The high-level executives of corporations continue to make significant investments in data and analytics projects. For instance, the “2024 Data and AI Leadership Executive Survey” that was conducted by Wavestone, a consulting business, and released in January 2024, discovered that 87.9% of respondents cited investing in data and analytics as a high organizational goal.
Despite the fact that a significant portion of those investment funds are now being allocated to artificial intelligence initiatives, industry executives have said that firms continue to spend money on traditional business intelligence. Due to the fact that business intelligence (BI) is an essential discipline for comprehending the past, present, and future situation of a firm, this expenditure is appropriate.
“Business intelligence is the process of collecting, processing, and analyzing data to provide insights into the current state of an organization,” explained Sandy Estrada, vice president of analytics and information management at the consulting firm Cervello, which is a Kearney subsidiary. “Business intelligence is focused on providing insights into the current state of an organization.”
It is essential to have business intelligence in order to monitor an organization’s key performance indicators (KPIs), as well as its financial and operational performance. Kevin Tucker, who is the advisory practice lead for data analytics, architecture, and artificial intelligence at Info-Tech Research Group, said that this provides stakeholders with a clear perspective on how themselves, their departments, and the corporation are performing all simultaneously.
Additionally, business intelligence (BI) offers a glimpse into the future by providing insights into, for instance, anticipated demand for goods and predicted sales. This enables organizational leaders to make more informed choices that are driven by data, as stated by Tucker.
The insights that are supplied by an organization’s business intelligence function, which is facilitated by business intelligence software, remain essential even in this era of artificial intelligence.
“BI focuses on delivering reports, dashboards and analytics that allow decision-makers to evaluate business performance and identify trends,” said Estrada in an interview. “It serves as the foundation for understanding operations, performance metrics and other key data-driven indicators.”
Why is it necessary to have a business intelligence strategy that has been well planned?
Even though business intelligence (BI) is very important to the firm, not all companies have developed a mature and purposeful program. However, according to Alicia Johnson, a consulting partner in digital transformation at the professional services company EY, they need to do so. By ensuring that an organization makes the most of its investment in this area and, more crucially, by gaining insights and decision-making assistance, a business intelligence strategy that has been well prepared may help an organization enhance its overall business performance.
“An effective and well-planned BI strategy improves a client’s ability to manage risks and allows predictive outcomes, providing better insights to everyone from stakeholders to investors,” Johnson said in his presentation.
When it comes to getting value out of their data investments and business intelligence technologies, organizations who do not have such a plan in place often have a difficult time. Organizations that do not have a sound strategy also often have inconsistent outcomes with their business intelligence investments. These organizations may have great business intelligence skills in some aspects of their company, but they may employ business intelligence very little or not at all in other areas of their business.
Having such results demonstrates the usefulness of a business intelligence plan, according to Estrada, who also said that “a solid strategy gives companies the tools they need to really make the most of their data now and in the future.”
The eight most important phases in developing a business intelligence plan
It is recommended that firms adopt the following stages in order to successfully establish and execute a business intelligence plan strategy.
Ensure that the business intelligence strategy is aligned with the business objectives and the KPIs that are connected with them
According to Sven Jost, a partner in the data analytics division at the accounting and consulting company BPM, business intelligence (BI) is intended to throw light on how the organization and its many components are doing. This allows enterprise executives to identify opportunities, areas of development, and the best measures to take. “BI plays a very important role in understanding your business, running your business and how you get to the next level,” he said to reporters.
This is the reason why the first component of a good business intelligence strategy is alignment with the general goals and objectives of the company, as well as the measures that monitor progress toward achieving those goals for the firm.
“A good strategy starts with the business strategy and knowing the key metrics you want to look at,” Jost further pointed out. You should be aware of the information that you would want to see on a daily, monthly, or recurrent basis. Have an understanding of the information that is important to decision-makers and other stakeholders.
Determine the business intelligence use cases and rank them in order of importance
Nearly every department of a normal business may reap the benefits of using business intelligence (BI) tools in order to acquire a better understanding of how the organization is really doing and how that performance compares to both its past performance and its present objectives. A business may also benchmark itself or any functional area or process against others with the use of business intelligence. Furthermore, it may assist businesses in making more informed choices and planning for future activities.
Jost said that he recommends firms to identify possible use cases and then prioritize the deployment of business intelligence capabilities to areas where acquiring those insights may yield the most returns. This is important since there are a multitude of chances for business intelligence applications.
Develop and put into action a sophisticated data strategy
According to Tucker, a robust business intelligence (BI) strategy must be accompanied by an equally robust data strategy. This is because BI requires more than just data; it requires the appropriate kind, amount, and quality of data in order to provide valuable insights. According to Tucker, many firms still have a lot of work to do in order to achieve the powerful data program that they want, despite the fact that excellent data is essential for business intelligence applications.
According to him, there are a lot of reasons why corporations are still having trouble with data. Some executives, for instance, may concentrate on building a data program for the whole company, but they may fail to adopt a “fit-for-purpose approach,” which means that they do not make certain that the appropriate data is accessible for each and every business intelligence use case.
“You need to make sure that the data is pristine for the business use cases that you are pursuing,” Tucker stated. He went on to say that enterprises need to make sure that immaculate data can reach the business intelligence tools when it is needed by constructing the right data pipelines, data governance, and data expertise.
Choose the appropriate business intelligence tools
Tucker emphasized that acquiring the appropriate tools is of equal significance as acquiring the appropriate data. It is recommended that business executives assess business intelligence (BI) suppliers and solutions based on the following criteria, as is the case with the majority of software selections:
What it is that they want to accomplish with their business intelligence tools and which providers are the most suitable to meet those objectives.
- To guarantee that the product is compatible with their IT environment, integration criteria must be met.
- The general usefulness of each choice, as well as its user interface features.
- Compliance and security elements are included.
Establish a business intelligence team
The capabilities that an organization needs to have in order to maximize the value of its business intelligence program should be outlined in a successful business intelligence strategy, and the firm should also make measures to guarantee that it has the proper talent in the appropriate positions.
“Make sure your teams have the skills they need to grow and adapt as the business evolves,” Estrada advised employees. “Regular training and development will help your data teams stay effective and aligned with the company’s goals.”
Workers who are skilled in data analytics and have received training in data visualization and on the specific business intelligence technologies are required by organizations. According to Bipin Prabhakar, head of the information systems graduate programs at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business in Bloomington, these individuals are often business intelligence analysts. However, workers in other jobs are increasingly possessing these talents and are being provided with the responsibility of working on business intelligence initiatives. An efficient business intelligence plan takes into account the IT workers, data professionals, and business domain specialists that are required to collaborate with business intelligence analysts in order to get the best possible outcomes.
Establish a governance structure for business intelligence
According to Tucker, organizations need to implement a governance structure in order to guarantee that a business intelligence (BI) program provides value and that stakeholders can have faith in the analyses that are generated by the BI tools. The policies, processes, and regulations that dictate how business intelligence use cases are found, prioritized, secured, reviewed, and monitored are often outlined in a business intelligence governance framework, just like they are in other frameworks. It is also important for a strong framework to explain the process of identifying, measuring, and mitigating risks.
Develop strategies to grow and mature business intelligence programs
Estrada recommended that businesses develop a business intelligence operational strategy that is scalable. “Set up a model that supports the ongoing use of data across the business,” she said to reporters. This entails establishing key performance indicators (KPIs), making certain that the appropriate tools and procedures are in place, and establishing a governance structure that encourages ongoing improvement. In addition to this, it guarantees that teams are able to continually improve their skills and develop together with the company.
Additionally, according to Nick Kramer, vice president of applied solutions at the global consulting company SSA & Company, organizations have to have a business intelligence program roadmap in order to guarantee that their skills are able to stay up with the latest advancements.
Adding self-service business intelligence capabilities or looking for opportunities to automate parts of the process are two examples of the kinds of things that Kramer advocates for organizations to do in order to apply Agile concepts to their use of business intelligence (BI). Kramer also recommends that organizations look for opportunities to both incrementally and continuously mature how and where they are using business analytics.
Include intentions to employ artificial intelligence as well as generative AI
According to Zoey Jiang, an assistant professor of business technologies at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and other forms of artificial intelligence are causing a transformation in the activities associated with business intelligence.
To provide one example, she said that artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are revolutionizing the way data is gathered, processed, and presented. GenAI is now able to assist business intelligence analysts and other individuals with code questions. In addition to this, it enables queries to be expressed in natural language, which is helpful for making sense of unstructured data that may be used for analysis.
Because of the potential that artificial intelligence has in this sector, businesses have to have plans that take into consideration the increasing use of AI in business intelligence software. This will allow them to effectively implement such breakthroughs in their own business intelligence programs.
The most common difficulties encountered while developing a business intelligence plan
When it comes to developing a business intelligence strategy, organization executives often struggle with the following:
Determine who the stakeholders are and include them. They could have a sufficient number of business users, but they might not include enough technical and data leaders, or vice versa. As a result, the strategy does not have a comprehensive understanding of the components that are required to construct a powerful business intelligence platform.
Use cases for business intelligence should be aligned with the organization’s aims. If this is not done, business intelligence (BI) tools may give some information to corporate leaders, business managers, and operational workers; nevertheless, the applications will not deliver insights in the areas that are most critical to the performance of the firm.
Put together a reliable data plan. In order to provide the necessary levels of data quality in order to provide reliable insights for business users, this is an absolute must.
Develop a business intelligence approach that is both ubiquitous and scalable. The Business Intelligence (BI) process should be robust throughout the whole company, not only in certain areas of an organization. Additionally, businesses want a plan that is capable of scaling and evolving in response to changes in labor skills, business requirements, and technology capabilities.