BI Worst Pactice - Selecting a BI Tool Without a Specific Business Need

You might have noticed that the two business examples given in the previous section – the major airline and the telecommunications company – both had finely defined problems and solutions with clear business objectives. Their understanding of their problem helped them identify and implement an effective BI solution. On the other hand, one of the most egregious of the four worst practices in this paper is the purchase of BI software for “general purpose analysis.” In fact, the largest expenses and the smallest ROI is a result of purchasing a solution for “general purpose” BI.  In other words, a company recognizes the need for business analysis and  immediately plans a project to evaluate and purchase a BI solution for their users.

Without a specific purpose, BI rarely has impact on business. The starting point for creating a BI solution should be when you identify a project that will solve a specific problem through access  to information in a timely fashion and in the right context. “Solve a problem,” means that information will accelerate a slow running process, eliminate a bottleneck, reduce the cost of doing business, or even become a new revenue source.

When information requirements such as these are identified up front and used as the business driver behind the BI implementation, the implementation of the BI system has a much greater likelihood for success.



The Solution

The lesson here is that your motivation for pursuing and purchasing BI software, or building a data warehouse for that matter, should never be general purpose. If you want success, understand the business problem and know beforehand what can be expected if information is injected into the process.