How To Screw Up Business Intelligence
According to Gartner’s Bill Hostmann, a centralised database or server is the starting point for any effective business intelligence strategy. That said the data stored there must be up to date to validate the existence of the database. Therefore, an on-going and stringent auditing system is vital. Without the ability to audit the hundreds, if not thousands of spreadsheets which large companies typically generate, the purpose of any BI system is inherently flawed.
In this situation, an organisation is basically not in control of the flow of data. Very often this issue is related to a basic lack of communication in the organisation. 57 percent of companies say that lack of data quality undermines the integrity of business intelligence initiatives. A further CIO Insight report confirms that 64 percent of IT leaders complain of a lack of synergy with customer relations teams, which makes planning and control very difficult.
Despite the huge investment which a business intelligence system can demand, that investment becomes more costly if the information it processes and reports on is not validated or cannot be applied on a timely basis due to a shortfall in communications between departments. This means that organisation managers have to put an equal emphasis on the integration of information generated by business intelligence into daily practices. Both the infrastructure and process must co-exist and receive executive sponsorship.
Despite the importance of executive sponsorship, another CIO Insight report shows that 61 percent of organisations admit to having no centralised business intelligence program. To counteract this problem it is advisable to appoint a C level non IT manager to overview the processing of information and its presentation. The information generated by business intelligence can only be put to good use if managers fully understand its implications and applications. Yet 58 percent of managers admit to not fully understanding the results of business intelligence analysis, which ultimately hinders its applications.
These are just some of the factors an organisation must take into consideration in order to avoid the pitfalls of bad business intelligence management and get the full benefit from BI software. If you would like more information about business intelligence software, contact MXI today.
Since it is Quarter End!
Another quarter-end... masses of data to analyze, complex reports to generate, and a critical deadline to get it all done!
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