A recent survey by PC World shows that Business Intelligence [BI] is once again ‘top of mind’ for CIO’s. After slipping down to the number 2 spot below virtualization it seems BI has bubbled back up to the surface. Whilst the survey editorial acknowledges that this may be purely because most server virtualization has now been completed, it also alludes to the lack of ROI on BI programs being the cause for the drop.
Personally, I see virtualization and MDM programs as part of the BI strategy in making good quality data available at high performance levels. Rather than being separate, competing initiatives, they are merely projects along the BI continuum.
However, I do believe that insufficient thought is given to education in BI strategy and dashboard design. Both of these factors lead to significantly lower value outcomes for investment in BI.
For those of you earlier in the BI intiative and need a full guide across all elements of BI, including strategy, data, software selection, and how best to use BI tools in your business, then The Logical Organization is the full strategic guide for you.
What are your thoughts on how well BI projects are performing? Please add your comment below.
As advanced visualization is gaining traction within academic circles we are starting to see some amazing renditions of massive volumes of data telling stories previously not possible to the same depth. This 4 minute animation is a perfect example:
Hans Rosling reveals the story of the world’s past, present and future development.
Fear of Failure is often cited as the reason for not extending ones reach in both personal and business feats. In the case of an employee, the fear of failure is really little more than fear of criticism or blame – they personally don’t take a financial hit if the product is wrong or the launch campaign isn’t as effective as planned. So how does BI help? BI puts the analytics, the rationale and logic behind a decision out there for everyone to see – everyone to accept – and everyone to share the blame. It takes the onus of decision making off a single person and spreads it across the business. It provides a fact-based, rather than person-based foundation for decisions.
Getting away from the blame game, gets your business away from the lame game, and gets it competing with more focus, more knowledge and more confidence. It opens your business to becoming more remarkable. Staying safe, playing within the lines is not the way to grow a business – growth requires risk, calculated risk. The very best outcome will be one that most people love and some people hate, but at least you are pushing the barriers and getting noticed. Getting noticed today is a major goal of any business – getting noticed profitably is the ultimate agenda.
Playing safe and staying the same as your competitors doesn’t get you noticed, and doesn’t get you ahead of the pack. As businesses start to stretch out again following the recessionary shrink, caution will be a common call. Only those with the tools to analyse their options in a rapid manner, thus avoiding paralysis by analysis, will lead the charge in the post recessionary wave.
It’s your choice to ride the wave, or wave goodbye. It’s your choice to go it alone or lean on BI.
Organizations are constantly struggling to quantify the not insignificant investment in business intelligence. In spite of this, according to a study by TDWI Research, adoption of data visualization technologies is growing by leaps and bounds. But what about levels of engagement with BI tools – are users ready to let go of there old reporting habits? The report suggests that we have a long way to go: Read the rest…
Dashboards are a visual representation of a complex set of data representing the state of performance of an organization, so that it may be viewed at a glance.
The last decade has seen a slow but perceptible evolution in dashboards.
What started out as simply a graphical form of report, is now being used very effectively as a performance management tool. The very exercise to filter down KPI to a succinct set helps the organization focus on what is really important. However, this is where many of the weaknesses in dashboard arise. With ever increasing regulatory reporting requirements, I am seeing more and more organizations focus too much on reporting KPI required by external bodies – rather than those KPI that better reflect a usable trend in performance. Read the rest…
One of the frustrating things about many dashboard development software programs is their rigid grid structure that constraints good dashboard design. One might be able to size portals to suit, but are burdened with set margins and spacings. Set grid patterns are a nightmare when you want to size and position KPI to demonstrate relative importance and interrelationships.
Line spacings are also a drag, along with limitations on font formatting – the whole line has to be the same font type, size, weight. This doesn’t work well if you have a dashboard chart title, with a subtitle that adds some required extra information. Read the rest…
In determining the best format for displaying a KPI on a dashboard you need to understand your data – its format and the profile of performance.
There are three types of data display:
Raw – is purely a snapshot of what has happened in the past reporting period. This is suited to performance that is chunky [occurs without predictable frequency] and has high variability in data value. This KPI type is typically presented using bar graphs.
Change – Often we are not interested in the actual value; we only want to know the percentage change. This might be an indication of growth rate. Using an above:below graph, with the horizontal axis set at 0; positive values above the line, and negative change values below.
Trend – the most telling type of KPI graph is the line graph. This shows the trend of performance and is a greater indicator of whether action is needed than either raw or change representations.
Whilst I personally prefer to have all data in a trending style – this is often not appropriate or possible, based on the format of the data and the profile of the performance.
Being passionate about both BI and Cloud it’s exciting for me to see Microstrategy launch their Cloud-based BI solution. The platform is designed to support rapid development of business intelligence and mobile and social applications.
So just ho does MicroStrategy’s Cloud solution meet our expected features: Read the rest…
Gartners Magic Quadrant for BI reports have become the default quarterly benchmark for BI vendors to assess their products against their rivals. Following 3-4 years of consolidation in the BI market, 2010 was more noted for the ability of BI solutions to combine an ease of use and flexibility with meeting IT standards. This was an attempt to overcome the greatest objection to BI applications – their complexity and difficulty in use. Its not always an easy compromise to provide a ‘simple, easy to use’ solution that still has all the required functionality. This is where User Interface design really becomes the driver – and sadly, an area that many solutions, not just BI fall down. Read the rest…
Self-service BI is becoming the holy grail of business intelligence in its big promise to break the reliance of business users on IT to create their reports. With self-service BI, business users get the information they need, when they want it, how they want it. However, its not quite as simple as it sounds. For most business users, the BI tools are too difficult to use.
So what’s the solution – in-business power users. Power users are technically savvy business analysts that work within business teams to provide reporting. Adding BI to their suite of tools will replace a lot of very shaky complex pivot tables, and provide a much more insightful set of outcomes.
The big win is getting report production out of IT – away from IT deadlines and out of the hands of those who have no added business value into the process. Business power users are in touch with the business on a daily basis, as such they have more insight into the types of problems that the business needs to solve and the insight [data] needed to help make decisions around solving that problem. Read the rest…
