| Business intelligence is about bridging the gap | | | | tool (ETL) which is there to move data from A to |
| between the data collected and what data | | | | B and to process it. There are lots of ways this |
| business people need to drive the business and | | | | can be done, traditionally its hand crafted, this |
| improve. It's taking that data and turning it into | | | | solution will work fine if you have people who are |
| beneficial information that can be used to help | | | | familiar with where they're working, and they like |
| your business progress. Although the tools do | | | | handcrafting code. However, a senior manager |
| exist to help with this, many organisations only | | | | who has the issue of change management and of |
| manage what they can measure which may not | | | | controlling that source code will prefer to |
| give the business value. | | | | centralize it and have it in a tool to make it more |
| Organisations need to react to the information | | | | manageable. |
| they're been given as this is where the value is | | | | It can be very beneficial to have a ETL tool if |
| added, this is what we refer to as BI culture, | | | | you're going to build a data warehouse as it will |
| creating the mindset within the organisation to | | | | need to evolve and change with your business, in |
| ensure people are getting the best out the | | | | this case you'll want a tool set that will rapidly |
| business intelligence solutions to ensure the | | | | allow you to adapt to your system. The ETL |
| business is able to move forward. | | | | tools of today that are very centralized and multi |
| For a business intelligence solution to really add | | | | user based, enable people to change the data and |
| value, you need to start by considering your key | | | | document the processing they're doing as they |
| performance indicators (KPI's), these are the | | | | build it, it's a rapid development tool, so if your |
| business information needs, what do you need to | | | | business is very complex and quickly evolving |
| know to make better business decisions? | | | | over time, an ETL tool would be recommended. |
| In order to define KPI's you need to know what | | | | Your HR data is often key to most businesses, |
| the vision of your business is. You need to start | | | | you need to know exactly who your staff are, |
| from the very top and work out what the goals | | | | what skills they have and the benefits they bring |
| are, what is the vision of your business and | | | | your business, more often than not they'll also be |
| where are you taking it, this will enable you to | | | | one of your biggest costs. |
| work out what the critical factors are for | | | | In many cases it's the HR data that will be the |
| success, once you know this, you can decide | | | | last to get pulled into a data warehouse because |
| what KPI's you need. | | | | of the sensitive nature of the data but once you |
| Once you've worked out which critical success | | | | start to manage this data effectively, you can |
| factors these KPI's affect you'll need to ensure | | | | see at a glance things like retention, absentees |
| everybody knows what their KPI is (within any | | | | and where people are struggling and this |
| organisation it's not uncommon for a KPI to be | | | | information can prove invaluable when it comes to |
| sliced by different parts of the business). Once | | | | the effective management of your business. |
| everybody is working on their own KPI you can | | | | This data can be difficult to analyse though |
| start to measure the results indicators which are | | | | because any one person can have many |
| essentially the results of activities in your business. | | | | attributes hanging off them, meaning you can |
| Implementing an effective business intelligence | | | | have many dependants and many skills, however |
| solution can be difficult because it's often cross | | | | if you extract the HR data, into a data |
| functional, the quality of the data is sometimes | | | | warehouse, you can actually overcome some of |
| unknown and it's not always all going to be under | | | | the issues intrinsically found, then you can normally |
| your control, or it may simply be a case of the | | | | find some invaluable information on how you can |
| KPI's not being fully understood or clearly enough | | | | be managing your people more effectively. |
| aligned to the data being used. | | | | A data warehouse appliance is an all in one |
| Another reason companies may find it challenging | | | | solution, hardware, database software and |
| is because they often have long delivery cycles in | | | | networking software, that allows you to take |
| their IT departments, for example, if you're using | | | | data from disks, filter it, present it out and build |
| a waterfall approach where you have to define | | | | queries from terabyte databases, it's ideal for |
| the requirements up front, get them approved | | | | very large databases and very large data |
| then go into a six month delivery cycle, quite | | | | solutions. |
| often what you're delivering isn't what the end | | | | A data warehouse appliance does not however |
| user requires any more because business has | | | | grant immunity against the every day challenges |
| moved on. This means that to implement business | | | | business intelligence presents, the front end |
| intelligence solutions it's strongly recommend that | | | | delivery solution still has to be designed and built |
| a more agile development approach is taken | | | | and you've still got the demand of user |
| where shorter delivery cycles are used and the | | | | requirements changing as well as data quality |
| end user is continuously consulted (i.e. what they | | | | issues but a data warehouse appliance does allow |
| want, what their priorities are etc). | | | | you to process vast amounts of data in a much |
| An effective way to ensure any data is moved | | | | more optimal fashion. |
| and processed is the extract transform and load | | | | |