Meeting with Brandon
Position Paper
Best Practices in Business
Intelligence Strategy
Neil Foshay
Assistant Professor of Information Systems at St. Francis Xavier University
Consultant for Collabera
Introduction
Most medium to large organizations today have made significant investments in data warehouses and business intelligence (BI) applications. However, many data warehouse practitioners believe that these environments are underutilized. The consequences of under-use are considerable and include: •
Poor ROI on IT investments
•
Dissatisfied end-users, and, perhaps most importantly
•
Organizations are not effectively leveraging their most strategic asset –
Information
The underutilization of expensive BI environments has prompted many firms to evaluate their current environments with an eye to developing effective strategies for the future. However, many firms, when considering their BI future, tend to focus on tools and technologies. While important, technology is only one component of an overall BI strategy, and in many cases is not the most important factor in a successful strategy. As such, technology should not be the primary focus of a BI strategy development process – technology is just a tool that helps organizations achieve their business intelligence goals.
This paper presents a number of key success factors in developing effective BI strategies for the future. This is due to the fact that many factors come into play in determining whether or not endusers choose to use a business intelligence platform.
Business Intelligence Strategy - Success Factors
There are a number of key ingredients to defining an effective and robust BI strategy. They include: •
Ongoing alignment with overall business goals and strategy
•
Functional Integration of BI applications into key processes/workflows
•
Consulting with those who can tell you what is right and what is wrong with your current BI applications - that is, your
Best Practices in Business
Intelligence Strategy
Neil Foshay
Assistant Professor of Information Systems at St. Francis Xavier University
Consultant for Collabera
Introduction
Most medium to large organizations today have made significant investments in data warehouses and business intelligence (BI) applications. However, many data warehouse practitioners believe that these environments are underutilized. The consequences of under-use are considerable and include: •
Poor ROI on IT investments
•
Dissatisfied end-users, and, perhaps most importantly
•
Organizations are not effectively leveraging their most strategic asset –
Information
The underutilization of expensive BI environments has prompted many firms to evaluate their current environments with an eye to developing effective strategies for the future. However, many firms, when considering their BI future, tend to focus on tools and technologies. While important, technology is only one component of an overall BI strategy, and in many cases is not the most important factor in a successful strategy. As such, technology should not be the primary focus of a BI strategy development process – technology is just a tool that helps organizations achieve their business intelligence goals.
This paper presents a number of key success factors in developing effective BI strategies for the future. This is due to the fact that many factors come into play in determining whether or not endusers choose to use a business intelligence platform.
Business Intelligence Strategy - Success Factors
There are a number of key ingredients to defining an effective and robust BI strategy. They include: •
Ongoing alignment with overall business goals and strategy
•
Functional Integration of BI applications into key processes/workflows
•
Consulting with those who can tell you what is right and what is wrong with your current BI applications - that is, your