70% of all business intelligence projects fail to deliver on
original business objectives according to
Gartner.
That’s because we understand that implementing a successful BI solution that is adopted company-wide requires the platform to precisely match the needs of different users.
Who they might be:
Executives, board members, managers, sales employees, in-house production employees, suppliers, and partners
The typical Information Consumer receives business intelligence
information in the form of reports, analyses, and dashboards that other
members of the organization build for them.
These are then made available through thin or
mobile clients, integration into portals, ERP, or CRM systems for
the Information Consumers to access.
How the BI platform should accommodate the Information Consumer
Chose a platform that enables you to present a simple interface that
the Information Consumer can start
using without training. This persona does not need many formatting options. Always hide
advanced features, as they aren’t needed and risk causing confusion.
Ensure that there is an easy way to navigate
between different dashboards with
options of getting into the underlying details in a single click. Let
them get the answers immediately.
Embed their dashboards and
analyses into other applications so they
don’t need to change their routines to get
access to the information they need.
How the BI platform should accommodate the Information Consumer
Chose a tool that allows you to centrally
manage what members of different
departments and organizational layers
see on startup. Use it to bring attention to what is most important for the team or individual
employees. This creates an agile organization.
Make sure there are options to display data
to employees that might not have access to a computer during
most of their workday, such as large screen
monitors in a production facility.
Who they might be:
Vice president roles, COOs, CMOs, CFOs, directors, controllers, and sales managers
The Business Users have access to a more feature-rich BI client that allows
more flexibility when needed. That includes occasionally adding new
criteria and setting up alerts in the system to notify the relevant people if
data changes.
Through benchmarking and adjusting information within the analyses, Business Users spots opportunities to follow.
How the BI platform should accommodate the Business User
The Business User wants to feel empowered and needs to know that
he/she can trust the software to support his/her work. Give the
Business User an integrated and dynamic set of dashboards and
analyses that are tightly linked to key decision processes. Allow this
user to navigate seamlessly from an overview into the details. Knowing
exactly what affects results will enable the Business User to adjust
actions as soon as possible. This will give peace of mind.
Make sure that the software is intuitive for these non-IT specialists. They need to have ad-hoc analytical capabilities—such as benchmarking and regressions models—available in a way that is easy to learn and use. When BI isn’t easy, employees often
export data to a decentralized location that they are more
comfortable with (such as Excel spreadsheets). This makes it
impossible to know if employees are working with the most up-to-date
numbers.
How the BI platform should accommodate the Business User
Ensure that the BI software gives enough room for customizing
dashboards and reports, allowing the
Business User to analyze details without
having to contact developers.
Enable the Business User to set up alerts to notify them if a number deviates from the norm
so they don’t have to spend time actively
checking the system.
This eBook can help you map those
measurements out.
The Business Analyst will usually base most of their information requirements on pre-existing analyses. However, they will more often test new hypotheses about their business by analyzing their data against new data sources to get more insight.
The ability to handle external data outside the data
warehouse as well as internal company data is critical for
these users.
How the BI platform should accommodate the Business Analyst
The Business Analyst is an expert in all facets of the BI
interface. Make sure this user gets the right training
to leverage all the advanced functionality of the BI
software.
Open access to creating ad-hoc data models that
are not part of a centralized data warehouse so the
Business Analyst can test new hypotheses without
requiring IT or consultancy support.
How the BI platform should accommodate the Business Analyst
Make sure the platform allows the Business Analyst
to tap into data sources outside the company so
he/she can understand the external factors that
influence the particular business area. Analytics
should be easily transformed into a narrative trough
PowerPoint or live Storyboards so updates can quickly and easily be shared with decision makers and
team members.
Ensure online communities and tutorials are available
for quick references.
Give the Business Analyst the freedom to add new data sets and perform advanced analytics with a
feature-rich application.
Information Designers have expert training in the
business intelligence software.They have a solid understanding of how to build
dashboards and analyses that support the business and how different visualizations should be used to
present data.
How the BI platform should accommodate the Information Designer
Find a platform that makes it possible to
create dashboards and reports with
visualizations that are related to particular
roles, are easy to interpret, and draw
attention to the most important data. Great
data visualization directly affects user
adoption.
Make sure the Information Designer
understands the different personas in the
organization to better design analyses and
dashboards that support their daily decision
processes and the ways they prefer to work.
It should be easy to manage users’ access
to data and related dashboards and
analyses.
How the BI platform should accommodate the Information Designer
It should be simple to repurpose reports and analyses so that the
same view can automatically reflect who is using it and in
what context.
Look for a solution with a variety of deployment options that will deliver data in many ways, to
as many people as possible.
Chose a database platform that makes it easy to find qualified resources to support
the back-end technology. Do not limit yourself with a
proprietary database.
A better understanding of each of these personas will help you better design and deploy BI in ways that are easy for each to adopt into their daily business lives.
Get an even deeper knowledge of your BI User Personas with more descriptions, day-in-the-life
examples, and more Best Practice Recommendations this in-depth guide.
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