Business Intelligence and Your Business
So how exactly would you apply BI to your business? How would it work and what are the steps involved? The first thing to point out is that Business Intelligence principles can be applied to just a part or all of your business if that is what is required. That way one "module" can be assessed, new applications and processes designed, the result being that that part or all of your business will be operating more effectively.
The Review
The first stage of any BI report is to review your current "Business Intelligence", that is, how you gather, store and analyse data at the moment and more importantly how you transfer this data into knowledge. During this review report, gaps and weaknesses in your current methods and applications will be identified and recommendations to improve made.
Benefits: Your business will be provided with a "road map" for an enhanced BI environment, one that cannot but help your business become more successful.
Process Simplification
Good BI solutions are not just about making it easier to see the data in your organisation, they also cover the vital area of process simplification, in other words making your work processes more straightforward, whilst still ensuring that all "deliverables" are made. Thus we "Analyse" - "Simplify" - "Redesign" and then "Rebuild" your processes to maximise your business efficiency.
Benefits: Doing business both internally and externally becomes, easier, faster and more efficient
Planning Business Intelligence
Planning the changes that need to be made to your business and deciding the future for Business Intelligence in your company requires a deal of input from yourselves, as we need to be sure that it will "fit hand in glove" with your overall corporate strategy. The planning process allows us both to decide exactly what your BI Environment will look like in the future.
Benefits: Once carried out you can be sure that the strategy that is adopted will be the very best one for your organisation.
BI Technology Review and Evaluation
As there are a number of technologies available, it is essential to evaluate just which one would be best for your requirements. This is a joint review, your input again being invaluable.
Benefits: The review ensures that your organisation gets the very "best fit" for your Business Requirements and the Solutions required.
Contemporary - The Business Intelligence People
Using stages and processes like the ones above, Contemporary will ensure that your organisation's data will be transferred into knowledge and that your processes are simplified.
The result, higher efficiency and an improved decision making process.
Frequently Asked Questions
Business Intelligence- what is it and what does it offer my organisation?
Q: What is business intelligence?
A: Business intelligence is really about taking all of the information assets from the business, whether it is held in databases or documents, and really, getting the relevant information in the right format out to the organisation that allows them to make better business decisions and drive business efficiency.
Why should I work with a business intelligence partner?
Q: What benefits would an organisation get from working with a business intelligence partner?
A: From our experience there are a number of benefits from working with a specialist in this area. Really getting someone who has done this and worked in this area before is invaluable. Some of the areas that need to be addressed such as data integration and reporting performance management, are things that can only be achieved through people that have done that process many times with many organisations. Many of the organisations that have supplied business intelligence solutions will have adopted processes and methodologies that will support this as an implementation in the project, so it’s not about re-inventing the wheel. It is about having been there before.
What should I look for in a potential solution?
Q: I am looking to get business intelligence going what should I look for in a solution?
A:One of the important things is that business intelligence is not just a one size fits all solution. It’s very much a scalable solution and should be requirements driven. The start point is what you are trying to address, who you are trying to get information to, and what their needs are. Then we can look at what is involved with getting the data, the reporting, and maybe the performance management and the scorecards to the right people. Now, how much of these you need depends on the scope and scale of what you are looking to achieve, but the important part is how you want to bring these together in terms of how the user reacts. So typically we would be looking at some kind of portal environment which can bring together not only all of the data but the knowledge of the business and share and collaborate that information. So it is truly unique to that organisation? We can scale from a very small organisation with just a handful of people right up to blue chips with thousands of employees.
Q: Can I use my existing software or technology?
A: There is a high probability that you can, most of the organisations that we work with already have this technology in place. There is an example many of the reporting solutions that we find have their foundations in Microsoft sequel server and that is now pretty ubiquitous technology across the board.
We’ve talked about how a consultant might help me but how ..?
Q: Does it make sense to take a consultant approach to understand the bigger picture?
A: It certainly does, businesses have problems, it’s a fact of life, businesses change, customers change, you will have to adapt. It is very important that you ensure that before you try to solve a problem you genuinely internally decide within the organisation and build a consensus to understand what the problem is. Only then will you find a solution to that problem. Sometimes an individual from outside the organisation with experience of working within other businesses but working in the sector can help you to understand that problem and maybe even recommended a relevant solution.
Why might I choose one or the other?
Q: The difference between consultancy and solution is?
A: Lets focus on solution, first of all as the answer is actually in the question funnily enough. A solution is all about answering a specific problem. Now it's not predetermined in the way that it will be answered, so it can cover anything from training software, people skills, indeed anything that you think may be required within a project. If that’s all encapsulated together you have a solution. On the other hand consultancy is more about perhaps adding specific skills into an area, we say this as often the effort that you are expending is "light" in a particular area, or you need some key business analysis or maybe some strategic consultant to get your project kicked off. Those sorts of things are more "point" efforts and come in at the early parts of the project.
What do you do if the solution you have taken is worse?
Q: You had a problem and the solutions is worse than the problem what do you do then?
A: This is not an unusual situation, problems are often caused when people try to make changes themselves internally or they try to buy something off the shelf that doesn’t do what they need. Very often it’s worth taking a breather taking a step back and perhaps using an external resource, perhaps some consultant to come in and give you a very quick over view of where you are and perhaps draw up a road map of where to go to move forward, so just accept where you are and move on from there.
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