Good internal communication, perseverance, and stringency in implementation: When realigning or introducing business intelligence, companies must consider many things. For this reason, we present the four most important success factors for your BI project in this article.
Top Management Support For A Successful BI Project
The introduction of business intelligence is an absolute top priority. In such projects, considerable changes in the structural and process organization are sometimes necessary. Such changes often generate resistance at all management levels, which can only be overcome with the support of top management. If such company software is introduced, the company management must ultimately decide on not inconsiderable investments.
Small Steps Policy
realignment of BI in a company is a complex process. It can take months, even years, for all affected areas to grasp the changed way of thinking and put it into practice. As part of this process, the requirements for a BI solution also change or expand. Therefore, it is advisable to start with a manageable software solution instead of immediately striving for a comprehensive, perfect solution.
The latter only delays the necessary change processes in the company. In addition, users in sales and marketing find it easier to formulate their requirements when they can already work with a prototype. Parallel to creating or implementing the software solution, the database, and a customer-related result calculation can be set up with simple tools.
Involvement Of The Affected Central And Decentralized Departments
The specialist departments largely determine the acceptance and success of the project. Controlling, sales, marketing, IT, and, if necessary, other departments must be involved early so that BI is a success. In addition, there are complex structures in many larger companies in the form of a multi-level organization with headquarters, branches, various divisions, etc.
Companies must therefore involve the departments and all levels in the project. Interdisciplinary teams are essential for many sub-projects within the framework of BI, for example, the depiction of sales revenues and the BAB. The departments must provide the necessary resources for this.
Conception And Selection Of The BI Software (Front End)
Experience shows that, in addition to the information content of supporting systems such as CRM, accounting, or MES, the following points make an essential contribution to acceptance:
- User Interface / Ease of Use
- Up-to-dateness of the data as well as stability and speed
- Integration into the existing data processing landscape
Another important aspect is the authorization and security concept. The data warehouse (DWH) is the basis of BI (single point of truth), and the data it contains is, in many cases, the company’s capital. A concept must therefore be defined and implemented, which, on the one hand, secures this capital and, on the other hand, makes the information required by employees accessible. Would you like to find out more about “Business Intelligence”? Find out how a BI strategy can help you take full advantage of your BI capabilities and opportunities to achieve information excellence.
Practical Tips For BI Success
- Align BI initiatives with business goals
- Develop an analytics strategy as part of an IT strategy
- Introduce BI sequentially and avoid big bangs
- Define and pursue clear project goals
- Form priorities, stages, and milestones
- Apply the 80:20 rule (Pareto principle) purposefully
- Involve future users at an early stage
- Consistently use BI best practices
- Realize useful results promptly
- Conduct end-user training and documentation.
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