6 STEPS TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE STRATEGY

THINK BIG, START SMALL AND DELIVER VALUENovember, 2015

6 STEPS TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE STRATEGY

www.coopersoftware.co.uk

Introduction: Why Do You Need BI Strategy? .........................................Why is a BI Strategy Important? ..............................................................The Consequences of Failing to Develop a BI Strategy ...........................Scope of BI Strategy: Driven by Business Objectives ...............................Developing a BI Strategy: Where Do You Start? ......................................

Step 1: Start With a Mandate ...............................................................Step 2: Understand What You Have the “As-Is” ..................................Step 3: Understand The Business’s Goals of BI, Create the “To-Be” ...Step 4: Get Ready for Change .............................................................Step 5: Appraise Options .....................................................................Step 6: Implementation and Transition................................................

Achieving Adoption of BI Solution from Stakeholders ............................Tips for Success ........................................................................................Conclusion: BI Strategy, an Evolving Document ......................................

6 Steps to Create a Successful Business Intelligence Strategy

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Table of Contents

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Introduction: Why Do You Need BI Strategy?

For the fourth consecutive year, BI and analytics remain a CIOs No. 1

investment priority, according to a new Gartner survey of more than 2,800

CIOs. In addition to this, Gartner estimates that the market for BI platforms

grew 9% in 2013, and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth

rate (CAGR) of 8.7% through 2018. This makes BI platforms one of the

fastest growing of all enterprise software. However, Gartner also say that

the number one biggest flaw of organisations investing in BI is “the

lack of a documented BI strategy, or the use of a poorly developed

or implemented one ”. If you’re considering any type of investment

in or appraisal of your BI, analytics or reporting functions within your

organisation, then it will pay you to think about your BI strategy.

Simply put, a BI strategy is a document defining the objectives of an

organisation, in relation to how it uses and capitalises on information. It

will explain, at the very minimum, the how, the what and the who; it will be

aligned with the strategic goals of the overall business. A BI strategy will

span the entire organisation, with all key stakeholders and departments

within an organisation having a hand in defining the strategy and having

an involvement in its successful implementation.

6 Steps to Create a Successful Business Intelligence Strategywww.coopersoftware.co.uk/qlik 3

Why is a BI Strategy Important?

Having a clear BI strategy can

provide an organisation with all the

information it requires in order to

understand the many changes and

challenges that occur within their

own business and the market in

which they operate. BI can support

both operational and strategic

decision-making and by having a

historical, current and extrapolative

view of a business, the decision

making process is made much

easier.

The ability to evaluate large

amounts of data and subsequently

use this data to identify new

opportunities and create an

effective strategy based on these

insights, can provide businesses

advantage and long-term stability.

According to a joint study carried

out in 2014 by Gartner and

Financial Executives Research

Foundation (FERF), BI, analytics and

performance management are the

top areas for CFOs’ IT interest.

The top business process area that

needs technology investment is

to facilitate analysis and decision

making (62%, which is an increase

from 59% in 2013), followed by the

ongoing monitoring of business

performance (57%, which is an

increase from 50% in 2013), and

then measuring product and

customer profitability (50%, which is

an increase from 43% in 2013).

BI strategy should include a broad

set of processes, technologies,

and stakeholders for collecting,

integrating, accessing, and

analysing information for the

purpose of helping an organisation

make better business decisions.

BI solutions should enable users

to be able to quickly adapt to new

business requirements and evolving

sources of information.

Overall, a vision of what a BI

strategy will entail should be

planned in advance of any iteration

being implemented. It is vital to

establish a BI vision to ensure

that implementation of specific

components fits in with the overall

BI strategy. An organisation’s BI

strategy should state and document


the needs as identified by the

stakeholders, highlighting how

BI fits into the broader enterprise

vision. The strategy should take

into consideration the appropriate

framework, methodology,

processes, governance, systems,

and technology in order to deliver

value that is aligned with the

business objectives and priorities.

The Consequences of Failing to Develop a BI Strategy

You may already have various

functions within your organisation

engaged in managing and

reporting on information. However,

the lack of strategy to guide, steer

and consolidate these functions will

have negative consequences for

your organisation, for example:

• A reliance on poor quality data

to make business decisions will

result in sub optimal decision

making.

• Data, which is stored on

separate databases, of differing

quality, results in multiple

versions of the truth and hinders

strategic decision-making.

• Increasing pressure on IT

departments to extract data for

multiple departments across the

business, taking them away from

more critical tasks.

• High costs of maintaining

overlapping, disparate BI

software solutions and the

purchase of licences to run

these systems.

• A lack of cohesion, significantly

reducing opportunities for

sharing information and working

collaboratively across the

organisation.

• Creation of “data islands”,

where an organisation has no

single view of information and

no intelligent ‘insight’. This can

only be achieved when you

bring disparate data sources

together into a single view.


The scope of BI strategy should include making the best use of

information for strategic, tactical, and operational needs. The purpose

of building a BI strategy is to help the business with long-term planning,

assist middle management with tactical reporting, and help operations

with the day-to-day decision making required in order to run the business

efficiently. BI is all about providing people with the information they need

to do their jobs more effectively. To achieve this, a number of BI services

have to be provided in order to meet the wide range of requirements

across a business. The scope of the BI Strategy should be determined by

the business drivers and goals and should always account for the changing

nature of these requirements, in order to ensure that the - BI strategy is

properly aligned with the business.

Scope of BI Strategy: Driven by Business Objectives


Page 1

No two BI strategies are the same. Each one will have similar themes and

topics that must be considered and both will attempt to solve a similar

question. The biggest mistake you can make is devising something

that is not appropriate for your organisation. Your strategy has to be

proportionate, realistic and above all, achievable. If your organisation is

large and you are consolidating existing services, you may find it necessary

to write a business case, develop a project management methodology

to plan the resources and time needed to write the document and also

involve a procurement function to oversee the selection of any new BI tool.

A small organisation may choose to short circuit some of these steps and

the red tape associated with them to create a more streamlined approach,

potentially using outsourced services and external data feeds.

A Successful BI Strategy Can Be Created Following a Simple Six-Step Approach.

Developing a BI Strategy: Where Do You Start?


Step 1: Start With a MandateThe chances are you are reading

this because you already have

one. If you don’t, you need one. A

mandate is simply permission from

someone senior enough to provide

you with the authority and the

resources to ask the essential and

often sensitive questions you need

answers to before a BI Strategy

can be developed. Without

this authority, your BI Strategy

immediately has a far lower chance

of being successful. If you can’t get

a mandate then stop now. Your

organisation is not ready to join the

analytics revolution and your time

would be better spent conducting

a ‘hearts and minds’ campaign with

whichever senior managers will

listen.

Step 2: Understand What You Have the “As-Is”Document what you have first.

This will provide a gauge of

your organisations current BI

capabilities. This is usually best

achieved by conducting interviews

with the people involved in

reporting. Most organisations will

already have some function within

their business responsible for

producing information in one form

or another.

Start there, even if it’s just a part

time role of a junior employee

to produce a sales report once

a week. Follow the trail. Where

does the data for that report come

from? Are there any bottlenecks

or single points of failure? Who

uses the reports? How easily are

they updated? What processes

and technologies are in place

to facilitate distribution and

updates of the reports? Find out

about security, sign off and any

governance considerations. What

works well, what doesn’t?


Then, conduct an audit on existing technologies to include items such as

license and maintenance costs, what version of the software is currently

used, who supports it etc.

Do this for every type of reporting function in your organisation. The more

you can find out at this point the more likely your BI Strategy is to succeed.

By documenting your current BI model, you enhance your ability

to identify problem areas, which, in turn, helps to develop solution

definitions. It is also useful to determine the BI readiness of the business.

Once the issues that need to be addressed have been identified it is easy

to fill in the gaps and a clear vision is created of the overall objectives and

the direction to follow in order to get to the desired future state.

Once you have this, document everything in an “As-Is” document.

Key Steps:

• Identify the existing reporting functions within the organisation.

• Identify the technologies used to support these functions.

• Conduct interviews with the key people involved in running the existing

operations.

• Identify existing people, processes and governance.

• Establish costings, licensing and maintenance agreements.

• Document in an “As-Is” document.

Figure 1: Creating As-Is Document

Reporting Functions

People

Processes

Governance

Technologies Used

Costings

Licensing

Maintenance Agreements


the organisation, reporting lines,

financing of the function, objectives

and remit, governance, quality

levels, service level agreements

and how the function supports the

overall business. It may also make

a statement about the technology

and software tools or capabilities

to be adopted. The operational

strategy will be more involved with

the finer points for example role

descriptions, internal processes

and coding standards, in addition

to how in general the BI Business

Strategy will be supported. Your

“To-Be” document should aim to

cover the following areas:

1. Objectives and Remit2. Roles and Responsibilities3. Quality Levels4. Governance5. Toolset6. Architecture

This can be achieved by conducting

a series of interviews with key

stakeholders, heads of department

and even members of the executive

board. You may have already

gathered some of this information

in Step 2 as it is not unusual for

people to open up about their

frustrations as soon as you start

to ask questions about how they

currently go about their reporting

processes.

Step three is about creating the all

important “To Be” document. It is

important that you are up to date

with the overall business strategy

as your BI Strategy will need to

support this. At this point, it is often

useful to make a clear distinction

between a BI Business Strategy and

a BI Operational Strategy. Simply

out, this is the difference between

what you are going to do and how

you are going to do it.

Your business strategy will be

concerned with topics such as

where the BI function sits within

Step 3: Determine The Business’s Goals of BI: Create The “To-Be”

Figure 2: Creating To-Be Document


Your “To-Be” document is one step away from becoming your BI

Strategy, however it still needs some work. In most cases, the “To-Be”

will point towards activities that will involve a degree of change within the

organisation. Roles may need to be created, organised or reassigned.

Old technologies may need to be decommissioned and new, more

appropriate technologies selected. This will often involve a procurement

function, an invitation to tender and the assessment of a number of

potential solutions. Although these activities will not be started until you

are in a transition period, it is important that they are alluded to within

the “To-Be” document, to ensure that the executive and stakeholders are

aware of what they are buying into to.

This step is only completed when your stakeholders have signed off the

document.

Step 4: Get Ready for Change

Congratulations, You Now Have a BI Strategy!


Step 5: Appraise OptionsYou have a BI Strategy at this

point, but you also have various

ways of implementing it. For

example, many organisations are

now opting to contract out their

entire BI function to a specialist

‘managed service’ provider. It

may be cost effective to bring in

consultants to set up the service

before handing over to an internal

‘Business As Usual’ team to

maintain and enhance the service.

Building in-house may also be a

choice. Whatever decision you

make, an appraisal of the options

for implementation will ensure

that you are using the most

appropriate delivery method for

your organisation.

Step 6 : Implementation and Transition

At Step 6, your BI Strategy

is ready to be implemented.

Implementation will undoubtedly

involve change within your

organisation which may be best

managed by a programme or

project office. A phased approach

to implementation has been proven

to be more effective than a sudden

large scale change. A phased

implementation process, breaking

the project down in to distinct steps

and delivered through a series of

sub-projects determined by the

specific needs of the business at

that time, is more likely to succeed

as it can be effectively managed

and organised, leading to greater

buy-in across the organisation.

During the implementation stage,

existing BI applications may be

decommissioned, migrated or

upgraded. There may also be

some restructuring of roles, new

teams created and new processes

and controls which will require a

degree of training. Keep your BI

Strategy document up to date as

the transition progresses.

“Think Big, Start Small, and Deliver Value”


Achieving Adoption of BI Solution from StakeholdersTrue returns can only be achieved

when the BI strategy is adopted by

the enterprise and it penetrates into

the business processes. Too often

what is missing from BI is the ability

to move from insight to action and

an overall failure to exploit the

true potential of BI. The ultimate

aim of a successful BI strategy is to

help the organisation to improve

information management and

facilitate better decision making. A

robust BI strategy should address

the steps required for the successful

adoption of the developed BI

solution by stakeholders.

Your BI strategy should detail

the necessary education and

communication requirements

regarding the new BI initiatives in

order to help your end-users derive

value from the BI environment.

As the data is introduced in the

BI environment, training sessions,

data forums, and metadata need

to be made available to the BI

community.

Be sure to offer good metadata (a

data dictionary including definitions

and data sources), business logic

(tie the data to the business

goal), key dimensions and metrics

(including how to use them for best

results), and data availability (when

and where data can be found) to

enable BI adoption.

A plan to enable successful

adoption of the BI solution is the

key component of the BI strategy.

You should create enterprise-wide

processes for collection of data

and transformation of data into

information and knowledge. You

should plan to support end-users

with education and communication.

Establish cross-functional support

for the BI solutions at different

levels in various functions of the

enterprise. You should also plan

for usage analysis to support and

enhance the use of BI platform.

Determining usage patterns is

critical to determine the success

of your overall BI strategy as this

will help you in determining the

ROI to create and maintain the

environment. The creation of a

successful BI strategy that is widely

accepted by users in the enterprise

is one that delivers true value.


Tips for Success

Remember, BI is a supporting function. It won’t make your widgets or

answer your service calls, but if executed properly, it will make everything

more efficient and will drive the direction and opportunities of your

business.

This is not a technology initiative. It is a business initiative, supported by technology.


Page 15

Top Down v.s. Bottom Up

Decide where best to establish the service – centrally or aligned to a department.

A resolution from the CEOs office, or a push from the bottom up, often driven through necessity and one or two ‘agents for change’.

BI Operational Strategy v.s. a BI Business StrategySplit your overall strategy into two. Align the BI Business Strategy to the overall business strategy. Ensure that what you are proposing supports the overall direction of the business. If possible, try to embed the BI Strategy into the Business Strategy.

What type of data are you recording? External data sources. Are you throwing away good data? Most operational systems (excluding financial systems) overwrite things like statuses. Disk space is cheap and technologies (Hadoop) exist to allow you to stockpile data until you know how to use it.

Tactical and Strategic – Putting Out the Fires While Building Long-term Defences

Get your staff ready for change.

Set expectations with the business. Roadmaps and release dates are two very easy to use tools which can quickly get your service requests under control.

Consolidate applications and tools. Don’t pay for two licenses, when one will do!

Get enthusiastic and excited. Watch it transfer onto your internal business customers.

Hearts and minds campaign.

Most importantly, have patience. “Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day”


Reference

www.gartner.com/imagesrv/cio/pdf/cio_agenda_insights2015.pdf

www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/774912

Gartner, Survey Analysis: Critical CFO Technology Needs: 2014 Gartner FEI Study, 23 June 2014

Conclusion: BI Strategy, an Evolving Document A BI strategy should be agile and adaptive. Once a

strategy is created it does not mean it is the end of the

project. Your strategy document should be treated as

something which is continuously developed to meet

the objectives of the business. BI strategy must focus

on communicating what you are planning to build,

how you plan to build it, and when users can expect

their individual BI needs to be met. It should start with

broad policy statements, general guidelines, and high-

level diagrams. As the BI environment matures, so

will the formal documentation and the level of detail

contained within the strategy. You should aim to evolve

your BI strategy as part of the enterprise vision as you

implement iterations and as more details become

available. Plan to continually asses and reinvent BI

according to changing business needs. Look towards

current BI trends and forward-thinking approaches for

guidance on building and maintaining a successful BI

strategy.


About Cooper Software

Cooper Software is a leading technology consultancy that delivers successful and innovative business change.Founded in 2005, Cooper Software has grown to become one of Europe’s largest independent providers of products, consulting and support for Enterprise Business software and Business Intelligence Solutions.

Cooper Software is the No.1 Qlik Solution Partner for ERP systems in the UK and the single source for transformative Business Intelligence solutions.

More information on Cooper Software, visit www.coopersoftware.co.uk

About the Author

George Beaton

George Beaton is a Cooper Software Associate, a

network of industry leading professionals.

An experienced Business Intelligence Professional with

wide ranging and extensive experience in Business

Intelligence. A proven track record in developing and

implementing innovative, appropriate and practical

business intelligence strategies and growing BI

maturity within a business. A dependable, friendly and

approachable team player with a hands on attitude. In

depth technical knowledge, strong business acumen.

Possesses first-class communication skills at all levels

and an established record of achievement and success.

linkedin.com/in/georgebeaton

© 2015 Cooper Software Ltd. Copyright 2005-2015 Cooper Software ltd. All rights reserved. Designed, created and edited by Jamie Chen. Images licensed purchased from Shutterstock. Cooper Software logo is trademark owned by Cooper Software Ltd.

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6 STEPS TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE STRATEGY