Steps for an Effective Business Intelligence Implementation Strategy | CustomerThink

It is widely accepted that when English Banker, Sir Henry Furnese increased his profits after gathering information way back in the 1800s, the term Business Intelligence was coined.

Imagine you are the captain of a ship that has a broken compass and no way to navigate towards your destination. It is how many businesses operate, and then they lament the fact that their business isn’t ‘going anywhere.’ Business intelligence tools let you know whether your business is on the right track or not.

Business Intelligence is a necessity now as companies cannot survive without gaining critical information about their business. BI analyzes past and current data to predict future trends.

BI combines internal as well as external data to provide various insights to businesses like which product to launch and when, which demographic market to target first, and analyze their marketing efforts. BI acts as a roadmap to lead your business towards success. Thus, just like effective Big Data Analytics Services, BI too provides the roadmap for the businesses to get started but as the businesses progress and reach greater heights the amount of data will be huge and thereafter the effective implementation will require the application of Big Data technology as Business Intelligence. implementation will require the application of Big Data technology as Business Intelligence.

Now that you have understood the importance of business intelligence tools, we shall proceed towards knowing how to implement an effective BI strategy.

Steps to implement a Conducive BI Strategy
Think long-term
Understand that Business Intelligence (BI) will not deliver quick results. Like any other system, you will need to inculcate many changes both into systems and people before you start seeing tangible results. Do not fall into the trap of expecting fast results as if you try to speed-up the process, then there are chances that you will implement the wrong tools in the wrong place.
You will get guaranteed results in BI implementation, and it’s just that the process will be slow and gradual. Integrating BI into your system should be like wine tasting, slow.
You will need to think about the timeliness, relevance, and consistency of the BI project module before going ahead with its implementation.

Have clear objectives
Before implementing a BI strategy, it is essential to know what you want to accomplish. You need to have a clear vision of how your Business Intelligence strategy will impact your business. Your view should be broad enough that anybody can understand it and at the same time it should also be concise enough so that people have detailed road maps to follow.

Ask the question of what tools/strategies do I need to apply so that my business moves up the success ladder?

Analyze the current state of data
Examine your existing data sources and ascertain which sources will help craft a robust BI strategy. Understand that all your data sources won’t prove valuable in your quest towards that perfect BI system. You need to identify the best data sources and take a good hard look to select the best data sources that will prove valuable.

While analyzing the data, you need to evaluate how the data is stored and how it is shared. You might need to innovate and look at new storage options as well as data sharing options.

You also need to state a clear meaning of data sources to make sure that everybody is on the same page. For instance- the term “productivity” will mean different things to different people. To leverage the power of BI systems effectively, you will need to define a clear meaning of productivity to people of all the departments. There must be a shared understanding amongst your employees regarding the terminology in the BI system.

Another excellent example of problems created due to a lack of shared understanding would be the term “gross margin.” As the Sales and finance department calculates gross margin differently, their numbers may not match, creating difficulties.
Also Read: Role of Big Data in Business Success in this Age of Enterprise Mobility

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