BI tools have developed significantly over the past few years, and one positive move is the ability of end users to create and publish their own dashboards. The benefits of self pubishing dashboards include:
Rapid deployment of BI tools to meet individual needs - no input from IT is required
Customization of the dashboard to a user group of 1
Instant update of dashboards to meet changing needs
However, there are also a few drawbacks. Firstly, KPI clutter - too many KPI on a single dashboard. This is a common mistake my many new users of dashboards as they seek to add more and more value. In reality, they are reducing the value by reducing the visibility of primary KPI with a lot of clutter. Just as we saw the aptly name ’spreadmart’ fever, we are now seeing evidence of the KPI Crazies.
The number of KPI depend very much on the type of business, department or role. However, as a general rule of thumb the max is 10. Many dashboards provide all the necessary information in just 4 KPI. The key is to recognize the difference between KPI and KRA. KRA refer to key results areas. KRA’s are more operational in that they refer to key activities and people contributing to a process, whereas KPI are more exact, referring to the outcome of processes that contribute directly to strategic goals.
Consider Albert Einstein’s quote:
“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
One of the biggest constraints about enterprises moving data and services into the Cloud is Trust - trust that access will be reliable and available, and trust that their data is safe. Trust is a key attribute of brand, and preivous behaviour of brand owners either contributes to or erodes brand.
It is this very trust issue that puts me in two minds re Dells latest rollout of a Cloud enabled SaaS package to European businesses.
Whilst I am a great supporter of getting applications with low frequency usage and high processing requirements into the Cloud, I worry about Dells ability to deliver. The reason for my concern is lack of trust.
In my opinion, Dell has failed to adquately manage the power their laptops, so why would I trust them with assuring availability of a whole data center in which I would trust such important services as Distributed Device Management, Software Inventory, Online Backup and Restore, Laptop Data Encryption, Email Management and Crisis Management.
I would like to clarify that I am a fan of Dell computers in general, my own laptop is a Dell as are the laptops of my partner and mother – all procured with the assistance of moi. No other provider gives more bang for the buck.
But the power management systems in these Laptops have been problematic from Day 1. And Dell has consistently failed to accept responsibility for this issue. As I said earlier, brand is a big part of trust – and we would like to think that when something goes wrong that is critical to business continuity, we don’t have the vendor shutting down the issue with ‘not our problem’.
Dell – if you are the Cloud service provider it is your problem. And the issues with the power management in your laptops is your problem – so is the very poor quality of the laptop batteries which last little longer than a year.
With availability and reliability key elements underpinning the trust a client puts in their Cloud vendor, I suggest that Dell needs to be more consistent in managing that trust.
When I am happy with trusting Dell with my laptop power, then and only then will I trust them with Cloud services. And that day is not today!
If rumors are true, it is sad to see pioneering BI on Demand provider LucidEra shutting down their service, however in attempt to recognize their value to the ongoing development of BI on Demand, let’s look at what we can learn from their demise.
LucidEra has been a strong evangelist for why, who and where BI on demand had a valuable role to play:
Why - on-demand can be a faster, lower cost, and more effective option
Who - especially small and mid-size, having a solution that can be rapidly deployed on a user by user basis may be the only affordable, and technologically viable choice.
Where - LucidEra also understood the significant value BI contributes at the front lines, such as the sales team and support centers.
Like any pioneer, the disadvantages are that the market has insufficient experience to determine what they want, what they need and how they want it delivered. In particular, BI customers want:
Fully featured BI - not simplified applications. Many early BI on Demand offerings were constrained by a standardized data model approach and standardized reports. This meant customers had to adapt their business problem to the LucidEra solution, rather than the ideal of the solution fitting their particular business needs.
Ability to Integrate Multiple Data Sources - To simplify deployments and deliver quickly, LucidEra started off focusing on Salesforce.com data only. However, many customers wanted to combine salesforce.com data with information from other systems, such as marketing, finance, and operational systems.
Power of true BI - a system is powerful enough to answer spontaneous business questions or identify and address unusual trends as they arise
Scalability - a system that will grow with them as their needs grow.
Did LucidEra make the mistake of assuming that customers would be willing to sacrifice power and flexibility for speed and low cost? If so, they are not alone, as many onDemand applications could be said to fall into this category.
In spite of the demise of LucidEra, this does not signal the downfall of BI on Demand applications. It merely serves to indicate as a painful way for one vendor to learn what the customer wants or needs before they build a service to meet that need. There are other BI on Demand vendors out there doing just that, having learnt from the experience of early BI pioneers and early BI adopters.
Just downloaded a very good whitepaper from Quantivo that provides an overview of how we can dig deeper below our normal web analytics to gain more insight into customer behaviour. Those of you who know me know how much a fan of cloud computing and business intelligence I am, and Quantivo has developed a great cloud SaaS application to enable all businesses to gain access to this valuable insight. I know this sounds like an ad [no, I am not getting paid to say this] - but I am just such a fan of making BI available for everyone.
Identify specific behaviour after:
Purchasing a product
Viewing a page or ad
Interacting with online content
Watching an online video
This helps you categorise each visitor as either “actively researching information, ready to purchase, or simply looking”
Take a quick look at this short video [4 mins]
The application also has an affinity database which provides relationship insight from relevant behavioral patterns to help you identify that big grey hole – the one where you don’t know what you don’t know!
Whether it is buzz, rants and raves, voice volume, sentiments or trends. When one delves into social media, there is the danger you may get lost and never find your way back out.
There are those who claim that influence cannot be measured, however much of ‘influence’ measurement depends upon the outcome the originator desires. If it is to create awareness or get market feedback, then a great toolset for providing that data is web based service application ScoutLabs.
Whilst I could find little evidence that SocialLabs provide real ‘analytics’ as claimed, they have come up with a great way for businesses to cut through the maze and locate the trails of impact that influence initiates.
Possibly a little pricey for small businesses - the lowest plan at $US99 a month to follow 5 search streams will possibly not be sufficient for most - yet the next plan, the Pro plan at $249 a month with 26 concurrent searches is a bit more than many SME’s can support. I would have liked to see something a bit more in between - say 12 searches for $125 a month. This would give more scope than 5 searches and remain more affordable.
But for corporates who pay more than this each month on getting market feedback via surveys and focus groups, SocialLabs offers a great service. Two plan features I do like is the unlimited user per workspace and the customisable template allowing agencies to offer clients access to their portal. Not sure how this works around restricting client views to certain search streams - but worth checking out.
And my condolensces on the passing of loved ScoutLabs team member Matt Ericson at such a young age.
PivotLink have a useful BI cost calculator to help you compare your current or potential BI costs against industry data published by TDWI.
Naturally, on-demand BI vendors PivotLink are keen to provide a comparison on the cost of on-demand BI compared to inhouse solutions, however I congratulate them on helping business and technical managers make this decision. As the author of The Logical Organization, I support anything that helps businesses make better decisions.
So check it out here - it is very easy to use, and you can quickly see how each key component of your BI solution impacts your bottom line, including:
BI software licensing costs
Database costs
Hardware costs
Staffing costs
Note: The 2008 TDWI BI Benchmark Report: Organization and Performance Metrics for BI Teams based on a web survey of 392 BI professionals found that the median capital budget spending on BI in 2008 was $260,000 while median BI maintenance costs were $235,000.
According to a recent Harris Poll, most Americans believe that advanced technology” will play a critical role in solving many of the country’s problems. The top 4 technology driven catalysts to recover from the current slump include:
Innovation and “technology sciences” in education - 73%
Investing in hybrids and alternative fuels - 71% - acting as a support for the failing U.S. auto industry.
The current climate has highlighted the need for more information, faster, and in a format that is instantly usable. As companies seek to avoid the trap of massive discounting they are turning to analytics to identify opportunities to instead increase value, through bundling products with smaller, incremental margins.
Analytic insights about customers, products, channels, partners and pricing is only half of the solution. The other half being the profitable and strategic application of the information revealed from the analyltics. Thus, decision making is not wholly handed off to analytics. In the four step decision making process: framing the issue, intelligence negotiating outcomes and ongoing learnings gains immensely when the intelligence part of the equation is from valid data, rather than relying on accurate recollection of personal memory.
Thus, analytics must be integrated into the conceptual framework of decision management. This framework encapsulates not only the process used for decision making, but the business rules applied to the process, and the outcomes from each stage of the process.
Adding analytical insight into the decision making process is providing better operational decisions and more integrated strategies.
For those of you who find it valuable to keep all your data at your fingertips, you may be interested to know that Salesforce.com has just released a free version of Salesforce CRM Mobile called Mobile Lite. The app works on the Apple iPhone, BlackBerry® and Windows Mobile® devices.
Mobile Lite is currently available to Professional, Enterprise, and Unlimited Edition subscribers, and supports:
The business environment is a complex interplay of internal and external forces that must be supported by agile, efficient and compliant technology. Business intelligence technology is the most affected capability by under-performing IT infrastructure and stagnant, poor quality information.
In an attempt to provide a quick fix to an organizations business intelligence needs, common errors come into play that not only prevent the speedy solution, but can plague a more robust BI program implementation.
The most common BI Program mistakes largely involve incorrect assumptions: Read the rest…
