Advances in software and database technology have given companies access to mountains of data, including accounting data, business data, sales data and personalized customer data. While databases strain at the seams to contain this vast amount of facts and figures, CIOs wrestle with two looming questions:

  • How do we convert the data into useful information?
  • How do we make this information accessible to the people who need it?

Six Sigma ProfessionalsBusiness Intelligence For Managing Data

Business Intelligence (BI) is the discipline that converts raw data into meaningful information that benefits an organization. Overall, three business divisions have benefited immensely from business intelligence:

Human Resources – HR can use data to evaluate compensation, recruiting and termination trends to make better decisions in managing the workforce.

Sales – Business intelligence gives sales teams insight into their prospects, customers, deals in progress and products they sell.

Marketing – The right information helps marketing teams identify the right audience, understand the market segment better and create campaigns that are more likely to boost sales and increase market share.

Common Business Intelligence Issues

If business intelligence has so much promise for giving departments the information they need to function more efficiently, then why are there multiple specific examples of business intelligence failure?

Five common problems with BI initiatives, along with their solutions, are listed below.

A new data warehouse with no plan – Some companies are guilty of building data warehouses before they understand the needs of the teams that will use them. When end users don’t have a say about how BI systems are designed, they usually end up with data and tools they can’t use effectively. When this happens, the best outcome is a good system that provides poor information. The worst outcome is that the data warehouse will soon be scrapped for lack of use.

Solution: Talk to end users from the start and find out what data and tools they need before building them.

Bad data – When data is incomplete, outdated or filled with errors because it was entered incorrectly, it gives little constructive insight to the departments that use it.

Solution: Analyze the quality of the data and create a mapping table to correct misspellings. Measure the quality of the data and let end users know when it is sub-par.

Poor Execution –Understanding end user requirements, creating a deployment strategy and using the best tools is usually not enough. The BI team also must execute the project by designing, building, maintaining and supporting the application. If the team drops the ball in the execution phase, the app will run slowly, deliver poor results and cost more to operate.

Solution: Make sure the project has adequate funding, management support and sufficient staff to create a high-quality application.

Outsourcing – It’s tempting to hire outside vendors to create your BI solutions. Their work may be good and they may even cost less than in-house development. But vendors and consultants will never understand your business as well as you and the front-line workers. The BI solution’s designers must understand your company’s policies, business practices, history, user demographics and customers to provide a tool that meets your needs.

Solution: Create BI applications in-house when possible. If you must use a consultant or outside vendor to build an application, assign someone from your organization who understands your needs. This insight helps them create a better application.

No Stakeholder Involvement – When the IT teams assigned to design a BI application don’t get input and feedback from the employees who use it, they are simply operating in the dark. BI tools work best when they are designed to meet the needs of the employees who use them. If they lack customer perspective in their design, they will perform poorly, and no amount of technical ability will save them.

Solution: Make sure that end users know they, not just the IT department, are responsible for creating a BI application that meets their needs. Their participation in planning and development is a must.

Successful Business Intelligence requires more than just the latest technology. It also calls for the involvement and cooperation of the employees who use it.