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Develop a Winning BI Strategy

Take a top-down approach to business intelligence to ensure your organization’s key

decision makers are armed with the right information.


Table of Contents

1. Succeed with a Winning BI Strategy

2. Structure the Pilot Project

Template: BI Business Case Presentation

Tool: BI Pilot Project Planning Tool

Template: BI Project Charter Template

3. Execute the BI Pilot Project

Template: BI Strategy Roadmap Template

4. Track and Communicate the Results of the Pilot Project

Tool: BI Strategy Measurement Plan

5. Transition to the Enterprise Deployment of BI

Tool: BI Planning Tool

6. Track and Measure the Value of the BI Strategy

Tool: BI Strategy Project Tracking Tool

7. Promote BI within the Organization

Template: BI Communication Planning Template

http://www.infotech.com/research/bi-business-case-presentation

https://spaarks.com/info-tech-partnership

http://www.infotech.com/research/bi-business-case-presentation









This Research is Designed For: This Research Will Help You:

This Research Will Assist: This Research Will Help You:

This Research Is Designed For: This Research Will Help You:

This Research Will Also Assist: This Research Will Help Them:

Our Understanding of the Problem

A CIO or Business Intelligence Director looking

to improve business analytics, reduce time to

information, and embrace fact-based decision

making with business intelligence (BI).

Application Directors experiencing poor results

from an initial BI tool deployment looking to

improve the outcome.

Prove the value of BI and generate buy-in from

senior executives in the organization.

Avoid common pitfalls and challenges that

derail BI deployments and lower adoption.

Recognize any organizational BI gaps and

deficiencies prior to deployment.

Remedy BI gaps and deficiencies with both

short-term fixes and long-term solutions.

Project Managers and Business Analysts

assigned to the BI project team to collect and

analyze requirements.

Recruit the right resources for the project.

Execute a proof-of-concept pilot project.

Collect BI requirements.

Prioritize which BI solutions to build first.

Create BI solution mock-ups.

Mitigate common BI project risks.

Track the success of the BI initiative.


Executive Summary

1. Top-Down Approach

Historically, BI has been successful at

penetrating the operational and tactical

levels, but doesn’t always reach the strategic

level. Taking a top-down approach ensures

key decision makers are immersed in BI.

2. Build a “Duct Tape” Prototype

Before committing to an expensive BI tool,

use the resources you already have to prove

the value of BI and build buy-in.

3. Work Backwards from the Decisions

Think about the actual decisions being made

and build a tool that supports the decision

maker.

Resolution

Situation !

Complication ?

39% of organizations ranked business intelligence as IT’s top priority for

2014; however, just because there is an appetite for BI does not mean

the initiative will be an automatic success. In fact, only 41% of

organizations considered their BI initiative to be a complete success.

Therefore, it is imperative that organizations take the time to craft a BI

strategy that aligns with business goals and fosters end-user adoption.

• Many organizations jump straight into solution design and purchase

the latest BI gadgets without a true understanding of the

organization’s needs.

• Executive support is either absent or dissipates quickly after the

project starts. Not only is support from this level of the organization

paramount, but these individuals are also in the best position to utilize

BI and should be highly involved in the project.

• Run a low-cost BI pilot project with a senior executive to demonstrate the value of BI to other senior decision makers. The

scope of the pilot project must be small and focused on assisting a senior executive to make one or two major decisions.

• Use metrics, surveys, and quotes to capture and communicate the results of the pilot with the rest of the organization to

build buy-in and generate support for the enterprise deployment of BI.

• Remedy any capability gaps and deficiencies before the enterprise deployment of BI.

• Once senior executive needs have been met, begin accommodating requests from the tactical and operational levels.

• Create a network of BI ambassadors across the organization to promote BI.

Info-Tech Insight


BI Strategy Project Blueprint

I need to

develop a

winning BI

strategy

v Section 1

Succeed with a Winning

BI Strategy

Pilot Project

Scorecard

CIO

and Pilot

Sponsor

CIO

or

Director

of BI

Section 2

Structure the Pilot Project

Section 3

Execute the BI Pilot

Project

Business

Case

Presentation

Case

Study

BI Strategy

Roadmap

Pilot Project

Planning Tool

Pilot

Prototype

v

Section 4

Track and Communicate

the Results of the Pilot

Project

Pilot Project

Charter

Multiple

Project

Sponsors

Ready for

Enterprise

Deployment?

BI Strategy

Project Charter

v

Section 5

Transition to the

Enterprise Deployment of

BI

BI Strategy

Planning Tool

Pilot

Productized

BI Solutions

Section 6

Track and Measure the Value of BI

Section 7

Promote BI within the Organization

• Tracking Tool

• Measurement Plan

Communication

Plan


Enroll in a GI for your project. Email [email protected]

Or call +44 207 125 0478

How to use this blueprint

We recommend that you

supplement the Best-Practice

Toolkit with a Guided

Implementation.

Guided Implementations are

included in most advisory

membership seats. Our expert

analysts will provide telephone

assistance to you and your team at

key project milestones to review

your materials, answer your

questions, and explain our

methodology.

Spaarks’s expert analysts will

come onsite to help you work

through our project methodology

in a 2-5 day project accelerator

workshop. We take you through

every phase of the project and

ensure that you have a road map

in place to complete your project

successfully. In some cases, we

can even complete the project

while we are onsite.

Do-It-Yourself

Best-Practice

Toolkit

Onsite

Workshops

Book your workshop now! Email [email protected] to get

started.

Leverage each of the tools in this

blueprint to complete the

optimization of this project.

Do-It-Yourself Implementation

Use this Best-Practice Blueprint to

help you complete your project.

The slides in this Blueprint will walk

you step-by-step through every

phase of your project with

supporting tools and templates

ready for you to use. You can also

use this Best-Practice Blueprint to

facilitate your own project

accelerator workshop within your

organization using the workshop

slides and facilitation instructions

provided in the Appendix.

Free Guided

Implementation

mailto:[email protected]



Conduct a workshop, with us or on your own

Onsite Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to complete this project on your own

and a Guided Implementation is not enough, we offer low-cost deliveries of each Blueprint.

Our expert analysts will come onsite to help you work through our project methodology over the course of 2-5 days. We

step through each phase of your project and ensure that you have a road map in place to realize success.

In some cases, we can even help you to complete the project while we are onsite.

1. Enroll in a 2-5 day workshop for your project

Send an email to [email protected] or call +44 207 125 0478. Your account manager will contact you and quote you the

cost of the workshop.

2. Book your workshop

A Workshop Coordinator will contact you to book a workshop planning call with one of our facilitators and arrange dates

for your workshop.

3. Participate in your workshop

Our experienced workshop facilitators will take your project team through your tailored slides and exercises and will

summarize all the workshop outputs into a final report.


Guided Implementation 1: Structure the Pilot Project

Review your BI strategy pilot project charter and identify the most suitable candidate to be the pilot project sponsor.

Guided Implementation 2: Execute Pilot Project

Finalize the scope of the pilot project, review solution mock-ups and requirements, and discuss creative low-cost methods

for building the “duct tape” prototype.

Guided Implementation 3: Communicate the Results of the Pilot Project

Discuss best practices for setting metrics, tracking the results, and communicating the results to other senior executives.

Guided Implementation 4: Transition to the Enterprise Deployment of BI

Prioritize and aggregate stakeholders’ BI needs and discuss requirements for the corresponding solutions. Develop an

action plan for remedying any gaps between the solution requirements and your current capabilities.

Guided Implementation 5: Measure and Promote the Value of BI Within the Organization

Discuss metrics for measuring the success of the BI strategy and tactics for promoting BI within the organization.

Spaarks is ready to assist. Book a free guided implementation today!

Book a Guided Implementation Today: Spaarks is just a phone call away and can assist you with your

project. Our expert Analysts can guide you to successful project completion.

Here are the suggested Guided Implementation points in the BI Strategy project:


What’s in this Section: Sections:

Succeed With a Winning BI Strategy



Execute the Pilot Project

Track and Communicate the Results of the Pilot Project

Transition to the Enterprise Deployment of BI

Track and Measure the Value of the BI Strategy

Promote BI Within the Organization

• The challenges associated with BI.

• Info-Tech’s methodology for developing a

winning BI strategy.

• The potential benefits of BI for your

organization.

• A BI readiness checklist.


Succeed With a Winning BI Strategy 1

Activities in this step

• Spot the challenges and difficulties associated with BI.

• Leverage Info-Tech’s methodology for developing a BI strategy.

• Recognize the potential benefits of a BI strategy.

• Determine if the organization is ready to proceed with BI strategy development.

• What is the best approach for developing a BI

strategy?

• Is my organization ready for BI?

Key Questions

Key Insight

Historically, BI has been successful at penetrating the

operational and tactical levels, but rarely reaches the

strategic level to the same extent. Taking a top-down

approach ensures key decision makers are immersed in

BI from the onset.

• CIO or Business Intelligence Director

Team Members

Section Outcomes

• Comprehension of Info-Tech’s methodology.

• Go/No-go decision for proceeding with BI strategy

project.


Develop a business intelligence strategy to improve decision making, cut costs, and identify new business opportunities

• Business intelligence (BI) is a decision support

mechanism for decision makers. A BI strategy

provides a strategic direction for BI, enabling

decisions by utilizing people, process, data,

and technology.

• Typically, business decisions are based on a

mix of intuition, opinion, emotion,

organizational culture, and data. A well

devised BI strategy enables decisions to be

better supported by relevant and accurate

data, leading to better quality decisions and

outcomes.

• An effective BI strategy will align the BI

initiative with the organization’s objectives and

strategy. The goals of the initiative should be

clearly outlined to ensure a unified

understanding of the benefits of BI.

of executives receive the

information they need to make

strategic decisions (Economist

Intelligence Unit).

10%

of organizations made inaccurate

decisions as a result of inaccurate

or outdated data((Avanade). 46%

of organizations believe their

bottom line is negatively affected by

inaccurate and incomplete contact

data (Experian).

77%

BI is more than just a software package – it is a program jointly owned by both the business and IT that

enables data mining, analytics, querying, and reporting. Organizations must develop a comprehensive BI

strategy that fosters collaboration, user adoption, communication, knowledge, and insight to be successful.

http://www.businessobjects.com/jump/emea/economist/report/EIU_In_search_of_clarity_8_August_2007.pdf

http://www.businessobjects.com/jump/emea/economist/report/EIU_In_search_of_clarity_8_August_2007.pdf

http://www.avanade.com/Documents/Research and Insights/Big Data Executive Summary FINAL SEOv.pdf

http://www.qas.com/contact-data-quality-statistics.htm


Over half of all BI projects fail to meet the organization’s needs – avoid falling victim to common pitfalls

In 2012 only…

of all BI projects were

considered fully successful.

41%

Source: Dresner Advisory Services

Strategic Pitfalls Selection Pitfalls

• Poor alignment of BI goals with

organization goals.

• BI success not measured.

• No executive support during or after project.

• Inadequate requirements

gathering.

• No business involvement in

selection process.

• User experience not

considered.

Implementation Pitfalls Tool Usage Pitfalls

• Absent change management.

• No quick wins.

• Inadequate initial or ongoing training.

• Too much data presented.

• Poor data quality discourages

usage.

• Analysis performed for the

sake of analysis.

BI pitfalls are lurking around every corner, but a comprehensive strategy drafted upfront can ensure your

organization overcomes these obstacles. Info-Tech’s approach to BI has involvement from the business

units built right into the process from the start and forces IT to interact early and often with key stakeholders.

http://www.howarddresner.com/


The pains of inadequate BI are felt across the entire organization– develop a BI strategy before IT gets blamed

Pain Points

Organization

• Insufficient information to make decisions.

• Unable to measure internal performance.

• Losses incurred from bad decisions or delayed

decisions.

• Canned reports fail to uncover key insights.

• Multiple versions of information exist in silos.

IT Department

• End users are completely dependent on IT for

reports.

• Creating ad-hoc BI requests takes time away from

core duties.

• Spreadsheet-driven BI is overly manual.

• Business losing trust in IT.

CIO

• Under great pressure to improve BI.

• Potentially being blamed for poor decisions made

with bad BI.

• Ad-hoc BI requests are consuming IT resources and

funds.

What does this mean for the CIO?

39% of organizations rank BI as their top IT priority in 2014. If the CIO fails to take action, the pain will

continue to grow and the blame will fall squarely on IT. Conversely, a successfully deployed BI solution will

propel the reputation of the CIO and improve IT’s standing as a strategic partner.

Source: Dataversity

Organization

Pain Points

IT Department

Pain Points

CIO Pain

Points

http://www.dataversity.net/making-data-analytics-top-priority-2014/


Top-Down Approach Bottom-Up Approach

Info-Tech’s Methodology: Use a top-down approach to BI

Board & C-Suite

Mid Manager

Front-line Workers

Strategic

Tactical

Operational

Far too often, organizations taking a bottom-up approach to BI will fail to generate sufficient buy-in and awareness

from senior management. Not only does a lack of senior involvement result in lower adoption from the tactical and

operational levels, but more importantly it also means that the strategic decision makers aren’t taking advantage of BI.

Taking a top-down approach will ensure senior management’s involvement and support throughout the project. This

ensures that the most critical decisions are supported by the right data/information, aligning the entire organization

with the BI strategy. Furthermore, the gains from BI will be much more significant and visible to the rest of the organization.

Board & C-Suite

Mid Manager

Front-line Workers

Make sure the executives are aligned and supportive to the BI program. IF they get it, they will use BI and their divisions will use BI.

- Eric Vallo, Speaker, Founder of EV Technologies “ ”


Info-Tech’s Methodology: Build a “duct tape” pilot project

Pilot Project

(scoping & execution)

Comprehensive Project

(scoping)


(execution)

Don’t commit to an expensive BI tool until the concept is proven and senior

management has bought-in to the idea. The “duct tape” pilot project is meant to be a

bare bones, inexpensive, and simple working prototype to demonstrate the

value of BI. The pilot project should also use the top-down approach and focus on

one senior manager and provide them with the appropriate BI for a few decisions

they will make within the next three months.

• Demonstrates the possibilities of BI in a risk-free environment.

• Minimizes investments by using existing tools (e.g. Excel).

• Validates the benefits of BI to the organization.

• Generates interest and support for BI from senior management.

• Prepares IT for the eventual enterprise-wide deployment.

Benefits of “Duct Tape” Pilot Project

A “Duct Tape” Pilot Project – Quick and Easy


A Winning BI Strategy

enables decisions to be:

Create transformational gains by making the right decisions quicker and more cost effectively

Faster

Effective Economical

Value A winning BI strategy will…

Faster

• Reduce time to decision making by

designing a BI strategy around

information needs of key decision

makers.

Economical

• Enable senior decision makers to make

high value, impactful decisions instead

of nitty-gritty operational decisions. The

value to cost is getting a lot higher.

Effective • Making the right data available to key

decision makers.

We can improve BI environments in several ways. First, we can improve the speed with which we create BI objects by insisting that the environments are designed with flexibility and adaptability in mind. Second, we can produce higher quality deliverables by ensuring that IT collaborate with the business on every deliverable. Finally, we can reduce the costs of BI by giving access to the environment to knowledgeable business users and encouraging a self-service function.

- Claudia Imhoff, Founder, Boulder BI Brain Trust & President, Intelligent Solutions Inc.

“ ”


Austin Fire Department was able to build an appetite for fact-based decision making with a 12-week pilot project

• Poor economic conditions forced

the Austin Fire Department (AFD)

to look for ways to increase

operational efficiencies and

streamline spending.

• AFD had plenty of operational

data available for analysis, but it

was currently spread across

multiple divisions and data

sources. Furthermore, AFD

lacked a useful tool for extracting

or integrating the data.

Situation

• AFD began to search for a BI

solution and arrived at QlikView.

• Over a 12-week pilot project,

QlikView was able to develop 5

BI applications and train 16

users.

• Using QlikView, chief officers

were able to track 911 calls and

responses by jurisdiction, station,

battalion, number of runs, and

hour of day, day of week, and

year.

Solution

• The pilot project reduced the time

it takes to generate a report,

resulting in 300 hours of annual

time savings worth $131,000.

• Chief officers can now confidently

make equipment deployment

decisions and respond to citizen

complaints.

• HR managers can analyze

internal data to make decisions

for talent management and

succession planning.

• The ability to perform critical

analysis is “priceless” to senior

decision makers at AFD.

Result

Austin Fire Department

AFD used to manage by anecdote, intuition, and assumption. With QlikView, our decisions are based on data-supported facts. We can test an assumption before we act on it and measure a decision after it’s made.

- Elizabeth Gray, Business Systems Analyst Supervisor

http://www.iaff.org/hs/wfiresource/Departments/austin.html


Our research shows that organizations with analytics deployments focused on enhancing organizational strategy yield an ROI

10x larger than organizations that focus solely on tactical and operational improvements.

The excitement surrounding BI is well warranted – unlock significant value across the entire organization

Proven and

Quantified

Claimed and

Suspected Not Achieved Got Worse Don't Know

Faster Reporting, Analysis or Planning 42.7% 50.9% 2.3% 0.3% 3.9%

More Accurate Reporting, Analysis or Planning 31.5% 59.2% 2.5% 0.2% 6.7%

Better Business Decisions 24.7% 66.1% 2.2% 0.1% 6.8%

Improved Data Quality 27.6% 55.8% 7.1% 0.0% 9.6%

Improved Employee Satisfaction 20.8% 63.9% 5.3% 0.6% 9.3%

Improved Customer Satisfaction 16.1% 58.9% 5.2% 0.4% 19.6%

Increased Revenue 9.4% 42.2% 10.2% 0.2% 38.0%

Reduced External IT Costs 15.3% 32.9% 16.8% 5.2% 29.7%

Saved Other Non-IT Costs 7.7% 31.5% 17.1% 1.0% 42.8%

Saved Business Headcount 10.9% 27.9% 26.3% 1.1% 33.8%

Saved IT Headcount 9.0% 20.9% 31.6% 3.3% 34.3%

Source: Business Application Research Center

Benefits of Business Intelligence (in order of most commonly achieved)

With the proper planning and tracking, all BI benefits can be measured. Some benefits such as better business decisions or

improved customer satisfaction are difficult to quantify and attribute directly to the BI initiative, but it can be done. The key is

establishing benchmarks up-front and having some type of feedback mechanism established, such as a survey, to capture

the incremental benefit.

http://barc-research.com/

In partnership with Info-Tech Research Group 20

Proceed with developing a BI strategy only once all prerequisites have been met

Proceed with BI strategy development if…

The pains of inadequate BI are present in your organization.

There is a compelling business case to be made for BI.

There is an interest in BI from stakeholders within the organization.

Your current BI program needs a revival or some extra momentum.

Do not proceed with BI strategy development if…

× Data quality within your organization is extremely poor.

× There is a thorough distrust between IT and the business units.

× There is no formal project management process in place.

Manage and Maintain Data

Quality Project Management

Improve IT End-User

Relations

Related Info-Tech Research to prepare your organization for BI strategy development


















• Make a business case for the BI pilot project.

• Identify the most suitable pilot project sponsor.

• Persuade the selected stakeholder to sponsor

the project.

• Define the project scope and risks.

• Assemble the project team.


Structure the Pilot Project 2


• Make a business case for the BI pilot project to obtain approval and initial funding.

• Identify the most suitable pilot project sponsor from senior management.

• Persuade the selected stakeholder to sponsor the project.

• Define the project scope and proactively identify potential risks.

• Assemble the project team and create accountability by assigning responsibilities in a RACI chart.

How does my organization start the BI strategy project

and what resources are required?

Key Question

Key Insight

Keeping with the top-down approach, the sponsor of the

pilot project should be an influential senior executive

with a keen interest in BI. This will ensure the results of

the pilot project receive ample attention and will create

a large enough impact to encourage other senior

decision makers to invest in BI.

• CIO or Business Intelligence Director

Team Members

Section Outcomes

• A suitable pilot project sponsor.

• A comprehensive pilot project RACI chart.

• A completed BI pilot project charter.

• A business case presentation for pitching.


Identify the most suitable pilot project sponsor from senior management and focus the pilot project around their needs

Selecting the right project sponsor from senior

management is a critical and often overlooked step in

executing a pilot project. Do not settle for whoever is

available – their influence over other stakeholders is

crucial.

The project sponsor will be responsible for participating in

requirements gathering sessions, using the “duct tape”

solution to make a decision, tracking the benefits,

communicating the results, and building enthusiasm for

BI among their peers.

The Ideal Project Sponsor

High enthusiasm for BI.

Strong understanding of BI.

Good working relationship with IT.

High credibility among senior decision makers.

High influence among senior decision makers.

Ample availability over the next 3 months.

Makes high-level strategic decisions.

If it is unclear which senior decision maker to

select, consider the head of finance or the

head of marketing given the high amounts of

data they interact with and the strategic

nature of their decisions.

Info-Tech Insight


Consider CMO or CFO or their proxies as project sponsor candidates to maximize the chance of a successful pilot

Project

Sponsors

• The CFO is responsible for the key business

metrics and cost control. BI is on the CFO’s radar

as BI can be used for both metrics measurements

and cost optimization.

• The CFO is looking to make the company more

efficient and effective. BI is a tool for analyzing the

corporate data and finding inefficiencies.

• The CFO controls the corporate spending, so they

may need to be involved in providing an approval on

a BI strategy.

CFO

(or his/her proxies)

• The CMO is usually seen as the CSO (chief

strategy officer). CMOs are often tasked to grow the

company and formulate effective strategies.

• The CMO-CIO relationship is getting stronger in

recent years. The CMO initiates many growth

initiatives while the CIO enables the initiatives with

technologies.

• The CMO is becoming more tech-savvy and they

envision the use of emerging technologies to take

the company to the next level.

CMO

(or his/her proxies)

When selecting a project sponsor, it is recommended that senior managers with close ties to BI, such as

the chief financial officer or chief marketing officer, be given serious consideration. Info-Tech recommends

to start the pilot with the CMO or the CFO to maximize the chance of success.

In the energy sector, achieving production KPIs are the key to financial success. The CFO is motivated to work with IT to create BI applications that drive higher revenue, identify

operational bottlenecks and maintain gross margin. - Yogi Schulz, Partner, Corvelle Consulting

“ ”


Use Info-Tech’s BI Pilot Project Planning Tool to identify the optimal pilot project sponsor

Complete the Stakeholder Selection tab in Info-Tech’s

BI Pilot Project Planning Tool.

• Stakeholder attributes and availability

Inputs Required

1. On the tab titled Stakeholder Selection, review

the seven criteria for scoring the potential project

sponsor. Adjust the weightings to suit the needs

of your organization. The total must sum to 100%.

2. List all of the senior decision makers in the

organization in column B and record their

department in column C.

3. Using the drop-down menus, assess each senior

decision maker against each criteria in columns D

to J.

4. Once each senior decision maker has been

evaluated, review the output in column L. The

senior decision makers will be sorted into top

candidates, medium candidates, and weak

candidates. Info-Tech’s recommended candidate

will also be flagged.

5. Select your project sponsor and meet with them

to discuss the pilot project and gauge their

interest in participating in it.

Steps


Use Info-Tech’s BI Project Charter Template to outline the purpose and goals of the pilot project

Once the project sponsor has been determined, discuss and document the intended purpose of the pilot project from the

perspective of IT and the project sponsor(s). It is important the project sponsor understands IT’s goals for the pilot project

and the rationale for doing a pilot project.

BI Project Charter

Meet with project sponsor and discuss the purpose of the BI project for your organization. Document the desired

impact the project will have on IT, the project sponsor, and the organization as a whole.

Use Info-Tech’s BI Project Charter Template

to outline and structure the project and obtain

the necessary resources.

• Introduce BI to the organization.

• Demonstrate the value of BI.

• Use the results to recruit more stakeholders for the BI initiative.

• Practice the implementation of a BI solution.

• Verify the top-down approach to BI.

Sample Goals for IT

• Access to more information.

• Better understanding of internal performance.

• Stronger understanding of customer behavior.

• Make better decisions.

• Make faster decisions.

Sample Goals for Project Sponsor


Define the project scope and proactively identify potential risks

Based on the selected project sponsor, determine the

departments and areas of the organization that will be

involved in the project and define the high level scope of

the project.

BI Project Charter

Meet with the project sponsor and identify the types of decisions that will be included in the project score. Given

that it is a pilot project, try to keep the scope small and pointed. Once the scope has been set, identify possible

risks and develop mitigation strategies. Transfer the results into the BI Project Charter.

Stakeholder: Chief Marketing Officer

Scope: The project will focus on enabling the chief

marketing officer to make a decision regarding

advertising, pricing, or customer segmentation for a

product line.

Risk Sample Mitigation Strategy

Data quality not

high enough to

use for decision

making.

Limit the scope of the project to one

area or one product where the data

may be of high quality or easier to

clean.

The tool does not

deliver as

promised.

The pilot project will only have to

satisfy the needs of one stakeholder.

Communicate with them early and

often and receive sign-off every step

of the way.

The scope of the

project keeps

changing.

The scope of the pilot project is

meant to be small with quick results.

Lock in the scope early with the

project sponsor and defer any

change requests for enterprise

deployment.

Stakeholder: Chief Financial Officer

Scope: The project will focus on enabling the chief

financial officer to evaluate the effectiveness of

historical spending within one business unit and

project future cash needs.


Assemble the project team and create accountability and clarity by assigning responsibilities in a RACI chart

The BI pilot project will require a cross-functional team within IT and should also have significant representation from the

project sponsor and their business unit. Make sure the responsibilities are clearly communicated to the selected project

sponsor. They should also be made aware that a pilot project may follow a quicker timeline than a usual IT project.

CIO Project

Sponsor

Project

Manager

Business

Analyst(s) Development

Team Architects

Pilot

Vendor

Project Scoping I C A R C C C

Requirements

Gathering I I A R C I C

Solution Building I I A C R R R

Solution Testing I I A R R I R

Results Gathering I C A R I I I

Results

Communication R R A I I I R

Project Closure R A R I I I R

BI Project Charter

Modify and populate the RACI chart above and transfer the end result into the BI Project Charter.


• Even though this is a bare bones pilot project, the proper

project management procedures should still be followed.

Begin by drafting a business case specifically for the

“duct tape” pilot project. The goal is to receive a small

amount of initial funding to get the pilot project off the

ground.

• At this point, the focal area of the pilot project is still

unknown. Therefore the funding will need to come from

IT R&D or multiple departments that could benefit from BI

in the long term. Fortunately the amount required for a

“duct tape” pilot project will be relatively low.

• The purposes of the presentation include: create

awareness for BI strategy, explain the approaches,

explain “what’s in it for me,” illustrate budgetary plan

options, and communicate the next steps.

• Transfer some content (goals, high level scope, and

risks) from the BI Project Charter to customize the BI

Business Case Presentation to pitch the BI strategy

project.

Make a business case for the BI pilot project to obtain approval as well as initial funding

Use Info-Tech’s BI Business Case Presentation to

convince your organization to pursue BI.

By not directly billing the department involved in the pilot project for any cost incurred, stakeholders will be

enticed to become involved and sponsor the pilot project.


Persuade your selected stakeholder to sponsor the project

Once IT has selected the ideal senior decision maker, you must arrange a

one-on-one meeting with them to convince them to sponsor the project.

Stakeholder

Name

Stakeholder

Department

Stakeholder

Enthusiasm for

BI

Stakeholder

Understanding

of BI

Stakeholder

Relationship

with IT

Strategic Impact

of Stakeholder

Decisions

Stakeholder

Credibility

Stakeholder

Influence

Stakeholder

Availability Category

John Smith Marketing Non-Existent Medium Strong Moderate Impact Medium High High Adequate

Candidate

Jane Smyth Research High High Mediocre Moderate Impact Medium Medium Low Top

Candidate

Alice Johnson Sales Medium Medium Non-Existent Moderate Impact Medium Medium High Weak

Candidate

Pursue the Top Candidate Identified in Info-Tech’s BI Pilot Project Planning Tool

Use Info-Tech’s BI Business Case

Presentation to persuade stakeholders to

sponsor the project.

Tips for Persuading the Selected Stakeholder

1. Inform them the ultimate goal is to provide them with additional

information to assist with decision making.

2. Offer to put the BI solution that comes out of the pilot project into

production first once a formal tool is purchased.

3. Minimize or eliminate any funding their department would be

responsible for.

4. Tell them they are your top choice for the role based on their skills

and experience.

5. Emphasize the large impact BI will have on the organization and the

accolades the project sponsor would receive if successful.


Prior to the Guided

Implementation

During the Guided

Implementation Value & Outcome

A spaarks Consulting Analyst will

discuss with you:

At the conclusion of the Guided

Implementation call, you will have:

Arrange a call now:

Email [email protected] or call +44 207 125 0478 to book a Guided Implementation in your organization.

Ask a spaarks advisor to review your project charter and provide team resourcing guidance

• Complete the Stakeholder

Selection Tab in Info-Tech’s BI Pilot

Project Planning Tool.

• Select a project sponsor for the BI

pilot project.

• Identify key members of the project

team and capture their roles and

responsibilities in a RACI chart.

• Complete the BI strategy pilot

project charter template.

• Recruiting the most suitable project

sponsor to be the focal point of the

pilot project.

• Your completed BI strategy pilot

project charter – strengths,

weaknesses, and areas for

improvement.

• Receiving sign-off to proceed to the

next phase.

• The ideal candidate for sponsoring

the pilot project.

• Validated BI pilot project charter.

• Identify potential pilot risks and

ways to mitigate.

• A plan for securing final stakeholder

approval to proceed with the pilot

project.












• Identify the major decisions made by the

project sponsor.

• Determine the scope of the pilot project.

• Create detailed mock-ups of the desired BI

solution.

• Determine the requirements of the BI solution.

• Remedy requirements gaps and deficiencies.


Execute the Pilot Project 3


• Meet with the selected pilot project sponsor to identify the major decisions BI can assist with.

• Evaluate the strategic value and feasibility of creating a BI solution for each decision.

• Pursue a BI solution for decisions with high strategic value and a straightforward implementation.

• Create a detailed mock-up of the desired BI solution to find out exactly what the sponsor wants.

• Determine the requirements for the BI solution.

• Overcome requirement gaps with creative “duct tape” solutions to minimize costs and development time.

How can my organization prove the value of BI without

purchasing a dedicated BI tool?

Key Question

Key Insight

Before committing to an expensive BI tool, use the

resources you already have to create a “duct tape”

solution to prove the value of BI to the strategic decision

makers at the top of the organization.

• Project Manager

• Project Sponsor

• BI Project Team

Team Members

Section Outcomes

• A clear project scope.

• A mock-up of the BI solution with sign-off.

• A well defined list of requirements for the BI

solution.

• A list of requirement gaps and deficiencies.

• Creative development solutions to minimize costs.


Follow Info-Tech’s six-step approach to executing a successful “duct tape” pilot project for BI

• Select the ideal senior decision maker to sponsor the project. Step 1

• List the major decisions made by the selected stakeholder. Step 2 • Evaluate the strategic value and feasibility for each

decision and choose 3-5 decisions suitable for a pilot project.

Step 3

• Define the data required and create a mock-up of the desired output. Step 4

• Build the “duct tape” solution and measure the benefits. Step 5

• Communicate the results to senior management. Step 6

Using the “duct tape” pilot project approach allows IT to focus on the needs of just one member of the

organization. This will result in a low-risk, low-stress environment for IT to develop experience

deploying a BI solution.


Populate Info-Tech’s BI Strategy Roadmap Template to ensure a consistent & clear vision throughout the project

• Completing a BI strategy will ensure the BI pilot project and eventual

enterprise-wide deployment is aligned with the organization’s strategy.

• At the conclusion of the project, your organization will have a BI

strategy that outlines a roadmap for all of the BI initiatives that will be

completed in your organization as well as any prerequisite projects

required to remedy any BI deficiencies.

Use Info-Tech’s BI Strategy Roadmap

Template to document the strategy and

roadmap for both the pilot project initiative

and the enterprise deployment.

Purchasing a BI tool is a lot like buying a car. If you make the decision without a thorough

understanding of your needs, you could end up with a fancy sports car that sits on your

driveway unused when what you really needed was a minivan to transport your family.

Sections of the BI Strategy Roadmap Template

Pilot Plan

• Stakeholder Selection

• Decision Required

• Specify Duct Tape Requirements

Enterprise Deployment

• Define BI Solutions

• Benefit and Cost Report

• Risks and Mitigation

Manage and Sustain BI Strategy

• BI Measurement

• Opportunities for Reassessment


Before jumping straight into solution design, understand how BI can help

the project sponsor by listing all of the major decisions they must make.

Meet with the selected pilot project sponsor to identify the major decisions BI can support

Sample Major Decisions Made by Project Sponsor

Optimize the allocation of one type of equipment

across the organization.

Determine which equipment should be disposed of.

Determine if investments should be made in new

equipment.

Identify new types of equipment required in the

organization.

Evaluate suppliers of equipment and decide if the

organization should change its current suppliers.

Calculate the return on investment for each type of

equipment.

Determine if additional equipment training is required.

• Arrange a meeting with the project sponsor and have them list

all of the major decisions they must make within the next

three to six months. The purpose of this is to identify a strong

set of decisions to become the focal point of the pilot project.

• Since this is a “duct tape” pilot project, try to limit the scope of

the decisions to just one area of the organization (department,

product line, branch, etc.). This will ensure the project size

remains small and the results are available quickly.

• Having all of the decisions laid out on the table will ensure the

scope is ideal for a pilot project. It also allows for the bundling

of multiple related decisions into one BI solution. Bundling is

beneficial because the more decisions you can help the

project sponsor with, without drastically growing the scope of

the project, the higher the probability will be for finding

success with BI.

The best way to build a BI solution for a senior decision maker is to work backwards from the major

decisions they must make and provide them with the exact information they need to make the decision – no

more, no less.


Use Info-Tech’s BI Pilot Project Planning Tool to list the decisions made by the project sponsor

Complete the Pilot Project Decisions tab in Info-Tech’s

BI Pilot Project Planning Tool to identify the optimal

decisions to include in the pilot project.

• Stakeholder decisions

Inputs Required

• Project Manager

• Project Sponsor

• Business Analysts

Participants Required

1. Identify the name and department of the project

sponsor at the top of the spreadsheet.

2. On the tab titled Pilot Project Decisions, list the

major business decisions they will make in the

next three to six months. Use Info-Tech’s role-

based pre-populated decision list to assist with

the decision-generation process.

Note: Make sure the list is exhaustive to encourage

bundling complementary decisions together for the

pilot.

Steps


Evaluate the strategic value and feasibility of creating a BI solution for each decision

• Once you have a list of decisions

made by the project sponsor, it is

important the right ones are included

in the scope of the pilot project.

• The goal is to select a set of decisions that would be easy to build

a “duct tape” solution for, but the

decisions must also be significant

enough to garner attention from

other stakeholders. It’s all about

finding a balance between the two

factors.

• Setting the scope for the pilot project

is important for generating BI

awareness and enthusiasm in the

organization. Don’t attempt to do so

much that the project fails to deliver

any value and don’t take on a project

so simple that no one notices the

results.

• Does this decision support a strategic objective?

• Will a successful outcome garner attention from other

stakeholders?

• Can the benefits of the decision be measured easily?

• Is this decision representative of one that is typically made in

your organization?

• How significant are the consequences of a poor decision?

Strategic Value of Decisions

• Does the data exist?

• What is the quality of the data?

• Does a tool exist in this domain to assist with the solution

creation?

Feasibility of Creating BI Solution

Senior decision makers have a tendency to classify all of their decisions as high strategic value to the

organization out of a natural bias. If this is the case, force them to rank their decisions against one another

and see which ones come out on top.


Pursue a BI solution for decisions with high strategic value to the organization and a straightforward implementation

Category Definition

Pursue These decisions fall into the “sweet spot” and are ideal for a “duct tape” pilot project because of the high

strategic value and high feasibility. Try to bundle three to five complementary decisions together from this

quadrant to make up the pilot project.

Too Costly These decisions are not ideal to include in a “duct tape” pilot project because they are too costly (time or

money) to create a solution. A crucial requirement of the pilot project is that the execution be

straightforward to implement and low risk – which these aren’t.

Not Enough

Impact

These decisions are not ideal to include in a “duct tape” pilot project because they would fail to prove the

value of BI to stakeholders.

Don’t

Pursue

These decisions shouldn’t be incorporated into the pilot project. It would be impractical to create a BI

strategy for these decisions and the results, if successful, would not be significant enough to generate buy-

in for BI.


Improve the feasibility of potential BI solutions by leveraging Info-Tech’s “duct tape” principles

“Duct Tape” Principles

Use Open Source

Technologies

Use Manual Processes

Encourage Innovation

Encourage Rapid

Development

Encourage Alternative Solutions

Use Existing Technologies

Remember the prototype doesn’t need to be perfect – it

just needs to be operational and usable. Eventually you

will need to invest in a solution that is much more

scalable, sustainable, and well architected, but for now

“duct tape” will do just fine.

There are six “duct tape” principles you can

leverage:

• Using existing and free open source technologies

will minimize upfront investments.

• Using manual processes are less effort in the short-

term and will allow for greater development

flexibility.

• Encouraging rapid development leads to decreased

time spent planning and allows for easier

accommodation of change requests.

• Encouraging alternative solutions and innovation

will free up the development team to focus on

delivering value rather than following procedures

and documenting results.


Use Info-Tech’s BI Pilot Project Planning Tool to find the ideal decisions to include in the pilot project

Complete the Decision Prioritization tab in Info-Tech’s


• Project Manager

• Project Sponsor



1. On the tab titled Decision Prioritization, evaluate

each decision against the five questions to

determine the strategic value. Use the drop-down

menus provided to respond. The responses

should come directly from the project sponsor.

2. Evaluate each decision against the three

questions to determine the feasibility of creating a

BI solution to assist with making this decision.

Use the drop-down menus provided to respond.

The responses should come from the IT

department.

3. Select three to five decisions to initially include in

the pilot project. These three to five should all be

related and must be addressed by one or two BI

solutions.

4. Enter the selected decisions into the BI Strategy

Roadmap.

Steps

BI Strategy Roadmap

Transfer the scatter plot and selected decision

into the BI Strategy Roadmap.


Create a data inventory to bridge the gap between what IT has and the data the organization knows about

Members of an organization are seldom aware of all of the data available to them for decision making. This is

particularly true for senior decision makers that might be removed from the operational data creation. Conversely,

IT is fully aware of the data being stored in the organization, but has a very limited idea of how the data could be

used to make decisions. It’s up to IT to begin bridging this gap by creating a data inventory for the pilot project.

Before meeting with the project sponsor to design the BI solution, create a catalog of the data available to assist

the decision maker. Start with the data domains within the organization and then indicate whether the data is clean,

unique, and integrated. Be sure to make note of any external databases the project sponsor could utilize.

Data Available

Data the Organization

Knows About

When you ask someone what they would like

for dinner, but they don’t know what’s in the

fridge, you are not going to get a good answer.

The same applies to a decision maker

unaware of the data in the organization.

Bridging the gap between IT and the business is something best done in a workshop setting because the

open forum will often lead to breakthroughs and transformational gains.


Use Info-Tech’s BI Pilot Project Planning Tool to evaluate the current and target decision-making process

Complete the Current & Future State tab in Info-Tech’s


• Project Manager

• Project Sponsor



1. On the tab titled Current & Future State, enter the

decisions to be included in the pilot project in

column B.

2. For each decision, record which factors are

relevant to current decision-making process by

assigning a weight to each factor based on its

significance. The different factors include intuition,

opinion, emotion, culture, and data.

3. Determine the factors that would affect the

decision in the target state.

4. Outline the current data, reports, dashboards, and

self-service datasets currently being provided to

assist with decision making.

5. Describe data, reports, dashboards and self-

service datasets that would be provided in the

target state with the BI solution.

Steps


Create a detailed mock-up of the desired BI solution to find out exactly what the sponsor wants

The ideal mock-up will display…

The overall placements of objects To demonstrate how objects are laid out relative to each other.

Available functionalities To show what functions, such as filters, list boxes, hyperlinks,

etc., will be available.

The types of information display To show how data/information is communicated via graph, data

gird, map, text, etc.

The flow of information To simulate the interactive flow in which a graph is clicked and

the user is brought to a drilled grid.

The types of filters To map which filters are affecting the content of other objects.

The key to effective solution design is making sure enough details are captured. Ensure the exact fields and

graphics the project sponsor wants on the BI solution are specified. If you only engage in vague discussions about

what the BI solution will do, you open yourself up to miscommunication errors, scope creep, rework, and an

underperforming BI solution.

A highly visual mock-up can go a long way toward creating buy-in and getting sign-off. Even though it is a

“duct tape” prototype on the back-end, try to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible on the front-end.


Follow Info-Tech’s tips for creating solution mock-ups

Solution Mock-Up Tips:

• The project sponsor needs to understand what BI tools are capable of before they can describe what they want.

Show them pictures of sample BI solutions from the Internet.

• Start by showing the project sponsor basic BI features and gradually progress to the more advanced features. If

you begin with the most complex BI features, the project sponsor might react with confusion. Even worse, the

project sponsor might become fixated on a feature and insist it be included in the pilot project even if it is not

required.

• Use whiteboards and flipcharts for diagraming - once the solution becomes visible the project sponsor will have

a much easier time describing what he/she wants and does not want.

• The Three Click Rule – for any BI solution intended to be used by senior management always design the

solution with the user experience in mind. A senior decision maker does not want to make more than three

clicks to find what they are looking for – keep it simple.

• The Five Tab Rule – 80% of a stakeholder’s BI dashboard needs can usually be satisfied with five tabs (a map,

a heat map, gauges, a time series graph, data table).

Leverage existing wireframe tools in the organization or make use of free open-source wireframe tools to

create a solution mock-up (e.g. https://gomockingbird.com/, http://lovelycharts.com/, http://www.lumzy.com/).

These tools can even be used during an elicitation session with the project sponsor.

https://gomockingbird.com/

http://lovelycharts.com/

http://www.lumzy.com/

http://www.lumzy.com/


Determine the requirements for the “duct tape” BI solution

Questions to ask… Lead to…

• What roles are required to build the solution and train end users?

• Who is responsible for which tasks?

• What skills and proficiency levels are required to build the solution?

People Requirements

• How will the data be extracted and transformed into information?

• What selection criteria will be used to extract data?

• What business rules are required to transform/enhance the data?

• What formulas are needed to calculate the metrics?

Process Requirements

• What internal data sources are required for the solution?

• What external data sources are required for the solution?

• Will the tool have to track history?

• What are the data quality requirements (clean, unique, integrated)?

• How the data is transmitted (open database connection, data feed,

messaging queues, incremental load)?

Data Requirements

• Which BI layers are required to provide the BI solutions?

• What technical capabilities are required for data presentation,

analysis, foundation, and ingestion?

Technology Requirements

When there are more requirements than resources can handle, group requirements into must-have and nice-

to-have. Focus on the must-have and inject nice-to-have when time allows. See Info-Tech’s research on

Requirements Gathering.

There are four types of requirements for a BI solution: people requirements, process requirements, data

requirements, and technology requirements. Use the questions below to uncover the requirements for your

proposed BI solution.





Use Info-Tech’s BI Pilot Project Planning Tool to document requirements and identify any gaps

Complete the Pilot Project Requirements tab in Info-

Tech’s BI Pilot Project Planning Tool.

• BI Solution Mock-Up

• People, Process, Data, and Technology

Requirements

Inputs Required

1. On the tab titled Pilot Project Requirements,

describe the technical requirements for building

the proposed “duct tape” BI solution. Examine the

requirements based on people, processes, data,

and technology (column G).

2. Determine if the requirements are currently

present, partially present, or not present in the

organization (column I).

3. The Pilot Project Planning tool will automatically

compute if there are gaps that exist in the

requirements (column K).

4. Based on the BI Solution Requirements in column

G, translate some of the solution requirements

into “duct tape” requirements. Tips on how to

translate into “duct tape” requirements can be

found on proceeding slides.

5. Transfer the BI solution requirements into the BI

Strategy Roadmap.

Steps


Use Info-Tech’s BI Pilot Project Planning Tool to bridge requirement gaps with “duct tape” solutions

Complete the Pilot Project Requirements tab in Info-

Tech’s BI Pilot Project Planning Tool.

• BI Requirement Gaps

• Creative “Duct Tape” Solutions

Inputs Required

1. Review Info-Tech’s tips for creating “duct tape”

solutions.

2. On the tab titled Pilot Project Requirements,

describe the technical requirements for building

the proposed “duct tape” BI solution. Examine the


and technology.

3. Transfer the “duct tape” requirements into the BI

Strategy Roadmap.

Steps

• BI Project Manager

• BI Development Team



Use “duct tape” to improve the feasibility of high cost solutions

If none of the decisions fall in the “Pursue” quadrant after the BI Pilot Project Planning Tool has been completed,

there are two options for salvaging the pilot project.

1. Attempt to improve the feasibility of decisions that fall in the “Too Costly” quadrant by using creative “duct tape”

short cuts. There is nothing IT can do to improve the strategic value of a decision, so focus on improving the

feasibility.

2. Find a new project sponsor. It may seem like an extreme measure, but it is better to not waste more of their

time if the end result will not be a successful BI pilot project. Be sure to let them know that their BI needs will

be addressed in the enterprise deployment, but they are not a good fit for the “duct tape” pilot project.

Pilot Project Decision Matrix

Low High

Strategic Value

Feasibility

High


Take a low-effort approach to bridging people and process gaps for the “duct tape” pilot project

People gaps include shortage of staff, insufficient skills, and proficiency levels. In the pilot project context, those deficiencies

can be temporary filled by using external resources and/or borrowing temporary staff from other business units.

Formal Requirements Duct Tape Equivalents

People

Roles • Invite vendors to work on the pilot project to minimize human resource commitment

from your side.

Responsibility • Create a pilot project team that borrows resources from BI/IT and business units.

The resources are consumed on a part-time basis to minimize disruption.

Skills and

Proficiency

Levels

• Get external resources on a temporary basis to provide the required skills and

proficiency levels.

• Have your internal resources work alongside the external resources to train them.

Process gaps include absent or poorly defined business processes and ambiguous business rules. In general, these gaps will

be difficult to remedy during a short pilot project and should be left unaddressed at this point. In the long term, it will be

important to clarify and formalize these processes, but for the pilot project they will not imped progress too much.


Process

Selection Criteria • Selection criteria should be minimal so that analyses are not limited by the

criteria.

Business Rules • Business rules should be light-weighted as they might be changed during

the pilot process.

Calculation Formula • Formula should be used at the query level or at the database level to

minimal the computation load.


Take a low-cost approach to bridging data gaps for the “duct tape” pilot project


Data

Correct Data

Requirements

• Use a data sample that filters out the unclean data instead of the full

data source.

• Make use of an open source data quality suite (e.g. Talend or Pentaho).

Unique Data

Requirements

• Use open source data deduplication tools (e.g. OpenDQ or

ChoiceMaker).

• Examine the degree of duplication and create duplication multipliers.

Estimate the percentage of duplicated data in a data set and use that

multiplier as a shortcut instead of de-duplicating the data.

Data Sources Required

• Take advantage of any free-trial offers from external sources.

• Some data sources that charge for usage are based on some open and

free data – consider using this data instead.

• Ask around in your organization, in many cases, the data sources are

already subscribed by someone.

Data gaps refer to incorrect, out of date, duplicated, or absent data. Using SQL can address some of the quality concerns

and duplication issues. Using a free open source deduplication tool can also go a long way to improving the quality of the

data. In the long term, it is important clean up the data, but ideally for the pilot project the scope has been set in a specific

area with minimal data gaps or at least easy to remedy data gaps. If “duct tape” solutions are insufficient for addressing

the data gaps, then the pilot project should be re-scoped to an area with cleaner data or postponed all together. For more

information on data quality, review Info-Tech’s project blueprint, Manage and Maintain Data Quality.

Data virtualization tools are good ways to mash-up data in a pilot project setting. It saves you time and it allows you to create a pilot dataset.

- Kamlesh Mhashilkar, Head of the Business Intelligence and Performance Management (BIPM) “ ”

http://www.talend.com/

http://www.pentaho.com/

http://www.dataqualitysolution.com/business-applications

http://oscmt.sourceforge.net/content/intro/index.html





Take a low-cost approach to bridging technology gaps for the “duct tape” pilot project

Formal Requirements “Duct Tape” Equivalents

Technology

Data Presentation Layer

Self-Service BI • Use Excel pivot tables and pivot charts to simulate the self-service experience

in which users can manipulate and modify a dataset on their own.

Data Visualization • Use new graph types such as heat maps, 3D graphs, spark lines, or bubble

charts, to stimulate a rich data visualization platform.

Data Analysis Layer

Data Mash-Up • Use SQL joins, views (virtual or materialized), temporary tables, modelling

capabilities in BI tools.

Social Analytics • Use open source social analytics (e.g. Gall, ThinkUp, Piwik).

Data Foundation Layer

Data Warehouse

and Data Marts • Virtualized the data persistence with materialized views, SQL joins, views,

temporary tables, modelling capabilities in BI tools.

Data Ingestion Layer

Connection to a

Data Source • Export and import.

Data Quality • Open source data quality suite (e.g. Talend, Pentaho).

Technology gaps are the most amendable to a “duct tape” solution. The technology foundation for the pilot can be

constructed on a temporary basis using traditional but reliable technologies such as SQL statements, joins, and database

views. You can also use your existing data virtualization tool or tap into open source ones.

http://www.gall.com.ve/

https://www.thinkup.com/

http://piwik.org/

http://www.talend.com/

http://www.pentaho.com/


Create a new mock-up after the technical requirements have been determined to ensure it still satisfies the project sponsor

Realign to get closer to the

“perfect mock-up”

Review Mock-up to Check Alignment:

1. Review the goals of the mock-ups.

2. Review what is meeting the expectations.

3. Review what is not meeting the expectations.

4. Further improve the mock-ups.

Leverage some best practices from the agile development methodology such as “success fast” and “fail

fast” to get yourself closer and closer to the perfect mock-up.

The mock-up is aligned with the stakeholder’s

expectations

“Success Fast”

The mock-up is not aligned with the

expectation

“Fail Fast”

As “duct tape” gets added to the BI solution, the mock-up will gradually look less and less like the mock-up

originally discussed. As the mock-ups get revised and updated, it is important that the project sponsor is

made aware and approves the change.


Build the prototype and get sign-off along the way

Get the project sponsor involved early and keep them involved throughout the project.

• Select the ideal senior decision maker to sponsor the project. Step 1

• List the major decisions made by the selected stakeholder. Step 2 • Evaluate strategic value and feasibility for each decision and choose 3-5

decisions suitable for a pilot project. Step 3

• Define the data required and create a mock-up of the desired output. Step 4

• Build the “duct tape” solution and measure the benefits. Step 5

• Communicate the results to senior management. Step 6

Once your organization has completed steps 1 to 4, you are ready to commence solution building. Be sure to

consult data architects and solution architects when creating the solution and keep the project sponsor up-to-

date on the progress.


Prior to the Guided

Implementation

During the Guided



discuss with you:



Arrange a call now:


Ask a spaarks advisor to assist with the execution of your organization’s BI strategy pilot project

• Complete Info-Tech’s BI Pilot

Project Planning Tool.

• Create a list of all the major

decisions of the project sponsor.

• Document the people, process,

technology, and data requirements

for the pilot project BI solution.

• Identify requirements gaps

between current capabilities and

the target state.

• Draft a mock-up of the pilot project

BI solution.

• Selecting the ideal decision(s) to be

to focus of the pilot project.

• Capturing the project sponsor’s

solution requirements and creating

a mock-up.

• Low-effort, cost effective “duct

tape” solutions for remedying any

requirement gaps.

• A clearly defined scope for the pilot

project.

• Well documented pilot

requirements.

• A series of creative ideas to

improve the feasibility of the “duct

tape” BI solution.




Track & Communicate the Results of the Pilot Project








• Create a pilot project scorecard.

• Interview stakeholders about the solution.

• Harvest lessons learned from the pilot

project.

• Host a meeting with senior executives to

share the pilot project results.


Communicate the Results of the Pilot Project 4


• Create a pilot project scorecard to quantify and summarize the tangible benefits of the BI solution.

• Interview stakeholders about the solution to capture the intangible benefits of the pilot project.

• Harvest lessons learned from the pilot project and transform them into best practices.

• Host a meeting with senior executives to share the pilot project results and promote BI to the organization.

How do I build and maintain enthusiasm for BI after the

pilot project is complete?

Key Question

Key Insight

Perform BI on the BI pilot project and use the results to

convince the organization’s top decision makers to

embrace the initiative. Be sure to interview the project

sponsor after the project to capture positive quotations

for qualitative benefits that could not be tracked.

• Project Manager

• CIO

• Project Sponsor + Other Senior Executives

Team Members

Section Outcomes

• A BI pilot project scorecard.

• Lessons learned from pilot project.

• A communication plan and meeting agenda.


Create a pilot project scorecard to quantify and summarize the tangible benefits of the BI solution

Use Info-Tech’s BI Strategy

Measurement Plan to monitor and

measure the success of the BI

solution.

The entire purpose of the pilot project is to demonstrate the value of BI in the organization. Therefore, it is imperative that

multiple goals be set because IT can’t take credit for the things they don’t measure. Be sure to establish benchmarks for the

current decision-making process to be used for comparison after the pilot.

Measuring the effectiveness of a decision is difficult because it

depends entirely on the goals of the decision. For instance, if the goal

of the decision is to improve product margins or increase asset

utilization rates – did that happen? Ideally those answers will be

available after the decision is made; however, for more broad

questions, this will not be the case. This is why the ease of calculating

the benefits of a decision was considered when the pilot project was

originally scoped.

Pilot Project Metrics

• Improved Time to Decision

• Decision Composition (data, intuition, culture, opinion, emotion)

• Effectiveness of Decision(s)

Don’t forget to perform BI on BI. Using BI on the BI project will allow the project team to measure

performance and make informed decisions specifically for the project.

http://www.infotech.com/research/bi-strategy-measurement-plan




Interview stakeholders about the solution to capture the intangible benefits of the pilot project

• Many of the benefits of BI are difficult to measure

such as effectiveness of decision making,

employee satisfaction, and customer satisfaction.

Even if the information is available to the

organization, it doesn’t mean the entire change

can be attributed to BI.

• To capture the impact BI had on these areas,

conduct interviews with any stakeholders involved

in and affected by the pilot project.

• Conducting a series of interviews will allow

organizations to aggregate the qualitative results

only.

• Document any positive impactful quotes that are

said during the interview and use them to

showcase the benefits of BI to other

stakeholders.

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”

– Albert Einstein


Harvest lessons learned from the pilot project and transform them into best practices for the enterprise deployment

One of the goals of the pilot project was for the IT team to gain experience deploying a BI tool. At the conclusion of the pilot

project, meet with the project team and the project sponsor to review what worked and what didn’t work. This template can

also be used to discuss lessons learned from other application deployment projects.

BI Strategy

Meet with the project team and the project sponsor to complete the lessons learned template in Info-Tech’s BI

Strategy Roadmap Template.

Stop Doing Start Doing Continue Doing

Project Planning and

Scheduling Relying totally on status reports. N/A Planning quick wins.

People, Roles, and

Responsibility N/A

Designating back-ups for the

roles.

Having ample business

involvement in project.

Change Control Allowing for last minute change

requests. N/A

Clarify the change management

process.

Requirements

Gathering N/A

Following the formal change

requirements gathering process. Creating mock-ups.

Solution Design Adding superfluous features and

focus on specific needs. N/A Designing highly visual solutions.

Vendor Management N/A Requesting more advanced

product demonstrations. Have vendors involved early.

Project

Communication N/A Speak more often with end users. Collecting KPIs.


Host a pilot demo session with all senior executives to share the pilot project results and promote BI to the organization

Executive Boardroom

Projector Screen = CIO

= CEO

= Project Sponsor

= Senior Executive

Pilot Project Demonstration Session

Goals

• To demonstrate the success of the pilot project.

• To show BI value – new revenue, cost savings, productive gain, improvements in decision quality.

• To sign up more project sponsors for the overall BI strategy.

• To show the executive support for BI.

Prerequisites

• Successfully completed the pilot project.

• The pilot sponsor is satisfied on the pilot achievements.

• Pilot scorecard is completed.

• Lessons learned have been harvested.

Getting this many senior executives into one meeting to discuss BI will be close to impossible for some

organizations. You may have to conduct a few group meetings or several individual meetings to build the

buy-in.


Continue to utilize the top-down approach and get your organization’s key decision makers in the room

Executive Boardroom


= CEO

= Project Sponsor

= Senior Executive

Pilot Project Demonstration Session Attendees

Audience Rationale

Marketing • Analytics allow for highly targeted customer segmentation, advertising, and product development.

Customer Service • Analytics can drive better customer service to improve client acquisition, engagement, and

retention.

Finance • Analytics can drive new revenue, identify cost savings, and find lost revenue.

Operations • Analytics can optimize operations, decrease costs, and reduce time to market.

HR • HR analytics ensure resources are used effectively and employees receive better support.

Board of Directors • The board of directors wants to drive the organization into an information organization.

CEO • The CEO wants to improve decision making and can use BI to encourage fact-based decision

making across the organization.


Communicate the benefits of BI to senior executives and build their appetite for fact-based decision making

Executive Boardroom


= CEO

= Project Sponsor

= Senior Executive

Pilot Project Presentation Content

Content to Show Presenter Rationale

Top-Down Approach CIO • Explain the top-down approach.

• Explain the rationale behind the pilot project approach.

The Value of BI Pilot Sponsor • Show the finished BI solution and explain how it was used.

• Explain the benefits of the solution.

Pilot Scorecard + Quotes Pilot Sponsor • Show some statistics to support the pilot success.

• Use quotes to complement the statistics.

Lessons Learned Pilot Sponsor • Show openness and share the lessons learned during pilot execution.

• Demonstrate IT’s value as a strategic partner, advisor, and collaborator.

Next Steps + Q & A CIO • Recruit more senior executives into BI initiative.


Don’t let the momentum for BI dissipate – follow up with senior executives to preserve their enthusiasm

Executive Boardroom


= CEO

= Project Sponsor

= Senior Executive

Session Completed

After the Pilot Demonstration Session

Post-session Tasks Purposes

One Page Summary Graphic

• Summarize the pilot success session in one page.

• Keep BI top of mind for senior executives.

• Communicate benefits to those not in attendance at meeting.

Publish Pilot Results on

Intranet

• Publish the results to the organization and allow the participants to view the results.

• If the pilot project had a BI vendor involved, offer to be the subject of case study, and

circulate the case study throughout the organization.

Communication Plan • Update communication plan to prepare for future communications.

Follow Up • CIO/VP BI to follow up with the senior executives in different departments on their

thoughts on joining the BI bandwagon.


Use Info-Tech’s BI Communication Planning Template to plan communication strategically during the project

Use Info-Tech’s BI Communication Planning

Template to develop a long-term communication

strategy for the BI solution deployment.

• Starting from the launch of the pilot project

to the closure of the enterprise BI

deployment, it is crucial that all

stakeholders are informed of the project

status, aware of their responsibilities, and

kept abreast of the successes of BI.

• Info-Tech’s BI Communication Planning

Template is comprehensive and covers all

communication details. The sections

include:

o Audience

o Message

o Objectives

o Medium

o Content Creators

o Timing & Frequency

o Spokesperson

o Feedback Mechanism

• This is meant to be a living document that

gets updated periodically. The BI project

manager should own this document.





Prior to the Guided

Implementation

During the Guided



discuss with you:



Arrange a call now:


Ask a spaarks advisor to provide you with best practices for tracking and communication results

• Set metrics for the pilot project.

• Collect data available to calculate

metrics.

• Interview all stakeholders affected

by the pilot project for their opinion

on outcome.

• Complete Info-Tech’s BI

Communication Planning

Template.

• Effective metrics for tracking a BI

solution.

• Best practices for using Info-Tech’s

BI Strategy Pilot Scorecard.

• Methods for communicating the

results to other senior executives.

• Techniques for creating and

preserving stakeholder interest in

BI after the pilot project is

complete.

• A comprehensive pilot project

scorecard.

• A refined communication plan for

each group of stakeholders.












• Enterprise deployment readiness checklist.

• Gather requirements from multiple senior

executives.

• Identify capability gaps and deficiencies.

• Create an action plan to address capability

gaps and deficiencies.

• Mitigate high impact risks.


Transition to the Enterprise Deployment of BI 5


• Determine if your organization is ready to proceed with the enterprise deployment of BI.

• Keep the pilot project sponsor happy after the pilot is over.

• Recruit members from four expert groups to create well-architected requirements for the BI solutions.

• Gather requirements from multiple senior executives and identify capability gaps and deficiencies.

• Create an action plan to address capability gaps and deficiencies.

• Mitigate high impact risks with a high probability of occurring.

How does my organization transition from the pilot

project to an enterprise-wide deployment of BI?

Key Question

Key Insight

The pilot project sponsor has been a tremendous

support in building enthusiasm for BI. Make sure that

their BI needs continue to be met as the “duct tape” is

removed and more of the organization’s most strategic

decision makers become involved in the initiative.

• Project Manager

• BI Project Team

• Senior Executives Interested in BI

Team Members

Section Outcomes

• Multiple BI solution mock-ups.

• A well defined list of requirements for the BI

solutions.

• An action plan to address capability gaps and

deficiencies.


Use Info-Tech’s Enterprise Deployment Checklist to determine if your organization is ready to proceed

Conduct a readiness assessment to ensure all the necessary prerequisites and preconditions are in place and are cleared to

a satisfactory level. If your response to any of the questions below is “no,” please review the next slide to determine the

appropriate course of action.

Has the BI pilot project been completed?

Have the results of the pilot project been determined?

Were the results of the pilot project positive?

Have the results of the pilot project been shared with senior executives?

Were the senior executives pleased with the project?

Do the senior executives understand how BI could benefit their area of the organization?

Has the funding model for the tool been approved?

Has a project sponsor been found for the enterprise deployment?

Does the BI project team believe they are ready for an enterprise BI deployment?

Is the data quality across the organization high enough for an enterprise BI deployment?

BI Enterprise Deployment Checklist

Don’t confuse having a desire for BI with the readiness to deploy a BI solution. In addition to enthusiasm for

BI, make sure senior executives fully understand the benefits and limitations of BI and IT is comfortable

proceeding with the enterprise deployment.


Evaluate progress thus far and take the appropriate next steps

If all prerequisites have been met, you are ready to proceed with the enterprise deployment of a BI tool. Begin by completing

a new project charter and recruiting the members of the team.

×

Prerequisites Not Met Next Steps

Has the BI pilot project been completed?

Have the results of the pilot project been

determined?

Have the results of the pilot project been shared

with senior executives?

Continue the Pilot Project

Don’t jump ahead to the enterprise deployment until the pilot

project has been completed. Return to sections three and four of

this blueprint and follow the step-by-step instructions.

Were the results of the pilot project positive?

Were the senior executives pleased with the

project?

Run Another Pilot Project

Senior executive buy-in is crucial for a successful enterprise BI

deployment. A pilot project is the best way to prove the value of

BI. Recruit a new project sponsor and run another pilot project

with a different focus. Be sure to perform a lessons learned

before piloting again. Return to lessons learned slide.

Do the senior executives understand how BI could

benefit their area of the organization?

Does the BI project team believe they are ready

for an enterprise BI deployment?

Bridge the Gaps

Set up another meeting with senior executives to further educate

them on BI’s uses and limitations. Meet with IT and discuss

major constraints impeding the enterprise deployment and focus

on remedying this before deploying a BI tool.

Is the data quality across the organization high

enough for an enterprise BI deployment?

Not Ready for Enterprise Deployment

Putting unclean data into an expensive BI tool will yield

disastrous results. Clean and manage your data before taking on

enterprise BI deployment.

×

× ×

×

×

×

×


Use Info-Tech’s BI Project Charter Template to obtain approval and the resources required to proceed

Always be cognizant that the enterprise deployment is a

completely different project from the pilot. It will require

more resources, a larger team, a longer timeline, and

much more funding. Therefore, a new project charter

should be created for the enterprise deployment.

Use Info-Tech’s BI Project Charter Template to

document the strategy and roadmap for both the

enterprise deployment.

Section Objectives

Context Put context into the enterprise deployment.

BI Benefits

Recap the BI benefits that your

organization can realize after the enterprise

deployment.

Sponsors List the project sponsors and their

roles/involvements in this project.

Project RACI

Chart

List the project team members and map out

their responsibilities.

Scope Outline the high level scope of the


Assumptions Outline the high level assumptions of the


Cost-Benefit

Analysis Outline the high level benefits and costs.

Pilot Project

(scoping & execution)


(scoping)


(execution)



Keep the pilot project sponsor happy after the pilot is over

The pilot project sponsor has been integral to the success of the BI initiative and they have contributed a great deal of their

time to the project. Don’t reward them by taking away their BI tool after the pilot is over. IT must keep the “duct tape” solution

operational or find a suitable alternative.

Alternative Description Pros Cons

Use Current “Duct

Tape” Prototype

Continue to run the “duct

tape” prototype as it

currently exists.

• Pilot project sponsor experiences

no BI interruption.

• There may not be resources

permanently allocated to

manually create the BI solution.

• The solution may have been

built on data quality shortcuts

that are ideal for ongoing

decision making.

Improve “Duct

Tape” Solution

Sustainability

Improve the foundation

and sustainability of the

BI solution and reinforce

the areas held together

by “duct tape.”

• Pilot project sponsor experiences

minimal BI interruption.

• The BI solution may be more

reliable and accurate than “duct

tape” prototype.

• Time is saved by using the

existing presentation layer.

• Efforts may be wasted on the

creation of a BI solution that the

formal enterprise BI tool could

do better and faster.

Wait for Formal BI

Solution

Discontinue the “duct

tape” prototype on the

condition that their

solution be created first in

the formal BI tool.

• The BI team is free to focus on

the enterprise deployment.

• The BI solution eventually

created will be reliable and

accurate.

• Pilot project sponsor will

experience BI interruptions

waiting for the solution to be

created.


Use Info-Tech’s BI Planning Tool to identify the major decisions senior stakeholders make on a routine basis

Complete the Decision Prioritization tab in Info-Tech’s

BI Planning Tool.

• BI Project Team

• Senior Decision Makers


Participants

1. On the tab titled Decision Prioritization, record the

decisions made by each senior stakeholder

interested in the BI initiative (column C, D, E).

2. For each decision, respond to the following five

questions:

• Does this decision support a strategic

objective?

• How significant is this decision to the

organization?

• How urgent is this decision to the organization?

• How frequently is this decision made?

• How much would BI improve the current

decision-making process?

3. After the questions are complete, a priority rating

will be assigned to each decision. The higher the

rating, the sooner the decision should be formally

incorporated into a BI solution.

Steps


Recruit members from four expert groups to create well- architected requirements for the BI solutions

Data Architects Solution Architects BI Application Specialists

Expertise

Domains

• Data architecture

• Data modelling

• Data hygiene

• Fuzzy matching

• Tracking data history

• Technology stack

• Load balancing

• Failover

• Backup and recovery

• Capacity planning

• Security

• Refining user interfaces

• Refining BI delivery methods

• BI application capabilities

• Configuring BI applications

Roles

• Ensure the data delivered to and

the data delivered by the BI tools

is correct, useable, and

integrated.

• Ensure the BI solutions can

support the users’ demands and

they are of high availability, high

scalability, and high security.

• Ensure the BI interface is easy to

use. The methods of delivery are

suitable for the users’ needs.

Business Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

Provide

Business

Context

Provide

Business

Context

Provide

Business

Context

Defining requirements for the BI solutions requires inputs from four groups of experts: business subject matter experts, data

architects, solution architects, and BI application specialists. Collectively, they address the BI solution holistically by looking at

the organization through business (process), data, and technological lenses.


Use Info-Tech’s BI Project Planning Tool to evaluate the current and target decision-making processes

Complete the Current & Future State tab in

Info-Tech’s BI Planning Tool.

• Senior Decision Makers Stakeholders

• Business SMEs

• Solution and System Architects

• BI Project Team



1. On the tab titled Current & Future State, enter the

decisions to be included in a BI solution (column

B).

2. For each decision, record which factors are

relevant to current decision-making process by

assigning a weight to each factor based on its

significance. The different factors include intuition,

opinion, emotion, culture, and data.

3. Determine the factors that would affect the

decision in the target state.

4. Outline the current data, reports, dashboards, and

self-service datasets currently being provided to

assist with decision making.

5. Describe data, reports, dashboards, and self-

service datasets that would be provided in the

target state with the BI solution.

Steps


Bundle decision-maker needs based on the data required

Once the senior stakeholders have described their current decision-making process, IT must aggregate and categorize the

decisions based on the data required. For instance, two groups may both be interested in the same customer data, but will

use the data for two completely different decisions. Whenever possible, bundle user needs together to create one solution

with multiple audiences in mind. Just be careful not to attempt to make one solution be all things to all people.

Marketing

Operations

“Are customers pleased with the

quality of our product?”

“Should we consider switching

our supplier of raw materials?”

User Group Data

Sales Data

Customer

Complaints

Product

Margins

Brand

Perception

Customer

Satisfaction

BI Solution

Quality

Control

Supplier

Attributes

Product Quality Dashboard

What are the business needs? Do I understand the business problems? How will you link the needs to the solutions?

- Robert Goodman, Director of BI & Analytics, Georgetown University “ ”


Aggregate and prioritize stakeholder decisions to determine the most urgent requirement gaps

Complete the Project Requirements tab in Info-Tech’s

BI Planning Tool.

• BI Solution Mock-Up

• People, Process, Data, and Technology

Requirements

Inputs Required

1. On the tab titled Project Requirements, bundle

similar decisions together that can be addressed

with one BI solution.

2. Describe the technical requirements for building

the proposed BI solution. Examine the


and technology (column H).

3. Determine if the requirements are currently

present, partially present, or not present in the

organization (column J).

4. The BI Planning Tool will automatically compute if

there are any gaps existing in the requirements

(column L).

Steps


Review your requirements gaps displayed in Info-Tech’s BI Planning Tool and develop an action plan


BI Planning Tool.

• BI Current State & Future State

• BI Requirements

Inputs Required

1. On the tab titled Gap Summary, review the

requirements gaps displayed (column C).

2. Prioritize each requirement gap based on how

much it impedes the development of the BI tool.

The priority levels are Low, Medium, and High.

3. Develop a strategy for remedying each

requirement gap. Document the action plan in

column G. Focus on the gaps affecting multiple BI

solutions first to eliminate major barriers up-front.

Steps

In the pilot project, any requirement gaps were fixed with “duct tape.” For the enterprise

deployment, people, process, data, and technology gaps need a permanent fix.


Develop a comprehensive strategy to bridge any gaps between the current state and target state

Once the target state and the current state are formulated, the target state can be compared to the current

state to figure out the requirement gaps that must be addressed. The gaps can be viewed in two ways:

1. A list of capability gaps – BI capabilities may need to be enhanced to some

maturity level before they can be used to create BI solutions. BI capabilities are

like building blocks that are used to construct BI solutions.

2. A list of BI solutions – BI solutions repackage different BI capabilities to

address the decision needs required by the business. BI solution gaps can be

bridged to fill the missing capabilities in people, process, data, and technology.

For example, a BI solution, namely “Smart Retention,” may require various BI capabilities to work –

dashboard, self-service BI, alert, parameterized report, in-memory cube, data integration, data matching,

database connectors.

“Smart Retention”

(a BI solution) Self-service BI

In-memory Cube

Data Integration

BI Capabilities


Define comprehensive requirements for BI solutions by specifying requirements from four perspectives

People

How to use roles, responsibilities, and skills

to build the solutions?

Process

How to define selection criteria, business rules,

and calculation formulas?

Data

How to define data quality, data integration, and data

uniqueness?

Technology

How to define technical capabilities that empower

the solution?

BI Solution Requirements

Detailed requirements for the BI solution need to be defined based in four key areas: people, process, data, and technology.

Don’t just focus on the technology requirements. People, process, and data requirements are equally as

important for BI deployment. A technically advanced solution will fail without the support of people, process,

and good data.


Improve your BI people requirements

Tactics Description Playbook

WIKI sessions WIKI stands for “What I Know Is.” In WIKI

sessions, subject matter experts (SMEs)

contribute their knowledge and collaborate

toward a set of requirements or design options

collaboratively.

Use WIKI working sessions to work with

SMEs from four areas: business SME, BI

SME, solution architects, and enterprise

architecture to define requirements

collaboratively.

External Vendors The BI strategy project may involve external

vendors.

Use vendors in two areas: areas that require

very technical skills and areas that require a

lot of facilitation. A third party can do a very

good job of facilitating. Your organization can

learn the technical skills.

Requirements Gathering Ask four key questions and turn the answers

into requirements:

1. What do you do in your role?

2. What decisions do you need to make?

3. What data/information do you need to

make those decisions?

4. What is your pain in regards to

information?

Ask the four questions and have the business

party elaborate on the answer. A lot of clues

will be found from the answer and those clues

can be used to define requirements.

People Process

Data Technology


Leverage Info-Tech’s tactics to better define people requirements. Optimize

communications between different groups and foster collaborate to ensure

everyone is on the same page working toward the same goals.


Improve your BI process requirements


Consolidate Competing

Business Rules

Have the stakeholders come to a consensus

and consolidate competing business rules into

one rule.

Facilitate sessions to get consensus on

competing business rules. Involve senior

management if stuck.

Selection Criteria Filter out irrelevant data and do not put

selection criteria on relevant data.

Help the stakeholders to define selection

criteria for relevant data. Set expectations with

the stakeholders that there will be filters on

reports/dashboards to customize filtering on

their own.

Calculation Formulas Some calculation formulas are very complex.

Instead of building complex formulas, build

simple formulas and combine them to create

the complex formulas.

Use simple formulas to show intermediate

calculations so that end users can trace the

calculation step by step.

Leverage Info-Tech’s tactics to better define process requirements. The tactics

are about how to effectively define business rules, selection criteria, and

calculation formulas.

People Process

Data Technology



Improve your BI data requirements


Data Profiling Perform data profiling to understand the

involved data in depth.

Profile the data sources for each BI solution to

uncover meaningful insights about the data.

Present the data insights in a WIKI session to

help SMEs to define the requirements.

Track History Define the process for handling changes in the

data. Do you need to reconstruct history?

Inquire if the business needs to reconstruct

history for historical or trending analysis.

Hierarchy Define the hierarchy to ease data navigation

and data grouping.

Include hierarchy requirements to define

hierarchy to ease data navigation.

Uncover/ask for additional hierarchies.

Leverage Info-Tech’s tactics to better define data requirements. Ensure the data

is well-defined, easy to interpret and filter, and reflects all relevant historical data

points.

People Process

Data Technology



Improve your BI technical requirements


Dashboard/Visualization Promote the use of dashboards and

visualization instead of table-like canned

reports.

Review requirements to see if you can use

dashboards/data visualizations to present BI

content. Use graphs and visualization instead

of data tables. Connect graphs and

visualizations to detailed page.

Geographical Mapping Promote the use of geographic analysis to

uncover locational insights.

Review requirements to see if location data

need to be presented. If yes, use maps to

visualize geographic relationships.

Self-Service BI For each BI solution, include an option to use

self-service BI to allow users to ask open-

ended questions and to uncover insights by

slicing and dicing.

For analytically mature organizations, include

BI as a delivery method to allow users to ask

open-ended questions and to create their own

reports.

Multiple Delivery Methods For each BI solution, include multiple delivery

methods so that users can select the most

suitable delivery methods to suit their needs.

Review requirements. If there are different

groups of users using the same solution,

define multiple delivery methods to suit their

special needs.

Leverage Info-Tech’s tactics to better define technology requirements. Even

though BI tools give stakeholders access to more information, the users can still

be fickle about using the tool. Make sure the technology provides a friendly user

interface and a streamlined experience.

People Process

Data Technology



Create a BI deployment budget using Info-Tech’s BI Planning Tool


BI Planning Tool.

• Organization hurdle rate

• Cost estimates

Inputs Required

1. On the tab titled BI Budget, input your

organization’s hurdle rate. Consult with the

finance department to find your organization's

hurdle rate. If your organization does not have a

hurdle rate, consider the percentage return the

funding allocated to the project could yield if it

was allocated elsewhere in the organization.

2. Enter the initial investments for the BI tool in the

table (column C).

3. Enter the ongoing costs of the BI tool in the table

(column D, E, F, G, H).

Steps


Develop a risk matrix to identify, prioritize, and mitigate BI strategy project risks

A risk matrix is a useful tool that allows you to track risks on two dimensions: probability and impact. Use this matrix to help

organize and prioritize risk and develop mitigation strategies and contingency plans appropriately.

Low Impact Medium Impact High Impact

High Probability

Medium Probability

Low Probability

Risk Color Action

1st Priority Risks – Mitigate immediately without any delay

2nd Priority Risks – Mitigate in days. Try to reduce the likelihood or impact.

3rd Priority Risks – Mitigate in the near future. Monitor them proactively.

4th Priority Risks – Mitigate is not needed. Deal with the risks when they arise.

Project risk mitigation is similar to purchasing insurance – only invest in mitigating risks with a reasonably

high impact and high probability.


Avoid falling victim to common BI project risks

These are some of the most common BI risks based on Info-Tech’s research:

Low Impact Medium Impact High Impact

High

Probability • Users revert back to Microsoft

Excel to analyze data.

• BI solution does not satisfy

the business need.

• BI tools become out of sync

with new strategic direction.

• Poor documentation creates

confusion and reduces user

adoption.

• Fail to address data issues:

quality, integration, definition.

• Inadequate communication

with stakeholders throughout

the project.

• Users find the BI tool interface

to be confusing.

Medium

Probability

• Fail to define and monitor

KPIs.

• Poor training results in low

user adoption.

• Organization culture is

resistant to the change.

• Lack of support from the

sponsors.

• No governance over BI.

• Poor training results in

misinformed users.

Low

Probability • Business units independently

invest in BI as silos.


Mitigate high probability, high impact risks

High Probability + High Impact Risks

Action: Mitigate

Timeline: Immediate

Risk Description Recommendations

Fail to address data issues:

quality, integration, definition.

The BI tool is built on faulty data

and the tool is delivering low

quality data that may or may not

be trusted by the organization.

• Leverage existing data governance and data

stewardship programs. See Info-Tech’s

research on data governance.

• Create a data architecture plan to address the

poor data quality. See Info-Tech’s research on

data quality.

Inadequate communication

with stakeholders throughout

the project.

Poor communication with

stakeholders results in

confusion, a loss of interest,

diminishing trust, and unmet

expectations.

• Utilize Info-Tech’s stakeholder communication

template to ensure all details are covered. See

Info-Tech’s research on stakeholder

management.

Users find the BI tool

interface to be confusing.

The BI tool does not have

intuitive interfaces, resulting in

lack of interest and usage. Users

may revert to Excel or find a

solution for their own silo.

• Create detailed mock-ups using Info-Tech’s

tips to make sure the interfaces are aligned

with the use cases.

• Develop a comprehensive training program to

train users how to interact with the tool and

also the data definitions.






Mitigate medium probability, high impact risks

Medium Probability + High Impact Risks

Action: Mitigate

Timeline: Near Future


Lack of support from the

sponsors.

Sponsors not supporting the

project can result in a loss of

resources, funding, or poor

adoption of the BI tool.

• Be very clear with timelines and expectations

with sponsors from the start. Interact with the

sponsors early and often and provide status

reports throughout the project.

• Use iterative development cycles to prove

value quickly and maintain interest.

No governance over BI.

There is no governance over BI

and the program because it is

disorganized and misaligned with

organization goals.

• Establish a BI center of excellence to oversee

the BI program. See Info-Tech’s research on BI

operations.

Poor training results in

misinformed users.

Insufficient training has resulted

in users incorrectly using the tool

and misinterpreting the results.

In turn, bad business decisions

are made.

• Clarify data definitions across the organization

and create an index or glossary.

• Invest in initial and ongoing user training.

• Use ambassadors to create an approachable

contract for users to ask questions.




Mitigate high probability, medium impact risks

High Probability + Medium Impact Risks

Action: Mitigate or Resolve

Timeline: Immediately


BI solution does not satisfy

the business need.

The solution may meet the

technical requirements, but it still

might not address the business

need.

• Creating visual mock-ups of the proposed

solution and soliciting feedback are the best

ways to ensure business needs are met.

• Using iterative development cycles and

performing user acceptance testing will bring to

light any misalignments between the solution

and business need early.

BI tools become out of sync

with new strategic direction.

The organization may change

goals and priorities or modify its

business model. As a result, the

BI solution may no longer be

displaying accurate, complete, or

relevant data.

• Complete a BI strategy refresh often. The

trigger for the review could be time-driven or

event-driven. See section 7 of this project

blueprint for more information.

Poor documentation creates

confusion and reduces user

adoption.

Knowledge may become

scattered or lost across the

organization. Users may not

know which tools already exist

and could be no better off than

before the BI deployment.

• Create a BI catalog to allow users to select the

BI tools they need.

• Clarify data definitions across the organization

and create an index or glossary.


Mitigate medium probability, medium impact risks

Medium Probability + Medium Impact Risks

Action: Resolve



Fail to define and monitor

KPIs.

Without KPIs, it will be difficult to

determine if the project has been

a success. Track multiple KPIs to

improve the odds of achieving

success.

• Define core KPIs up-front and don’t wait until

the project has started to begin measuring. It is

imperative that benchmarks be established.

See section 6 of this project blueprint.

Poor training results in low

user adoption.

No one is going to use a tool

they don’t understand or trust.

Without adequate user training,

there will be a very low BI

uptake.

• Invest in initial and ongoing user training.

• Offer “lunch and learn” sessions to

continuously improve user skills.

• Use ambassadors to create an approachable

contract for users to ask questions.

Organization culture is

resistant to the change.

Moving away from opinion and

intuition-based decisions toward

data-based decision making is a

large change. Many in the

organization will resist the

change and revert to old habits.

• Create a change management strategy to track

and coordinate changes. See Info-Tech’s

change management research.

http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/optimize-the-change-management-process




Mitigate high probability, low impact risks

High Probability + Low Impact Risks

Action: Resolve



Users revert back to Microsoft

Excel to analyze data.

Some users are going to

continue to use Microsoft Excel

for data analysis. This will result

in versioning issues,

spreadmarts, and BI silos.

• Integrate Microsoft Excel into the BI tool. Allow

for data to be easily exported into Microsoft

Excel for further analysis. As long as users

continue to go back to the BI tool for

information, the versioning issues will not be a

problem. See Info-Tech’s research on BI tool

strategies.




Mitigate low probability, high impact risks

Low Probability + High Impact Risks

Action: Mitigate



Business units independently

invest in BI as silos.

If business users are unhappy

with the current BI solution or

have grown tired of waiting for a

solution, they may purchase one

independently for their business

unit specifically.

• The BI model should be changed from a

helpdesk model to a partnership model. In the

partnership model, IT/BI will partner with the

business to address the decision needs of the

business – shadow IT shouldn’t be an issue.


Take advantage of Info-Tech’s extensive research offerings to assist with resolving issues related to BI strategy

Some of your BI solutions may require improvements in the domains of BI and data management. Info-Tech has

comprehensive research that covers BI from end-to-end.

Research

Area Blueprint Objectives

Governance Effectively Manage

Data Governance

Establish data governance steering committees,

and have data owners in place to ensure that the

launch of the data governance program is a

success.

Organization

Structure,

People, and

Process

Assess and Optimize

BI Operations

Define the organization structure for BI, develop BI

processes, establish roles and responsibilities,

evaluate skills, and assess application functions to

optimize the BI operating model.

Data Data Architecture:

Manage Valuable

Data Assets

Determine the organization’s data value and risk,

perform a data audit, develop a data architecture,

create an implementation plan, and establish

success metrics to get the most value out of your

organization’s data.

Technology Develop a BI Tool

Strategy

Determine BI profile, BI goals and measures,

principles, and workgroup needs to plan the target

state BI capabilities across the data presentation,

analysis, foundation, and ingestion layers.

Need help in

other BI and

data

management

topics?

The BI market is changing rapidly. Stay abreast of new releases and trends to ensure your organization is

taking full advantage of the vendor offerings. See Info-Tech’s BI Vendor Landscape.












Prior to the Guided

Implementation

During the Guided



discuss with you:



Arrange a call now:


Ask a spaarks advisor to assist you with the transition to the enterprise BI deployment

• Complete Info-Tech’s BI Planning

Tool.

• Create a list of all of the major

decisions the key stakeholders

make on a routine basis.

• Document the people, process,

technology, and data requirements

for the BI solutions.

• Identify requirements gaps

between current capabilities and

the target state.

• Develop an action plan for

remedying the requirement gaps.

• Aggregating and prioritizing

stakeholder BI needs.

• BI use cases.

• Industry and BI vendor trends.

• Capturing requirements for the BI

solution.

• Remedying gaps between the

solution requirements and current

capabilities.

• A prioritized list of BI solutions to

develop.

• A well documented list of BI

requirements.

• A prioritized action plan for

remedying gaps between the

solution requirements and current

capabilities.

• A BI strategy roadmap is created.




Track & Measure the Value of the BI Strategy








• Track progress of the BI solutions and

monitor performance measures.

• Extract and collect data for defined KPIs to

get started in measuring.

• Interview stakeholders to ensure BI meets

expectations.

• Monitor BI on an ongoing basis.


Measure the Value of BI 6


• Track progress of the BI solutions and monitor performance measures to ensure benefits are realized.

• Extract and collect data for defined KPIs to get started in measuring.

• Interview with stakeholders to align the BI program with the expectations.

• Monitor on an ongoing basis to identify opportunities for reassessment of the BI strategy.

How should our organization track the success of its BI

program?

Key Question

Key Insight

Routinely check if the BI program is meeting the needs

of the senior decision makers as well as the rest of the

organization. Also ensure the BI program continues to

be aligned with the organization’s goals and objectives.

• BI Project Team

Team Members

Section Outcomes

• A list of robust BI metrics

• A BI project tracking tool


Track progress of the BI solutions and monitor performance measures to ensure benefits are realized

Distinguish between tracking and measuring. A successful BI strategy will need both tracking and measuring

to ensure the project is progressing and archiving the goals.

Track BI Strategy Progress Monitor BI Strategy Performance

To track the progress of the BI solutions

outlined in the BI strategy roadmap.

To quantify and measure the BI benefits

as anticipated in the BI strategy. A

he

ad o

f S

ch

ed

ule

On

Sch

ed

ule

Be

hin

d S

ch

ed

ule

Faster

Effective Economical

Examples % Complete Compare to

planned

Identifying decision

needs for CFO 85% On track

Build mock-up for

CHRO 80%

Behind

schedule

Examples Goal Actual

Self-service BI % 25% 20.5%

Time to information 7 days 6.5 days


Track the implementation of BI strategy as outlined in the BI Strategy Project Tracking Tool

Without tracking, it will be impossible to determine when the BI solutions are

completed, and when benefits can be realized.

• To identify the task owners who may be responsible for delays. Deduce mitigations in case of delays.

• To determine when new organization structure, process, people, or application functionality are rolled out and communicated.

• To determine when the BI solutions are completed and begin to address previously omitted gaps.

• From the assignment of a task owner to a BI solution until the initiative’s completion.

• When a task is completed, the tracking mechanism should notify the owner(s) of proceeding task(s).

• The Head of BI (BI Manager, Director of BI, etc.) is responsible and accountable for the BI strategy project.

• All task owners are responsible for executing their respective BI solutions.

Why track BI solutions?

Time frame of the tracking:

Who is responsible for tracking?

Use the BI on BI approach to track the implementation of the BI strategy by integrating a project management

tool with the BI platform for project reporting. If you do not have one, use Info-Tech’s tracking tool.

Share tracking outputs on a corporate intranet or on a collaboration platform such as Microsoft SharePoint to

share project progress to encourage accountability.


Use Info-Tech’s BI Strategy Project Tracking Tool to facilitate the tracking of the BI strategy implementation

1. Enter the information required on the tab

titled Data Entry.

2. Enter all BI solutions, their owners and

estimated start and end dates on the tab

titled BI Solution Tracking.

3. As BI solutions are initiated and

completed, update dates on the second

tab. Use the tab titled Issue Log to

identify any known issues and risks,

which can then be tracked as BI solutions

are implemented.

4. Access the tab titled Progress Report to

produce a progress report regarding the

overall development of all BI solutions.

Steps

• Project Manager

• Task Owners

• Business Intelligence Head


BI Strategy Project Tracking Tool



Build a comprehensive measurement plan by combining both quantitative and qualitative measures

Traditionally, measurement plans focus on capturing quantitative measurements. Our research found that it is a

best practice to measure quantitatively and qualitatively. Qualitative measurements can be a quote from the end

users or an exemplary use case. Qualitative measurements can be gathered by interviewing with the BI users.

Refer to the benefits outlined in Section 1 and develop a metrics plan that would allow your organization to

recognize and quantify any type of benefit.

Quantitative Measures

• Measure how fast

• Measure how effective

• Measure how affordable

Qualitative Measures

• Users’ quote

• Exemplary use case

• New ways to do things

Comprehensive

measurement plan


Extract and collect data for defined KPIs to get started in measuring

Some KPIs can be calculated automatically by automating data extraction, transformation, and presentation.

Typically, source data for BI measures can be extracted and transformed by ETL and then loaded into a data

respository. A BI platform can be used to create some dashboards or scorecards using the BI measure data in the

data respository. The advantages of this approach include saving time to report on BI measures and boosting the

consistence and accuracy of the BI measures. The dashboards and scorecards can also be shared among the

organization.

Below is a list of some data sources that can be used to provide data for calculating BI measures:

Faster Effective Economical

Time to information: extract from

request management system

and/or project management

system. Extract the request data

and the completion data. The

difference presents the time to

information.

Satisfaction level: extract post

request/project survey data that

collects requesters’ feedback on

the deliverables, services, and

the process. If there is not

currently a survey mechanism,

sample survey requesters.

BI unit cost measures: sum up

fixed cost and operating cost,

normalized to yearly cost. Extract

the number of BI users and the

number of reports/dashboards

from the BI application.

Don’t waste time performing manual assessments of each performance measure. Use BI applications

already in place to consolidate, analyze, and visualize the performance measures.


BI benefits are quantified facts about the execution of the BI strategy project,

reflecting the degree of adherence to business needs alignment.

Use Info-Tech’s BI Strategy Measurement Plan to measure BI benefits

1. Define key success factors in Tab 2.

Define Key Success Factors.

2. Define project measures in Tab 3. Define

Measures.

3. Verify if baseline data exists and its

quality is adequate in Tab 3. Define

Measures.

4. Record initial measurements and

measurements over time in Tab 4. Enter

Measures Over Time.

5. Document sponsors' and end users'

evaluations and comments in Tab 6.

Capture Comments.

Steps

• Project Manager

• Business Intelligence Head

• Project Sponsors



Interview with stakeholders to align the BI program with the expectations

Interview the stakeholders on an annual basis to make sure the BI program is aligned with

their expectations. Uncover ideas on how to improve the BI program and the associated BI

processes – those ideas can be used to update future BI strategies.

About the BI processes…

• How to streamline the decision-making process?

• What needs to be done to improve the quality of the BI deliverables?

• How to improve collaboration?

• How to maximize information sharing?

About the BI program…

• Are your decision needs satisfied?

• What exceeds your expectations?

• What fails to meet your expectations?

• How to improve the BI program?

Solutions in BI Program:

1. Retention…

2. Supply chain…

3. Sales funnel…

BI Program

BI Processes

Reach out to the stakeholders and touch base with them on their perceptions of the BI program. The BI program may meet requirements but be perceived badly.

- Kamlesh Mhashilkar, Head of the Business Intelligence and Performance Management (BIPM) “

”


Monitor on an ongoing basis to identify opportunities for reassessment of the BI strategy

The BI strategy is a living document and it needs to

be reassessed often. Reassessment ensures the BI

strategy is relevant to the business needs. There are

three approaches in reassessing BI strategy: event

driven, time driven, and technology driven.

In fact, Info-Tech takes the advantages of both and

comes up with a hybrid approach. The hybrid

approach makes sure that reassessment responds to

the changes in the organization or if there are no

major changes, the BI strategy expires after a time

period and reassessment is needed at that point. The

advantages of this approach include:

• BI strategy is treated as a living document.

• Quick and agile response to the business change.

• BI strategy will expire after a predefined period.

Yes

Performance

measure hits

thresholds

Changes in

corporate

strategy

Changes in

BI technology

Reassessment

is due

Event driven

Time driven

Renew

BI Strategy

Yes

Yes

Technology

driven

Solicit new pilot projects when you renew your BI

strategy to further enhance BI penetration.

Info-Tech Insight









Track and Measure the Value of BI


• Build a network of BI ambassadors to

promote the BI initiative.

• Develop operational and tactical level BI

solutions.

• Update the communication plan to include

BI promotion activities.


Promote BI Within the Organization 7


• Build a network of BI ambassadors to promote the BI initiative.

• Develop operational and tactical level BI solutions that complement the strategic decisions.

• Update the communication plan to include BI promotion activities.

How does my organization promote BI and encourage

strong user adoption?

Key Question

Key Insight

A top-down approach doesn’t mean this is a “top only”

initiative. Begin to develop solutions at the operational

and tactical levels that complement the solutions

developed at the strategic levels.

• CIO

• BI Ambassador Team

Team Members

Section Outcomes

• A BI ambassador network

• A BI communication plan


Build a network of ambassadors to promote BI and report to IT with end-user feedback and requests

BI Ambassador BI/IT Leaders

Pull

Push • Key Messages

• Best Practices

• Training Materials

• Feedback

• Complaints

• Requests

BI Ambassadors are influential individuals in the organization that are proficient at using BI tools and passionate about

analytics. The network of ambassadors will be IT’s eyes, ears, and even mouth on the frontline with the users.

Ambassadors will promote BI, communicate any messages IT may have, as well as keep tabs on user satisfaction.

Look for individuals with:

• A good relationship with IT.

• A large breadth of experience with BI – not just one dashboard.

• Approachability and influence over their peers.


Leverage BI ambassadors throughout the organizational structure

Front-line Level

Manager Level

Executive Level

BI CoE or BI Steering

Committee

CEO or Board of Directors

Business Unit 1

Executive Ambassador

Manager Ambassador

Front-line Ambassador

Business Unit 2


Manager Ambassador


Business Unit 3


Manager Ambassador


Business Unit 4


Manager Ambassador


Remember “top-down” doesn’t mean “top-only.”

Having BI ambassadors at every level of the organization and across each of the business units will maximize coverage and

allow for information to travel quickly. The cross-sectional make-up of the ambassadors ensures there is adequate

representation across the organization. Try to build the network as large as possible, but avoid creating a situation where

managing the ambassadors becomes difficult or ensuring they are promoting a consistent message becomes challenging.

Always keep in mind that the ambassador is an informal role.


Ensure your BI program is transparent and cascades down from the strategic level to the operational level

VP Customer

Service

Monitoring the Number of Complaints

Customer

Service

Manager

Customer

Service

Manager

Customer

Service

Manager

Customer

Service

Manager

Customer Satisfaction Dashboard

Dashboard Contents

• Number of Complaints (by region, store, etc.)

• Number of Complaints (by type, severity, etc.)

• Customer Satisfaction Scores

• Number of Product Returns

• Number of Product Defects

• Number of Repeat Purchases

If the VP of customer service uses a customer satisfaction

dashboard to monitor and evaluate customer service managers,

the customer service managers need to be made aware of the

contents on the dashboard to be able to assess and modify their

own performance. Furthermore, the customer service managers

should have access to their own BI tool that enables them to

further investigate any issues on the VP’s dashboard.

Info-Tech Insight


Create an incentive program to motivate BI ambassadors

You need to motivate ambassadors to take on this additional responsibility. Make sure the BI ambassadors are recognized in

their business units when they go above and beyond in promoting BI.

Reward

Approach Reward Type Description

Privileges

High Priority Requests Given their high usage and high visibility, ambassadors’

BI information requests should be given a higher priority.

First Look at New BI Development Share the latest BI updates with ambassadors before

introducing them to the organization. Ambassadors may

even be excited to test out new functionality.

Recognition

Featured in Communications

BI ambassadors’ use cases and testimonials can be

featured in BI communications. Be sure to create a

formal announcement introducing the ambassadors to

the organization.

BI Ambassador Certificate A certificate is a formal way to recognize their efforts.

They can also publically display the certificate in their

workspace.

Rewards

Appointed by Senior Executives

Have the initial request to be a BI ambassador come

from a senior executive to flatter the ambassador and

position the role as a reward or an opportunity to

success.

BI Ambassador Awards Award an outstanding BI ambassador for the year. The

award should be given by the CEO in a major corporate

event.


Update the communication plan to include BI promotion activities

There will be a number of promotional activities created to spread the word about BI. Use the communication template to plan

for and track the promotion activities. BI is a living program and it needs to be promoted on a ongoing basis to maintain user

interest and to introduce BI to new users.

The communication plan should be updated

to reflect these new promotional activities:

• BI ambassador meetings.

• BI ambassador announcements.

• Internal case studies/ testimonials.

• BI CoE meetings (agenda and minutes).

• Communicate annual BI program report.

• Monthly newsletters.

• Annual BI ambassador award.

Update the Info-Tech’s BI Communication Planning

Template with the promotion activities.




Prior to the Guided

Implementation

During the Guided



discuss with you:



Arrange a call now:

Ask a spaarks advisor to assist you with promoting BI within your organization

• Collect all data relevant to BI

metrics.

• Populate Info-Tech’s BI Strategy

Project Tracking Tool.

• Recruit BI ambassadors and

establish incentives for

participation.

• Updating the BI strategy.

• The creation of a BI ambassador

program.

• Ensuring the top-down approach is

maintained after deployment.

• A comprehensive metrics program.

• An effective ambassador program.


Build BI Solutions with Specific Decisions in Mind

Build a “Duct Tape” Prototype

Top-Down Approach

Insight breakdown

Historically BI has been successful at penetrating the operational and tactical levels, but does not always reach the strategic

level. This is alarming because the strategic decision makers are the individuals in the organization that could most benefit

the organization by using BI. Taking a top-down approach will ensure senior management’s involvement and support

throughout the project. This ensures that the most critical decisions are supported by the right data/information, aligning the

entire organization with the BI strategy. Furthermore, the gains from BI will be much more significant and visible to the rest of

the organization.

Don’t commit to an expensive BI tool until the concept is proven and senior management has bought into the idea. The “duct

tape” pilot project is meant to be a bare bones, inexpensive, and simple working prototype to demonstrate the value of BI.

The “duct tape” pilot project allows IT to showcase the possibilities of BI in a risk-free environment by minimizing investment

through the use of existing tools. The “duct tape” pilot project will also provide IT with experience deploying a small-scale BI

tool and prepare the BI team for the enterprise deployment.

It is very easy to get distracted by the latest BI gadgets and features and end up with a fancy dashboard that doesn’t get

used. IT must build BI tools with specific business decisions in mind and present only the information the decision makers

need to make that decision. Just because the BI tool is capable of displaying large volumes of information, it doesn’t mean it

always should. Business users can become confused when presented with too much data or too many options. Keep it

simple, clean, and aligned with business decisions.


Deliverables Completed

Knowledge Gained

Summary of accomplishment

• The benefits, costs, and challenges associated with BI deployments.

• The importance of starting BI with the organization’s most strategic decision makers.

• Best practices for running a pilot project to gain experience deploying a BI solution.

• Advice for how to create detailed solution mock-ups.

• Tips for creating a low cost “duct tape” BI prototype.

• Effective metrics for tracking the success of a BI project.

• Recommendations for overcoming capability gaps and deficiencies.

• Advice for building a BI ambassador network.

• Guidance for mitigating common BI risks.

• Go/No-Go Decision to Develop a BI Strategy.

• BI Business Case Presentation.

• BI Pilot Project Charter.

• BI Pilot Project Scope Set.

• BI Pilot Project Requirements.

• BI Pilot Project Scorecard.

• Lessons Learned from Pilot Project.

• BI Communication Plan.

• BI Project Charter.

• Prioritized List of BI Solutions.

• BI Project Requirements.


Case Studies

Interviews

Companies Who Helped

• Eric Vallo, Speaker, Founder, EV Technologies

• Cal Rosen, President, ActionInfo Consulting

• Robert Goodman, Director of BI & Analytics, Georgetown University

• Kamlesh Mhashilkar, Head of the Business Intelligence and Performance Management (BIPM)

• Victor Dudemaine, Assistant VP, Data and Business Intelligence Services, Sun Life Financials

• Yogi Schulz, Partner, Corvelle Consulting

• Atul Mathur, VP, Technology, IMC Inc.

• Kirk Cummings, Manager, Data & Application Services, City of Winnipeg

• Adam Reno, Executive Director of Software Development, Frederick Community College

• Austin Fire Department

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