Well executed BI practices require an organization to dedicate a significant amount of time and resources. When companies fail to establish objectives and procedures for how this bevy of new information will be used, the time and resources go down the drain. Here are three ways that organizations end up sabotaging their BI deployments.
They fail to establish organizational objectives– The goal of BI is to create actionable data. But without a plan for how this data will tie in with day to day operations, the powerful exploratory visual analysis capabilities of BI are wasted. Organizations must place decision makers at the helm of BI projects and allow them to form the basis for operational processes tied into BI.
They fail to break the project down into stages – When a BI project is too ambitious and broad in its scope, it is bound to fail. Much like the city of Rome, an enterprise solution simply cannot be built in a day. Projects should be broken down one step at a time with new projects that are contingent upon prior successes.
They take too long to implement the system – Different vendors take different approaches to BI. Some vendors require an investment in new hardware and consultants in a process that can take several months. Other vendors like InetSoft provide a solution that utilizes your existing hardware and can be set up by anyone with an IT background in a matter of weeks.
In summary, taking the time to properly plot out the steps of your BI Deployment will ensure you are left with operational BI, instead of a failed initiative.
