CSC Smart Business UK Edition December - Nurturing Intelligence
Nurturing Intelligence
Business intelligence (BI) systems can frustrate users but, if modernised, they can improve an organisation's performance and efficiency.
Organisations are right to be excited about Big Data and its ability to help them make better decisions through interrogating a higher volume, velocity and variety of information than ever possible before.
What they must guard against, though, is letting this excitement detract attention from the importance of ensuring their business intelligence is fit for purpose, according to Jo Strain, Director Big Data and Analytics Offerings.
While Big Data will help organisations make better predictions about the future, there should be no lessening of interest in business intelligence which reveals the current position of a business and its performance.
"In a way it's a little bit like an F1 team," Strain suggests.
"You can get really excited about the driver who is so talented they can read the road ahead better than any other but if the car they're sitting in does not inform them about emerging mechanical problems, they'll never win a race."
Time to review?
Business intelligence is one of the fastest changing areas of most organisations. Almost as soon as new reporting and dashboards have been rolled out, they are out of date for the organisation's evolving needs. So, good questions to ask are: When was business intelligence last reviewed to check it is aligned with the operational and strategic needs of the organisation? When was the last review of the performance and cost-effectiveness of the BI systems?
Executives often presume business intelligence systems are successful because a lot of investment has gone into them and employees are using them. Closer inspection of how the systems are used, however, can reveal inefficiencies and poor performance that are preventing an organisation from making better decisions.
"The trouble is, a lot of business intelligence applications are now based on legacy software," says Strain.
"It means organisations are often paying a lot of money to retain people with the necessary skills to maintain it and yet it is not able to scale or adapt to the organisation's current needs. Couple this with a tough economic and competitive climate that demands organisations squeeze out every dollar of business performance, and it is highly likely that business intelligence outputs and needs have diverged."
Tell-tale signs
So, how do senior IT decision makers know if they are in need of a BI review? The obvious point would be if the organisation is not making the best decisions or not getting the best return for its investment. The problem is, though, organisations would normally not have any way of knowing they could be saving money and making better decisions, unless they commission a BI overview.
The solution to this apparent Catch 22 situation is actually a lot simpler than one might imagine.
"The best way of finding out if your BI is fit for the organisation's purposes, is to go out and see how each department is using it," says Strain.
"The biggest sign you have a problem is when departments are using their own solutions to create the intelligence they need, or supplementing the information provided with other data sources, potentially including external data sources. Another sign is when people are frustrated at not being able to interrogate the data in the way they want. Many times, we find users can only get answers to pre-set questions, often presented through a dashboard, but they can't drill deeper and ask more in-depth questions."
Risk from poor BI
Finding departments are independently using applications to get more out of the available BI is both a positive and a negative. On the one hand it justifies the need to re-evaluate BI. It also reveals there are already available tools and information sources which staff are using to make data more relevant to their department. That said, there is always risk in departments acting independently from the IT department.
"There's a potential issue about where the data is going if it's being processed by third party solutions, and a myriad of potential problems with departments integrating external data," warns Strain.
"There's also a concern about different departments processing data in assorted ways. You never know if they are making the best decisions because the information is not being viewed in the same way across all departments. So, you could be risking the integrity of corporate data as well as end up with multiple silos of business intelligence results. It might mean that your people are pulling in different directions by taking in the same raw information but then using separate tools to come to differing conclusions."
This risk is easily avoided. A review of the BI produced and the BI systems which underpin it can help under-pressure budgets by replacing legacy tools, which are costly to maintain, with more cost-effective modern applications. Becoming less reliant on legacy tools also helps to reduce the impact of staff with deep knowledge of these systems if they leave. It is very rare, in Strain's experience, that the whole platform will need to be ripped out and replaced. Instead tools better suited to providing data in the way departments require, coupled with additional sources of data which can enrich the output, can be integrated and rolled out across the entire organisation.
A well timed BI review that fully engages IT and business users will not distract an organisation from the potential benefits of Big Data. Instead it can create a sound foundation for the future and act as a springboard for improved decision making and business performance.
CSC has been listed as an "elite" leader in The Forrester Wave™: Business Intelligence Services Providers, Q4 2012. Download the full report here.
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