Why BI Programs Do Not Achieve Full Success

This is the transcript of a Webinar hosted by InetSoft on the topic of "The Importance of Having a BI Strategy". The presenter is Mark Flaherty, CMO at InetSoft.

A Picture Of Your BI Architecture Is Not A Strategy

Absolutely a picture of your BI architecture is not a strategy. Whether it's a architectural diagram or whether it's an organizational structure, pictures don’t tell the story. What really tells the story is interaction with the business users, understanding what the broader needs of the organization are and understanding that each project is a particular innovation, a particular subset of those needs and understanding how the value of one project can be enhanced enormously, if a lot of it is re-used in the next project. That’s true whether it’s the metadata, or skills, or best practices. BI has a perennial opportunity within most enterprises.

The other thing I always keep coming back to is the basics of business intelligence. What you can't measure, you can't manage. It's as simple as that. So one thing I am telling all of our customers is make sure that you have measures. If you don’t do a whole lot in terms of developing a BI strategy, do at least three basic things: get together with your business stakeholders and talk about, first of all, what’s the information you need. Do you have all the data you need to make decisions to be successful? That’s number one. The number two question is the frequency, the timeliness of the information. Do you get the information when you actually need it.

And the third one is, is the information you are getting, do you actually trust it? That’s a huge one, because as you know, more and more of the studies we see are about “do business executives trust the information they are getting from their IT organization.” By and large the answer is “no.” Often a majority of the respondents say “no, frankly I don’t have confidence.” So this is a really key thing for the metrics that you want to manage your corporate performance with.

Whether that’s being able to effectively demonstrate the providence of the data, where did we get it, how do we do the computations that went into these charts? While we can measure lots of data, how often do we respond in a timely way to a change in the data, an uptick in customer complaints, for instance, in order to improve customer satisfaction.

Building confidence in a business intelligence (BI) solution is crucial for ensuring that executives and decision-makers trust the insights and recommendations derived from the data. Confidence in a BI solution is built upon several key factors, including data quality, accuracy, relevance, usability, and transparency. By addressing these factors and implementing best practices in BI development and deployment, organizations can establish trust in their BI solutions and empower executives to make data-driven decisions with confidence.

First and foremost, ensuring data quality and accuracy is essential for building confidence in a BI solution. Executives rely on BI systems to provide accurate and reliable information for strategic decision-making, so it's imperative that the data feeding into the BI solution is clean, consistent, and trustworthy. This involves implementing robust data governance processes, data validation checks, and data cleansing procedures to identify and rectify errors, inconsistencies, and discrepancies in the data. By maintaining high standards of data quality, organizations can instill confidence in the integrity of their BI solutions and the insights derived from them.

Additionally, relevance and usability are key considerations in building confidence in a BI solution. Executives need access to actionable insights that are relevant to their roles and responsibilities, presented in a format that is intuitive and easy to understand. This requires close collaboration between BI developers and business stakeholders to understand their specific requirements and design dashboards, reports, and visualizations that meet their needs. By tailoring the BI solution to the unique needs of the organization and its users, organizations can ensure that executives have access to the information they need to make informed decisions confidently.

Transparency is another critical factor in building confidence in a BI solution. Executives need to understand how the data is collected, processed, and analyzed to generate insights and recommendations. This requires clear documentation of data sources, methodologies, assumptions, and limitations, as well as transparent communication of any uncertainties or risks associated with the analysis. By providing transparency into the analytical process and the underlying data, organizations can enhance trust in the BI solution and foster a culture of data-driven decision-making.

Furthermore, organizations can build confidence in their BI solutions by demonstrating the value of data-driven insights through tangible results and outcomes. This involves tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to measure the impact of BI initiatives on business outcomes such as revenue growth, cost savings, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency. By showcasing the positive impact of data-driven decisions on the organization's bottom line, executives will be more likely to trust and invest in the BI solution as a strategic asset.

What Is the Appropriate Drill-down Capability for C-level Executives?

The drill-down capability for C-level executives in their dashboards should be carefully tailored to balance the need for detailed insights with the requirement for simplicity and efficiency. While C-level executives require access to comprehensive and accurate information to make informed decisions, their dashboards should prioritize high-level insights and key performance indicators (KPIs) rather than delving into granular details.

Here are some considerations for determining the appropriate level of drill-down capability for C-level executives:

1. Focus on Strategic Metrics: C-level executives are primarily concerned with strategic decision-making and setting the direction for the organization. Therefore, their dashboards should emphasize high-level strategic metrics that align with the organization's goals and priorities. These metrics may include overall revenue, market share, profitability, customer satisfaction, and key operational KPIs.

2. Provide Contextual Insights: While C-level executives may occasionally need to drill down into specific data points to understand the underlying factors driving performance, their dashboards should provide contextual insights and trends to facilitate decision-making. Visualizations such as trend lines, comparisons to historical data, and benchmarking against industry peers can help executives understand the broader context of the data and identify areas for improvement.

3. Limit Drill-down Levels: To maintain simplicity and clarity, C-level dashboards should limit the number of drill-down levels available to executives. Rather than allowing unlimited drill-downs into granular data, dashboards can provide predefined levels of detail that align with the executives' information needs. For example, executives may have the ability to drill down from regional sales performance to individual product categories, but not to individual sales transactions.

4. Customize for Individual Preferences: Different executives may have varying information needs and preferences when it comes to data analysis. Therefore, dashboards should allow for customization to accommodate individual preferences while maintaining consistency and coherence across the organization. Executives should have the flexibility to personalize their dashboards by selecting the KPIs, metrics, and visualizations that are most relevant to their roles and responsibilities.

5. Enable Ad Hoc Analysis: While C-level dashboards should provide predefined insights and metrics, they should also support ad hoc analysis and exploration for executives who require deeper insights into specific areas of interest. Dashboards can incorporate interactive features such as filters, search functionality, and drill-through capabilities to enable executives to explore the data in more detail as needed.

6. Promote Data Literacy: To maximize the effectiveness of C-level dashboards, organizations should invest in promoting data literacy among executives and providing training on how to interpret and use the data effectively. Executives should understand the limitations of the data, how it is collected and processed, and how to interpret the insights derived from it to inform decision-making.

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