
tion. BI makes or better, more timely inormation.
CompetitiveChallenge... the
Raison detreof BusinessIntelligence
The entity isa member osome largergroup thatmanages allaspects ocompetitivematters
Dealing withcompetition
is a criticalunction
requiringall possible
assistance
Competition is erceand those equipped
with the best tools aremore likely to survive
Theorganization
is in a non-competitive
situation with
no incentivesto improve
Innovationis able toourishwithbenets orthose whopursue it
Theenvironment
is highlyregulated
and withoutlatitude or
improvement
A monopoly existsthat obviatesthe need orcompetition
Free marketorces aboundand competition
is rieDestiny is
controlled locallywith autonomy
rom any higherauthority
The organizationtakes alldirectives roma higher levelo ownership orcontrol
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Opportunities to Improve Status and Proftability
As with any demanding and signicant venture, BI
demands attention and consumes resource. It is
not going to be a viable exercise i there is neither
the need or capability in the organization to seek
some kind o improvement.
BI does not come under the heading o non-
discretionary, so an ulterior motive must exist or
its adoption. Many large and successul corpora-
tions will embark upon a BI initiative as much with
their public image in mind as the need to do bet-
ter in their eld. This is all part o the competitive
mind-set and is justiable in o itsel.
There are many kinds o organizations: notall are prot motivated and not all are concerned
with competitive achievement.
Business Intelligence is about leveraging a
knowledge, extracted rom oceans o data, that
would be otherwise undetected. Unless there is
something to be gained rom the exercise, it would
be a pointless waste o resources.
Organizations whose charter is not concerned
with prot, perormance or public image have less
incentive to pursue BI. However, those engaged in
trade or service delivery or those having set stan
dards to attain can benet rom employing the
tools o BI to better enable astute decision making
and optimized operational parameters.
Even statutory and regulatory compliance arepotential beneciaries o a BI initiative.
The organizationis not under
scrutiny romthe outside
world (Public,Investors, Media
or Regulators)
Public imageis importantrequiring thatthe organizationis seen to beprogressive andquality-conscious
Serious impact willbe elt rom alling
behind in the useo eective tools
Efciencyimprovementsare not relevant
or possible
Prot must besustained in order tocontinue in operation
The organizationis not bound toor in existence togenerate prot
Due toregulationor otherconstraint, nolatitude orimprovementexists
Theorganizationhas reedom
and selgovernanceto shape its
own destiny
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Business and IT Readiness to Adopt
Development o BI solutions ollows a well dened
path and can be successul i given the right tools
and resources. However, BI is somewhat o a para-
digm shit rom conventional applications and can
not be achieved simply by re-assigning designers
and developers with conventional systems expe-
rience. This is certainly the highest risk actor and
most requent cause o ailure in the case o BI ini-
tiatives. Our experiences bear out this act. More
than 50% o clients have called or support ater an
internal attempt has run aground.
This should be no surprise as the challenges
can be difcult and the techniques are obscureto the uninitiated. BI is dierent, just as object
oriented techniques were dierent and the inner
workings will not be immediately obvious even to
a seasoned development team and leadership.
A key component o BI is the Dimensiona
Model (as opposed to the amiliar Relationa
Model). The Data Warehouse is the repository o
the dimensionally modeled data and this is why
a transormation process is required beore data
can be loaded into it.
Once data have been correctly transormed
and then urther processed or use in Analytic tools
it is necessary or the Business users to be initiated
into the use o tools that acilitate the comprehen
sive exploration o the BI capability.
Willing andcapable managersand individualcontributorsare available toparticipate in a BIinitiative
The businesscommunity
has noresourcecapacity
available tointroduce BI
Businessmanagers or
individualcontributors
have not beeninormed o
the benets orexistence o BI
Businessmembershaveknowledgeor even priorexperience
o BI usageand benets
People areeager andwaiting orBI acilitiesknowing theywill bringcertain benet
The businesscan not be
convinced othe benets o
data analysisand other BI
eatures
IT is inormed,prepared andenergized to launchthe BI initiative
IT is still in needo enlightenmentas to the processand technologiesto be embraced
Leadership iscommitted to
sponsor, und anddrive BI success
IT is over-stretchedin terms o
resource andbudget or ully
committed toother priorities
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Availability o Technology and Skilled Resources
The area we are about to discuss is that in which
most mistakes are witnessed. In spite o the num-
ber o hurdles to be overcome in a BI initiative, the
pitall that seems to trap most IT managements is
the issue oappropriate resources.
Business applications o all shapes and sizes
have been developed successully by practitioners
with conventional development experience. This
is not going to work with Data Warehousing and
Dimensional Analysis. Inexperienced developers,
even with one or two weeks o dedicated special-
ist training, have no way to handle the very dier-
ent challenge o BI.Multiple client experiences have shown this
to be true. Most o the situations we have en-
countered exhibited the remnants o a ailed and
abandoned attempt. Even the largest o BI projects
staed with excellent people, have oundered due
to the lack o experience. This is one type o proj
ect that is dierent rom the conventional business
application.
Beore engaging a consultancy to deliver you
BI, enquire extensively and conclusively into the
experience o the sta members being allocated
to your project. I the vendor does not have expe
rienced personnel to dedicate to your BI initiative
your success may be jeopardized. Measure Groups
mission is to help you succeed with BI. Study the
available material and make use o the tools andtemplates on oer. You will not only save time and
budget but will have a much greater likelihood o
achieving success, guaranteed.
Well brieedmanagementunderstand that BItechnologies aretoo complex orinexperienced stato implement
Managers expectthat sending
developers onBI training issufcient to
prepare them or asuccessul project
Modern server technologies,database system, net-workeddesktop computers are allstandard
The company isnot equipped with
suitable computingacilities and
sotware tools toimplement BI
There is aperception that BI
is an all-or-nothingundertaking
requiring a massiveproject team or
huge externalspending
Inormed managersare aware success ismore likely rom asmall venture intoBI with subsequenteorts based onvaluable learningexperiences
Managementbases BI invest-ment decisionssolely on inor-
mation rom ven-dor salesmen
Managementresearched BIextensively beoremaking largebudget decisions
Managementcommissioned an
analysis o data archi-
tecture and prelimi-
nary data proling
beore deciding on a
ull BI development
Managementis unaware oactors thatinuence thesuccess o BIand expecttechnical teamsto overcomeany obstacles
IT is poisedto launch aBI initiativeand deploydevelopers
without prior
BI experience
Practitionerswithactual BIexperienceare in
house orobtainable
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The Impact o a Future Without Business Intelligence
A nal way to determine Who Needs BI? is to en-
visage the organization going orward without it,
perhaps in an environment where the competition
has BI.
Even the largest and most successul enter-
prises still have their problems and challenges. In
act the larger the company, oten, the larger the
problem. BI is a tool to help overcome some o to-
days business problems and also a acility to help
manage into the uture. It thereore makes sense
to think that a uture without BI will be less ef-
cient than one with it.
Beyond efciency, there is the over-archingissue o competitiveness. No entity in a competi-
tive arena wants to be lacking a benet or advan-
tage that the opposition has. In the nal analysis,
the possession o BI capabilities will likely be man
dated purely in order to avoid being overtaken by
the competition.
It is possible to think o BI as another tool in
the corporate arsenal, just like advertising, sales
discounts or promotions. Or compare it with mar
ket research and quality assurance. There was a
time when each o these business components did
not exist but it is hard to imagine surviving with
out them anymore. BI is an advancement over the
standard IT applications o today but tomorrow it
will be common-place. There is probably going to
be a time when your organization employs BI sothe question becomes more o a when and how
rather than a go or no go.
Deerring BI is anoption as a rapid
catch-up operationis highly easible
I the competitiongets ahead with BI,it will be difcultcatch up or regainthe lead
Being innovative isa desired aspect ocorporate culture
Staidconservatismgenerallyrestrains dynamicorward thinking
Externalopinion isthat theentity ocuson coreobjectivesand not BIinvestment
The publicand investorimage o theorganization
expectsit to be
progressive
You are an earlyadopter withno desire to belet behind ontechnologicaladvancements
The organizationcan choose
to wait ratherthan seek early
advantage rominnovations
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The fnal answer - who needs BI?
A review o the scales represented by the pan-
els on the previous pages and positioning your
own organization somewhere between each ex-
treme, will render an overall picture o the pros
and cons (or or and against) proposition o BI in
that organization.
I you wish to reach a more empirical conclu-
sion with these assessments, try applying a numer-
ical score to each panel. Treat the negative state-
ment (associated with icons o stop, red light
etc.) as scoring a negative 10 (minus 10). Treat the
positive statement (associated with icons o green
light, success, etc.) as scoring a positive 10 (plus10).
Then add up the scores given each panel to
produce a zero-adjusted overall score. A posi-
tive total will give an overall indication that BI is
needed in the organization and a negative tota
will indicate the converse. Something at, or nea
zero would be a close call and require careul con
sideration as to the viability o a BI initiative at this
time.
The panel below illustrated how this scoring
may be applied to each scale o measure discussed
previously.
The additional Measure Group booklet en
titled What exactly is BI? should be reerenced
in conjunction with this one. You can be sure that
the second great era o commercial computing ispowered by the concepts that dene Business In
telligence and that the uture will see a time when
virtually all eligible organizations depend on BI.
Innovationis able toourishwithbenets orthose whopursue it
Theenvironment
is highlyregulated
and withoutlatitude or
improvement
0 10-10 2-2 4-8 6-6 8-4