Business Intelligence Strategy

A sound business intelligence strategy is a fundamental first step in ensuring that your investment in business intelligence (BI) provides the type of return most businesses require.  This business intelligence strategy, however, is often the one step most companies don't perform leading to waste and poor results.

Who Should Be in Charge of the Business Intelligence Strategy?

For a business intelligence strategy to be effective the last department that should be held responsible is IT. A sound business intelligence strategy should have an executive as the person with primary responsibility.  A successful business intelligence strategy begins with an individual that is intimately familiar with the company's overall business mission and has the strategic foresight to translate that mission into an effective business intelligence strategy along with goals of an implementation project.  In this format, the IT representative functions as a project manager instead of a sponsor.

Inter-Departmental Agreement for Business Intelligence Strategy

A first step to a successful business intelligence strategy relies on all departments agreeing on terminology. Through agreement, a closed-loop feedback system can be implemented that ensures that all departments can provide feedback throughout the business intelligence strategy.  It is also important in a business intelligence strategy to keep things basic- start with a small number of key indicators that will be important in the final automation and develop the business intelligence strategy around those indicators.

Review Past Business Intelligence Strategy Projects

It is also important to thoroughly review past business intelligence strategy implementations for both advantages and disadvantages when creating a new business intelligence strategy. Key areas to analyze are the implementation phase of past a business intelligence strategy along with the transition period as well as the user-friendliness and adoption rates of the systems deployed as part of that business intelligence strategy.

Data Storage & Business Intelligence Strategy

Part of the business intelligence strategy includes determining how to store and manage data.  While this might be a tempting area to reduce costs of your business intelligence strategy, it's also the most perilous.  The reason for this is that a business intelligence strategy always leads to significant data growth which without a reliable, expandable storage strategy could become very expensive to manage.

Business Intelligence Strategy and the User

The business intelligence strategy also needs to keep the end user in mind.  Critical will be to understand the type of information needed and the availability needed.  Your business intelligence strategy should account for strategic users, tactical users and operational users.  Each of these user types will have different needs from your business intelligence strategy.

Analytical Data Models & Business Intelligence Strategy Components

Another part of the business intelligence strategy will be the analytical data model itself. Because every company’s systems are different, each model needs to be specifically tailored to its needs. The main question will be if the analytical data model will be bought as-is, or customized (built). Every type of business intelligence component must be reviewed and considered as part of the business intelligence strategy, otherwise the implementation may not be compatible in some stages.

Final Implementation of Business Intelligence Strategy

Decide beforehand who will be in charge of final implementation, or when all the enterprise-wise applications finally integrate. This guidance should come from someone who is highly experienced in BI implementations, well prepared to work closely with the end users, the developer, and those involved in the implementation project. When the implementation is ready, test the system in small steps that can have proven results, adding slowly to these steps until the entire interface is operating together.