If your Business Intelligence toolset is so intelligent, why are so few using it?

We, as speakTECH BI practice members (in our role as system integrators) walk into numerous enterprise-level companies who heavily invest in their BI infrastructure; and, it is quite mind-boggling when we find that very few information workers are actually using the enterprise-level BI solutions already in place.   Instead, we often find a vast majority of information workers and analysts still utilizing source extract programs and antiquated DSS procedures, using cumbersome and IT-centric/reliant methods to organize data into meaningful information. 

Of course, there is always personal/basic BI where people do use personalized and ad-hoc methods for their own analytical needs; however, often these cumbersome and antiquated procedures are used for enterprise-wide, corporate-level BI needs in efforts to generate operational and analytical management reports.  Here, ideally speaking, the enterprise-level BI solutions that organizations have already made considerable investments in should be utilized, right?

We've seen the advancements in BI-On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) tools over the years, and we believe many of these BI toolsets are indeed “intelligent” and designed to deliver “intelligence”, and have so many benefits and advantages for users and the entire organization.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but some benefits/advantages include:

1)      Better business decisions through more thorough and timely analysis.

2)      On-line, on-demand delivery of reports

3)      Improved accessibility for analysts

4)      Reduced complexity for query

5)      Faster and more accurate reporting

6)      Flexibility - No drill-down restrictions – Drill anywhere! - Deep analysis capabilities across dimensions and down to single transaction

7)      Better performance

8)      No time period conflict, No metric algorithm confusion

9)      No duplication of efforts (streamlined, efficient process)

10)  Controlled, Consistent, Reliable/Secure Information retrieval and delivery

So, despite all of these general benefits, why are users and organizations still reverting back to cumbersome and antiquated manners of retrieving information? 

We have found that there are many factors contributing to these low levels of usage - why the use of these tools is not as pervasive as organizations would like it to be. 

       

 Namely, some of these factors (in no particular order) are:

1)      User Adoption - The lack of an early user adoption strategy

2)      Training - Inadequate training in the toolsets (initial and on-going)

3)      Cost – too costly to roll solution out to entire user community (companies often end up paying 80%+ for 20% of the functionality vs. the other way around)

4)      Complexity (perceived) -in the understanding of the toolsets (ease-of-use)

5)      Resistance to change – “we liked dong things the way they are done around here”

6)      Missing Capabilities and Competing/Pre-existing technologies- Tool not being able to do what pre-existing tool can…(i.e. Excel) just a few $$$$$$ afterwards)

7)      Requirements Gathering - Improper or lack of user requirements gathering and focus on business requirements (no report specs, catalogs) results in solutions not delivering intended functionality/usage.

8)      Data Sources - Users uncomfortable and/or unaware of where the information is coming from

9)      Data Integrity - serious questions regarding the integrity of the data source / data warehouse, or lack there of.. (OLTP->BI)

10)   Latency – IT delivers solution too late – requirements have changed and other methods/work-arounds have been adopted

We’re sure there are many other factors out there that contribute to low levels of usage of BI toolsets. 

 

 

 

Often, we have witnessed IT managers/executives and the user community blame the tool.  However, the vast majority of executives that we have talked to really talk less about the tool and more about the implementaton issues.  One common pattern that we have seen in environments that have a majority of these problems is that despite the general benefits that come with BI-based solutions, often these solutions are deployed by internal resources with teams that do not have enough resources dedicated to BI/EPM solutions (scalability issues).  Often, there is also no clear ownership of the process that further complicates matters.  Some of these organizations have looked for outside help.  However, when they have looked outside, they have picked vendors/System Integrators (SI’s) that commit to getting things done unbelievably fast, but do not follow a proper BI methodology (process) or execution plan and make it a practice to deliver “quick and dirty” solutions in the hope of getting quick wins without a focus on the long-term viability of the BI solution for the organization and its user community.

 

We believe that Enterprises that are investing in BI should carefully pick BI system integrators that can not only manage aggressive timelines, execute efficiently, but will also understand the technical, functional, and business requirements properly and provide long-term solutions that enterprises and their users can actually use - those solutions that will result in business benefits, help information workers do their job better, and improve the top and bottom line for the organization, both in the short and long term.

 

 

 

 

If you are reading this blog post and are part of an organization and can relate to a lot of what we are talking about, but you still cannot pin-point why you cannot get users on-board as part of the BI vision, why the use of your BI system is not pervasive, and / or why it is so rationalized and outside of your everyday business processes, we think it’s worthy to take a step back and conduct an Assessment of the possible, underlying issues before you roll out any more BI initiatives.

 

Of course, self-assessments of any kind are one of the hardest things to perform, especially when you are so closely associated, assimilated, and / or immersed as part of the issues.   That’s where speakTECH and its BI team can help. 

The BI assessments that we conduct look at the gaps in the BI infrastructure and deployment collectively and point to the root cause of a multitude of issues that can exist in any BI-Data Warehousing environment. Often these issues are so simple that they can be resolved with little effort…we just have to point the users and I.T. in the right direction.

Do not let these user issues persist in your environment and get the fullest potential out of your BI deployment. Resolve these issues in the short-term in order to obtain user confidence and adoption, as users are the key part of your BI roadmap and vision and its long-term success.