Business Intelligence (BI) often invokes images of sophisticated, complex technologies that organizations sometimes feel they’re “not ready for yet”. Often this comes from a feeling that we’re so busy just keeping up with user requests that there’s not enough time available to get to the next level or assimilate new technologies.
For organizations that are heavily dependent on information, part of the overwhelmed feeling stems from what sometimes is called the reporting treadmill—that feeling that every completed report or information extract request generates two additional requests.
While BI initiatives are often geared toward strategic initiatives—such as performance management, business analytics or financial budgeting/planning—the tactical and operational benefits of even a modest BI implementation are just as important. One operational impact often realized is a reduction in time spent by IT specialists designing custom reports, and a subsequent redeployment of those staffers to more value-added activities.
By using BI-enabled applications along with a well-designed multi-dimensional data model, end-users become more empowered than ever before to dig out answers to their questions directly (and more quickly), rather than relying on data specialists. Moreover, these centralized data marts provide one-stop shopping and a single version of the truth that’s hard to achieve with dozens or hundreds of individual, customized reports.
For IT, the reduced time spent designing reports is available for other activities—like advanced data modeling, data mining and data integration—all activities that provide yet more resources for business users.
A well-planned, strategic BI implementation provides a business-changing paradigm shift in how organizations use information. However, even when a strategic investment isn’t in the cards, more modest ones can yield real, measurable benefits—and provide foundational experience for a future strategic BI implementation.