White Paper - Business Intelligence Roadmap

8/9/2019 White Paper - Business Intelligence Roadmap

1/4

Business Intelligence Roadmap:

Broadly defined, business intelligence (BI) is the capability and best practices to successfully execute a BI initiative on the

to access, integrate and analyze data and other knoledge for on! BI solutions often dra on hundreds of heterogeneous

the purposes of managing performance and making optimal data sources" involve numerous stakeholders" re#uire the

decisions!$ccording to a %&'% ar tner survey, BI continues development of overlapping subect areas and must comply

to be a top technology priority for *I+s!'BI can help state and everchanging internal and external orkflos, policies, proces

local government address a range of business needs, hether and regulatory re#uirements!$ll of these interdependent

an agency focuses on human resources, information technology, moving parts must come together in a coherent system that

finance, supply chain management, operations, la enforcement allos the right people to access the right information as easily

or something else! -oever, the promised benefits of BI can lose as possible! It is often difficult to see the big picture hen

luster hen an organization discovers that implementing a BI stakeholders each have a different vie of the organization and

solution is more complex and costly than expected and doesn.t data! It.s a classic case of not seeing the forest for the trees !$necessarily deliver the desired results! successful BI strategy, therefore, re#uires an understanding of

In a recent /ational $ssociation of 0tate *hief $dministrators business relationships beteen disparate pieces of information

(/$0*$) survey,% respondents identified inade#uate funding and in order to transform ra data into actionable knoledge !

budget constraints as critical issues! In spite of relentless demands iven the complexity of such an undertaking, organizations

to do more and to do it better, funding for state and local agencies can easily underestimate the budget, timeline and resources

has gone flat!$s government entities strive to cut costs, capitalize re#uired for a BI solution, or they may become too overhelme

on their investment in enterprise applications and unlock the to execute the solution properly! In some cases, lack of experie

potential of the increasing volume of data they capture, they need can lead to a solution that meets technical specifications but d

a robust BI solution that gives them actionable insights in real time not satisfy business expectations! 1or example, planners may n

or near real time and from myriad systems! truly understand hat BI can do, or they may assume that user

-istorically, the path to BI adoption as through department ill take advantage of the system simply because it has been

level initiatives, but as BI becomes more aligned ith enterprise built! 0ome organizations neglect to develop a clear vision and

activities and integrated into core business processes, it ill be implementation strategy for a BI solution ! In other cases, they d

utilized throughout the enterprise and ill be transformed into a not have the skills to normalize inaccurate or inconsistent sourc

pervasive technology delivered to operational front lines for deci data! 2his inability taints analysis and decisionmaking, underm

sion support! trust in the solution and stalls adoption and return on investme

2o fully realize the potential of BI and to stay on course ith

BI planning, implementation and management, state and local Using a BI Roadmap to Stay on Coursegovernments need a clear strategy and proven tactics for moving 2o avoid the pitfalls of BI implementation and to meet proec

from vision to success!$s many organizations have found, a ell budgets, timelines and goals, organizations need a flexible but

conceived BI roadmap can provide the frameork for meeting standardized frameork for minimizing proect risks and maxim

BI goals! 3hen based on industry standards, best practices and ing success! 3hen based on industry standards, best practice

proven experience, a roadmap helps minimize proect risks hile and proven experience, a BI roadmap provides a system for BI

transforming BI into a valuable tool for efficient and ellinformed development and expansion and helps executives and manage

decisionmaking! ment understand hat they need to do in order to move fora$ sound BI roadmap describes the maor components of a BI

Key Implementation Risk: Lack of Experience solution and offers a methodical, elldocumented and phased3hen properly designed, a BI solution can help state and approach to BI implementation!$t a high level, it helps organizat ion

local governments address business needs at the macro and stay on track by:

micro levels 4 from anticipating change and managing risk to 5 Identifying all the moving parts and their dependencies

improving efficiency, cutting costs and providing better service! (e!g!, users, data, subect areas and orkflos)

3hile many organizations are eager to take advantage of 5 6roviding an overvie of hat.s possible ith BI from a

these benefits, fe have the proven experience, methodology business perspective


2/4

5 Breaking don goals and re#uirements into manageable steps

5 $ssessing BI tool and technology re#uirements

5 Identifying stakeholders

5 $lloing prior itization and incremental investment

5 6romoting phased implementations that allo

for correction and refinement as needed

2he roadmap is typically developed in collaboration ith a third

party that specializes in BI planning, implementation and manage

ment, and includes the folloing phases of development:Clarification of vision and goals:2he organization invites

input from industry BI specialists and stakeholders to create a

vision and identify goals for BI!$n impor tant par t of this phase

is the development of metrics that ill a llo obective assess

ment of the BI initiative and its progress!$nother important

consideration is the sustainability and scalability of the solution!

nalysis of re!uirements and assessment of current

state:2he organization evaluates input from the vision and

goals statement and uses data modeling and other tools to

identify re#uirements for subect areas! It assesses existing

data sources, stakeholders, orkflos and policies, technical

infrastructure, end users and other 7moving parts8 that it can

leverage for the BI solution!

Comparison of t"e current state to t"e target state:2he

organization performs a gap analysis to compare the desired

state to the current state! 9ata collected during this phase

provides insight into resource and training needs, strengths and

eaknesses, dependencies and other considerations!

Creation of an implementation plan:2he organization devel

ops a stepbystep plan to reach short and longterm goals!

2his plan describes the specific action items, delivery dates,

roles and responsibilities, and strategy for reaching goals! It may

include provisions for a shortduration pilot proect as ell as

change management plans to enable a smooth transition to the

ne solution! It may also include a governance model for secur

ing and maintaining executive sponsorship, ensuring that the

plan is business driven and sustaining the solution over time!

re!uirementsand assess

current state

Clarify

Create animplementation

plan

#"en $ased on industry standards% $estpractices and proven experience%a roadmahelps minimize proect risks hile transforminginto a valuable tool for efficient and ellinformedecisionmaking!

Benefits of a Business Intelligence Roadma$ business intell igence roadmap that is based on open

standards and actionable insight from industry BI specialists of

the folloing benefits:

5 *reates realistic expectations for hat BI can and cannot d

5 6rovides highlevel assessment and insight into BI needs

at a relatively lo cost and ithin a relatively short time

5 *larifies the standards and methodologies used to support

successful implementation

5 1acilitates planning, communication and sponsorship

5 nsures consistent messaging

5 -elps ensure the resulting BI solution aligns ith business

and I2 goals

5 ;inimizes risks associated ith proect budget, timelineand complexity" allos organizations to estimate future

phases more accurately and ith less contingency

5 -elps ensure tools and features are compatible ith the

skill level of the people actually using the solution

5 6romotes efficient deployment of resources

5 6rovides a frameork for a sustainable BI implementation

that includes future BI expansion

&ra'ing on Real(#orld Experience$ business intell igence implementation plan should be

based on best practices and lessons learned from years of

ork in the field! 1or this reason, organizations usually need to

collaborate closely ith industry specialists ho have exten

sive experience in planning, assessing and implementing BI

5

5

5

5

Business Intelligence Roadmap: &evelopment )"ases

naly*e

visionand

goals

Comparecurrentstate totargetstate


3/4

solutions! 2he folloing agencies have orked ith

thirdparty specialists to help them apply best prac

tices and realorld experience to their BI solutions!

+inancial ,anagement

3hen the 0tate of 3ashington.s 9epartment

of nterprise 0ervices (90) decided to revamp its

business intelligence solution for the +ffice of 1inan

cial ;anagement (+1;), the key success factors

ere: collaboration ith a proven industry BI specialist, extensive intervies ith customers and other

stakeholders, and strong executive sponsorship!

Business intelligence at the +1; supports a ide

range of financial administrative functions, from state

ide budgeting, accounting and contract manage

ment to fleet and facilities management, purchasing

and procurement!$s 90 $ccounting $pplications

;anager $llen 0chmidt explains, 73e collect a lot of

data, but e eren.t putting it into a format that maxi

mized its value to agency administrators, policy makers and other

business decisionmakers! +ne of our executive sponsors had

actively used our ad hoc reporting tools! Because he understood

firsthand the challenges of using the existing data format, he

as strongly motivated to help drive the proect to success!8

2he department contracted ith a thirdparty BI special

ist, ho started by assessing existing systems and data and

intervieing many of +1;.s customers to expose gaps in the

existing BI solution! >/ 0*-;I92, $**+I*$2I+/0 ;$/$R,3$0-I/2+/ 96$R2;/2 +1 /2R6RI0 0R@I*0

moves to managed care, in hich the department is paid a flat

dollar amount per patient instead of a fee for each service !

7*urrently, a lot of hat e do is a mashup of data from

multiple sources, and it.s very labor intensive to pull together

information manually and ensure that it is correct,8 continues

3un/agaoka!$ single patient may go through multiple sites,

and each facility may have differing data or d ifferent structures

for presenting the data! 2he ne system ill normalize all the

information and link it together via one uni#ue patient identifier

so that users can access a more detailed level of understandin

and reporting! 7Instead of taking time to crank the data, I.ll have

more time to analyze the data and look at different aspects,8

says 3un/agaoka! 7I.ll be able to explore hatif scenarios thaclarify our financial situation as e move into managed care!8

9irector of 6lanning and 9ata $nalytics Irene 9yer adds,

7-istorically, a small group of highly trained programmers has

analyzed our systemide data and produced ad hoc reports

as re#uested by the executive team ! /o e are moving

toards a solution here not ust executives, but administrators

and supervisors also have realtime access to data so they

can make decisions and do their obs more effectively!8

2he multiyear proect is still in its infancy, and the BI roadm

provides a standardized frameork and documents for comple

ing phases and making decisions related to each phase ! 2he

department has identified stakeholders and hat they need to


4/4

do their obs, defined its vision and scope, assessed the current

state and analyzed gaps! It is no moving toard an implemen

tation plan that focuses on iterative processes! 73e don.t have

the expertise to do this on our on,8 says 3un/agaoka! 73ork

ing ith a specialist to develop a roadmap has helped us set

the right goals and is shoing us ho to reach those goals!8A

Ensuring Success2he folloing best practices help ensure the successful

implementation of a business intelligence solution and should bereflected in the BI roadmap:

5 #ork 'it" an industry BI specialist:0uccessful implementa

tion depends greatly on the thoughtful application of best prac

tices and lessons learned! 1e organizations have sufficient

internal experience in planning, assessing and implementing

BI solutions! In addition to experience, BI specialists have also

developed relationships ith reputable vendors and other con

tacts ho can assist in the BI solution!

5 Use a standards($ased pro0ect management frame'ork:

0ome organizations make the mistake of using a traditional

softare development lifecycle frameork for BI development!

-oever, development ith this model is usually too rigid and

dran out for BI! IB;.s Rational I>F 3 6R+R$;0 9I@I0I+/, >!$!*+2-

Executive sponsors"ip and stake"older participation:

0trong executive sponsorship helps ensure that the proect

receives the prioritization, funding and organizational 7buyi

that it re#uires to succeed! 0takeholder participation helps

ensure that the solution truly meets the needs of users and

the support of everyone ho is affected by it!

1ngoing kno'ledge transfer:2o maximize the benefits of

solution, organizations need a plan for ensuring it remains u

over time! If needed, business users should receive training

ho and hy to use reporting tools! Internal BI teams may n

coaching or training from external specialists in BI!

Business driven vs/ I2 driven:2he solution should focus

ansering business users. #uestions, not on transactions aother processes that are difficult for the average user!

,etrics for measuring BI success:2o ustify costs and

approach and to evaluate progress, organizations should d

success indicators! Ideally, the organization has already est

lished a baseline against hich to measure success!

5

5

5

5

Conclusion2o reap the benefits of business intelligence, organizations

need a sound frameork for planning, implementing and mana

ing a BI solution!$ ellconceived BI roadmap 4 developed in

laboration ith specialists in BI 4 helps organizations clarify th

vision and goals, assess re#uirements, determine next steps a

move into the future methodically and confidently!

Documents

White Paper - Business Intelligence Roadmap