Five Steps to Business Intelligence Project Success

The successful projects of business intelligence (BI) surround more than the execution of one solution per hour and in the budget. True success should be measured by the way in which the BI solution improves the organization the �execution total of S by the effectiveness increased in the report, planning, the financial functions, and measurements of execution. This will help to ensure of the organizations � falls of projects of BI in the index of success envisaged of 30 percent.

Much was written about the return on investment measurement (KING) for BI, and the general conclusion is that which gains real perspicacity in the initial advantages is not easy. The identification of the long-term advantages becomes all more practical than planning and the analysis, conformity, and them approaches progressists become more traditional in organizations. To gain perspicacity in the way of successfully applying a BI solution, the organizations should evaluate the success of another organization included/understood there their achievements and use of Bi-against their current own initiatives. It is also important that the organizations learn from other organizations 'failure-and avoid repeating them.

This article identifies and explores five stages which the organizations should take to avoid the common traps produced per many companies by applying a BI solution. These stages also provide an overall picture of the articles which must be considered before applying BI in a unit of organization or company.

Stage 1. identifying the commercial problem

The identification of the commercial BI problem is the first stage to ensure a successful project. Once an organization knows what is broken, can not only it start to find means of fixing the problem, but it can also identify the adapted resources, creates the user buys, and gives the priority to how to approach the project. To produce a KING, a BI solution must tackle specific commercial problems. Otherwise, applying an ad hoc tool of question, a cube (OLAP) of analytical process on line, or an instrument panel will not have like consequence the durable advantages.

Unfortunately, it is common so that the BI solutions are pushed on a unit of company in order to meet it rather objective than a need for organization. Sometimes the organizations obtain caught up with general initiatives and lose sight of the fact the real advantages that BI provides in terms of management of the output, collaboration, the course of operation, the improvement of process, etc

To reach buy, the community of user should be part of the process of identification of problem. A decision of execution which always comes from the management requires to enter of the users as for what are their conditions, and of this information can make the difference between the execution of a tool which functions like proposal for a value and execution which can be seen like useless.

Hopes of determination of stage 2. of use

Once BI is applied in an organization, its use usually develops beyond the initial hopes. For example, an organization can suppose that its BI solution will be employed by 10 to 20 users, when actually more than 400 data of question of users on a monthly basis. Since the initial design of the platform will have been based on a number relatively low of the potential users, the system can not be able to support a so high number of questions, and most probably accident (to fail), involving users to lose the faith in the new system and to turn over potentially to their pre-BI environment for stability. In addition to missing confidence in new system, the organization can see the challenge to obtain an unstable system in service as step in value the effort, the delays, and time necessary.

With not very realistic hopes, the destruction can make reconsider the organization its use of BI. Generally, once the adoption of BI occurs with less on the one hand organization and other departments or units of company see its advantages, the adoption starts to draw aside in all the whole organization. So that a BI solution meets these increasing needs, the organizations should envisage the use of BI before execution of a solution.

Another consideration is the type of use of BI tool. For example, if a business manager must increase sales and wants to thus analyze tendencies, the distribution of product, and the execution of sales, the creation of a whole of static reports/ratios will not be useful. A tool for visualization of data to control these articles and to develop a plan based on the analysis of tendency will more probably produce the suitable results.

Delivery of comprehension of stage 3. data

The BI solution the 'capacity of S to collect good information for the report and the analysis is essential if it is to provide the value to the organizations. Although the identification of the data required is long, it is the backbone of BI. Moreover, determining how data will be provided, which to be the activities of cleaning of suitable data would owe, and if the data must be delivered in the group or in real-time, should all be defined in advance. So data are not cleaned or are not delivered when necessary, then the tools of BI entry will not provide the value appropriate to the organization. The BI solutions give the value by the data analysis, thus it is essential that the data arrive once required, in the adapted format, and at the good moment.

In addition to the extract, transform, and of the tools of load (LTE), quality of data and need for cleaning of data to be inherent aspects of the delivery of BI in the organization. Actually, soon from a principal initiative on the scale of the management engineering of data (MDM), the responsibility to provide precise data will fall on the shoulders from the units from company applying BI.

Some organizations are badly directed and think that their BI solution will provide the tools to fix their problems of data. The BI solutions can provide continuous processes of quality of data, but they are not innate with the offers of software. Some suppliers of the 'BI tools include the increased devices of quality and integration of data, and other suppliers suppose that this responsibility should fall to the organization. The organizations should put pursuant to the structures of management of the data to the minimum to reduce the destructions which result from the exits of data.

Initiatives of course of formation of stage 4.

The decision when to unroll the formation contributes to the success of project. The initiatives of formation should start well before or during the production run. However, in much of organizations, being exerted months before the real execution are unrolled, creating the exaggeration among the employees about the new system and what they will be able to make with him. Before the execution produces-sometimes really excitation of initial of later-tea of month and buys dropped, and in a paramount way, the users forgot their recently discovered qualifications. To still establish the dash, need formation repeat-to waste time and the money.

Never buy related with the change is easily realized in organizations. The users become attached to their current processes, if these processes are productive. Buy does not occur immediately at the time showing with users the inherent value of BI because it means that the whole manner that they make deals will change. The creation of a formation program-and to provide this formation in a convenient mode-assistance of the users apply their qualifications recently immediately discovered, of this fact while helping to increase the user buy.

Stage 5. choosing a vertical or a solution Horizontal-based

The organizations should identify so more value will be provided by a vertical solution which is established specifically for the organization the 'industry or department of S, or by a horizontal solution which can develop with the organization. For example, the organization does it need a report, a question, and a tool for analysis credits which will be prolonged through the organization, or the organization must develop a process and a conformity which will adhere to the standards the USA Sarbanes-Oxley act (SOX) or of act of portability and responsibility for medical insurance disease (HIPAA)? The answer to this question will help the organization to define which type of solution will meet its needs better.

Moreover, the envisaged use of BI in the future can help to determine if a horizontal or vertical solution will answer better the organization with the 'needs for S. the organizations which must adhere to the standards conformity should benefit from the solutions vertical-based, because the suppliers developed the solutions which answer specific requirements for conformity. The horizontal solutions need a great degree of personalization to bring them until the par, driving at extra times and the money spent to develop the solutions of them.

The organizations in principal vertical industries should strongly consider the solutions vertical-based which will meet their needs, out of the box. the solutions Vertical-based are likely to satisfy the general terms of an industry or a specific department, but since the horizontal BI solutions are not based on the specific data models, they can be more flexible at the requests of change of the organization. Consequently, if an organization envisages the BI rapid growth through the organization, to have the capacity to develop solutions based on the various needs can be more salutary. This is referred to identify the commercial problem and to envisage the future needs for the organization.

Conclusion

Too much often, the projects of BI does not manage to reach an organization �hopes of S. But with research, planning, and a full methodology, failure can be avoided. To help to ensure the success of project of BI, the organizations should function by these five crucial steps: identification of the commercial problems, determining how a BI solution will be employed, knowledge how and when data are provided, initiatives of course of training of the users at the adapted times, and to develop a framework to choose the type of solution which normal adjustment their organizations � needs.