15 recommendations for deploying business intelligence software
Hello. At the end of June, we are launching a new course , BI Analytic . And today we want to share the first material prepared specifically for the course.
Business analytics, which allows to significantly increase the profitability and efficiency of commercial activities, is required for any modern company. However, for organizations that do not apply new technologies in their business processes, it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain relevant information.
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Business Intelligence (BI) allows you to take a quick look at all the relevant data of your company and understand exactly what they mean. Thanks to BI, you can see which operations generate more profit, which ensures sales revenue and how efficiently the company operates as a whole. With the help of BI tools you can penetrate into any data and find out where it came from and why it turned out such values. Business intelligence is sometimes defined as a process that allows you to make the right decisions through the effective use of employee competencies, procedures, data, and related tools and methodologies.
Business Intelligence (BI) is a collection of software applications, techniques, and business systems that play a key role in the business processes of any corporation.
Most companies generate huge amounts of data in the course of commercial activities. To give access to these data to all divisions of the company, a wide arsenal of applications and DBMS is often used.
But the abundance of various programs and systems makes it difficult to timely extract useful information and draw conclusions based on it. BI software is designed to remedy the situation by replacing disparate tools for collecting and analyzing data.
Software for business analytics, or BI tools, means software applications that perform all the tasks of monitoring, collecting and analyzing data, and also allow you to track the patterns in these data and draw the conclusions you need from your business. These applications are also capable of retrieving and using information stored in corporate databases.
The most common enterprise-class BI systems include tools for working with tables and dashboards for monitoring operations, retrieving data and creating reports, processing and analyzing data, viewing content, and other tools for managing enterprise resources. Some BI packages also integrate tools designed for specific industries, such as retail sales, health care, or education.
Ignorance or inability to apply best practices for deploying BI tools, as a rule, leads to the adoption of ineffective decisions or even approval of a development plan in accordance with the wrong priorities. To make the best use of business intelligence, you should understand the importance of data and its analysis, as well as understand the processes and tools necessary for efficient information processing.
Most organizations also have difficulty obtaining the expected return on investment in acquiring and maintaining BI funds. Another common problem is the abundance of complaints from disappointed users who could not access the data or received erroneous data.
Different reasons can be given, but in reality such sad situations often arise because companies, even having the best software in the industry, do not know how to deploy and use it properly. Of course, it is very important to choose easy-to-use BI tools with a user-friendly interface, however, there are a number of other factors that may prevent the effective use of this toolkit and the extraction of planned profits from it.
For those who want to exploit BI tools with maximum profitability, we offer a number of proven recommendations.
Before introducing BI tools, you need to create a single business intelligence network, which includes all divisions of the company, from sales and marketing to logistics and senior management. It is necessary to enlist the support of all departments and collect feedback.
Trying to implement business analytics without a sound strategy, you can make a lot of mistakes, wasting time and money. Before making a choice between BI solutions available on the market, it is very important to identify the basic needs of your company, as well as to set goals whose achievement will satisfy these needs.
At this stage, it is necessary to involve the entire organization in creating a strategy that will allow you to decide what you want and draw up a development plan that will help you achieve this. The choice of the BI tool and its implementation should be based on this plan.
You should not turn the deployment of a BI solution into a complex multi-step process — the more complex it is, the more difficulties will arise during development. It is recommended to integrate BI into existing systems with which employees are already familiar.
Most companies already have reporting systems. Perhaps they do not supply the required information or their use is associated with errors - for example, if Excel documents are created manually or using self-made scripts. It is recommended to analyze the available reporting options in order to know what they do well and what they don’t do at all, and to highlight areas that need improvement.
When starting a BI implementation project, it is very important to set goals or formulate the main expected results. Later, it will help you determine if you have succeeded.
Knowing what goals you face, it will be easier to understand what measures are more likely to contribute to their achievement. In addition, setting targets will make it easier to isolate the most important data.
One of the most useful recommendations for implementing BI is to decide which key performance indicators (KPIs) will most accurately indicate to you how quickly and successfully BI implementations are. But only a few companies succeed in following this advice: the majority is lost in the abundance of various statistics, unable to choose the most significant KPIs.
However, selecting from the mass of indicators only a few of the most important ones, it will be easier for you to determine whether you have achieved the result.
Meetings with key stakeholders need to be held regularly, whether they are regular calls, video chats or armchair meetings. Such meetings allow you to establish communication between company management and heads of departments, on the one hand, and data analysts who maintain BI systems, and also work with the data obtained, on the other.
Always start with small tasks: after practicing on them, you will understand how best to implement BI tools. Most likely, any data obtained in the initial stages will entail additional questions. But it’s even good: finding ways to solve problems will improve your implementation plan.
Most agile methodologies are focused on people's capabilities and are well suited for software deployment, in particular business intelligence tools. It is recommended to build a project based on adaptive planning, self-organization and implementation of short-term deadlines. It is also important that flexible methodologies are aimed at continuous improvements in order to improve quality.
Each company, regardless of its size, constantly collects data on its activities.
Therefore, before implementing the BI system, it is important to determine from which sources this data should come. It is equally important to articulate your expectations and assumptions about such data, and then test your hypothesis in practice.
Also, to improve data access, improve usability and performance, it is convenient to use cloud storage.
You need to constantly pay attention to whether everyone in your organization understands how important the data is to achieve the goals of the organization. It is highly desirable that you maintain a culture of working with data in all divisions, encouraging them to focus on a common goal.
It is very important from the outset to provide a reliable basis for data management. First of all, you need to understand the value of data in the organization (from both internal and external sources) - especially if this data is related to new products, decision making and improvement of business processes.
Rules should be established that determine how data is collected, stored and processed. Reports on the creation, dissemination and use of data must be formed in accordance with these rules. In addition, they will help determine how to prioritize.
To protect the business intelligence environment, companies need to plan a lot in advance.
Providing the necessary security measures is strongly recommended before implementing BI. A clear cybersecurity development plan will indicate which actions require authentication or authorization and how to take effective measures.
It is very important that every user working with BI systems is able to competently use this software. Relevant information should be available to everyone - for example, in the form of downloadable content, such as videos, pdf files, etc. At a minimum, a recording of a session conducted by a BI expert should be offered.
In the company, you can assign an individual employee who will help both managers and ordinary executives to implement and use BI tools in an optimal way. He must have technical knowledge of the platform and all business intelligence software. This person will also be responsible for staff training and selection of educational resources for all departments. In addition, an employee must have a good understanding of exactly how and why BI employees with different job responsibilities use BI to help create templates for analytical reports that meet the needs of different users.
With the speed of technology development that we are seeing today, many companies will soon find it difficult or even impossible to work without business intelligence tools.
Companies that implement the appropriate tools, following the above recommendations, will be able to design systems that will be useful to all staff and contribute to increased business productivity and higher profits.
Here is such a material. The traditional free webinar on the course will be held on June 18, and right now we are waiting for your comments.
Business analytics, which allows to significantly increase the profitability and efficiency of commercial activities, is required for any modern company. However, for organizations that do not apply new technologies in their business processes, it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain relevant information.
')
Business Intelligence (BI) allows you to take a quick look at all the relevant data of your company and understand exactly what they mean. Thanks to BI, you can see which operations generate more profit, which ensures sales revenue and how efficiently the company operates as a whole. With the help of BI tools you can penetrate into any data and find out where it came from and why it turned out such values. Business intelligence is sometimes defined as a process that allows you to make the right decisions through the effective use of employee competencies, procedures, data, and related tools and methodologies.
What are business intelligence software tools?
Business Intelligence (BI) is a collection of software applications, techniques, and business systems that play a key role in the business processes of any corporation.
Most companies generate huge amounts of data in the course of commercial activities. To give access to these data to all divisions of the company, a wide arsenal of applications and DBMS is often used.
But the abundance of various programs and systems makes it difficult to timely extract useful information and draw conclusions based on it. BI software is designed to remedy the situation by replacing disparate tools for collecting and analyzing data.
Software for business analytics, or BI tools, means software applications that perform all the tasks of monitoring, collecting and analyzing data, and also allow you to track the patterns in these data and draw the conclusions you need from your business. These applications are also capable of retrieving and using information stored in corporate databases.
The most common enterprise-class BI systems include tools for working with tables and dashboards for monitoring operations, retrieving data and creating reports, processing and analyzing data, viewing content, and other tools for managing enterprise resources. Some BI packages also integrate tools designed for specific industries, such as retail sales, health care, or education.
15 recommendations for deploying business intelligence software
Ignorance or inability to apply best practices for deploying BI tools, as a rule, leads to the adoption of ineffective decisions or even approval of a development plan in accordance with the wrong priorities. To make the best use of business intelligence, you should understand the importance of data and its analysis, as well as understand the processes and tools necessary for efficient information processing.
Most organizations also have difficulty obtaining the expected return on investment in acquiring and maintaining BI funds. Another common problem is the abundance of complaints from disappointed users who could not access the data or received erroneous data.
Different reasons can be given, but in reality such sad situations often arise because companies, even having the best software in the industry, do not know how to deploy and use it properly. Of course, it is very important to choose easy-to-use BI tools with a user-friendly interface, however, there are a number of other factors that may prevent the effective use of this toolkit and the extraction of planned profits from it.
For those who want to exploit BI tools with maximum profitability, we offer a number of proven recommendations.
1. Enlist the support and participation of all company employees in the project.
Before introducing BI tools, you need to create a single business intelligence network, which includes all divisions of the company, from sales and marketing to logistics and senior management. It is necessary to enlist the support of all departments and collect feedback.
2. Develop a development plan and implementation strategy.
Trying to implement business analytics without a sound strategy, you can make a lot of mistakes, wasting time and money. Before making a choice between BI solutions available on the market, it is very important to identify the basic needs of your company, as well as to set goals whose achievement will satisfy these needs.
At this stage, it is necessary to involve the entire organization in creating a strategy that will allow you to decide what you want and draw up a development plan that will help you achieve this. The choice of the BI tool and its implementation should be based on this plan.
3. Find areas where BI tools will benefit, and implement them there.
You should not turn the deployment of a BI solution into a complex multi-step process — the more complex it is, the more difficulties will arise during development. It is recommended to integrate BI into existing systems with which employees are already familiar.
4. Learn the needs of each unit
Most companies already have reporting systems. Perhaps they do not supply the required information or their use is associated with errors - for example, if Excel documents are created manually or using self-made scripts. It is recommended to analyze the available reporting options in order to know what they do well and what they don’t do at all, and to highlight areas that need improvement.
5. Clearly define goals.
When starting a BI implementation project, it is very important to set goals or formulate the main expected results. Later, it will help you determine if you have succeeded.
Knowing what goals you face, it will be easier to understand what measures are more likely to contribute to their achievement. In addition, setting targets will make it easier to isolate the most important data.
6. Highlight key KPIs or other statistics to control the utilization of BI funds.
One of the most useful recommendations for implementing BI is to decide which key performance indicators (KPIs) will most accurately indicate to you how quickly and successfully BI implementations are. But only a few companies succeed in following this advice: the majority is lost in the abundance of various statistics, unable to choose the most significant KPIs.
However, selecting from the mass of indicators only a few of the most important ones, it will be easier for you to determine whether you have achieved the result.
7. Conduct regular surveys of key stakeholders.
Meetings with key stakeholders need to be held regularly, whether they are regular calls, video chats or armchair meetings. Such meetings allow you to establish communication between company management and heads of departments, on the one hand, and data analysts who maintain BI systems, and also work with the data obtained, on the other.
8. Start small
Always start with small tasks: after practicing on them, you will understand how best to implement BI tools. Most likely, any data obtained in the initial stages will entail additional questions. But it’s even good: finding ways to solve problems will improve your implementation plan.
9. When deploying, use a flexible methodology.
Most agile methodologies are focused on people's capabilities and are well suited for software deployment, in particular business intelligence tools. It is recommended to build a project based on adaptive planning, self-organization and implementation of short-term deadlines. It is also important that flexible methodologies are aimed at continuous improvements in order to improve quality.
10. Identify data sources and required integration tools.
Each company, regardless of its size, constantly collects data on its activities.
Therefore, before implementing the BI system, it is important to determine from which sources this data should come. It is equally important to articulate your expectations and assumptions about such data, and then test your hypothesis in practice.
Also, to improve data access, improve usability and performance, it is convenient to use cloud storage.
11. Create an organization working with data
You need to constantly pay attention to whether everyone in your organization understands how important the data is to achieve the goals of the organization. It is highly desirable that you maintain a culture of working with data in all divisions, encouraging them to focus on a common goal.
12. Lay strong foundations for data management
It is very important from the outset to provide a reliable basis for data management. First of all, you need to understand the value of data in the organization (from both internal and external sources) - especially if this data is related to new products, decision making and improvement of business processes.
Rules should be established that determine how data is collected, stored and processed. Reports on the creation, dissemination and use of data must be formed in accordance with these rules. In addition, they will help determine how to prioritize.
13. Implement a security management plan
To protect the business intelligence environment, companies need to plan a lot in advance.
Providing the necessary security measures is strongly recommended before implementing BI. A clear cybersecurity development plan will indicate which actions require authentication or authorization and how to take effective measures.
14. Create a training plan
It is very important that every user working with BI systems is able to competently use this software. Relevant information should be available to everyone - for example, in the form of downloadable content, such as videos, pdf files, etc. At a minimum, a recording of a session conducted by a BI expert should be offered.
15. Select a BI Implementation Officer.
In the company, you can assign an individual employee who will help both managers and ordinary executives to implement and use BI tools in an optimal way. He must have technical knowledge of the platform and all business intelligence software. This person will also be responsible for staff training and selection of educational resources for all departments. In addition, an employee must have a good understanding of exactly how and why BI employees with different job responsibilities use BI to help create templates for analytical reports that meet the needs of different users.
Conclusion
With the speed of technology development that we are seeing today, many companies will soon find it difficult or even impossible to work without business intelligence tools.
Companies that implement the appropriate tools, following the above recommendations, will be able to design systems that will be useful to all staff and contribute to increased business productivity and higher profits.
Here is such a material. The traditional free webinar on the course will be held on June 18, and right now we are waiting for your comments.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/455716/
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