Business Intelligence has all the answers

But do we know the questions we should be asking?

The small to medium enterprise (SME) sector has seen a massive increase in interest about Business Intelligence (BI).

Many organisations understand the basics of BI – that it provides them with key performance indicators (KPIs) or business metrics, together with excellent stakeholder and regulatory reporting.

They also understand that information can come from multiple data sources providing one version of the truth. The gathering of data from a spreadsheet, MS Access database, a payroll solution, an accounting package, can be pulled into one report or KPI easily.

These days BI is rapid. With marketing leading BI products using ‘in-memory technology’ there is no need to create a data warehouse (or universe) which, historically, has been costly and very time consuming. For example, with BI software Qlikview, it can take as little as ten days to put in place organisational KPIs.

What can businesses do?

Australian SMEs have pushed hard post GFC to slim down their organisations, cost cutting and streamlining business processes to maximise efficiency. However, this can only take you so far.

The biggest gains will be achieved by making managers and their staff more effective in using information, as well as by improvements in workflow and collaboration.

Empowering more workers with business information that has been optimised, so they can leverage experience and intellect from across the organisation to drive their daily activities, is crucial to organisational success.

A word of warning before you rush out and buy your new BI solution; it is important to understand what you are measuring and why. More importantly make sure your staff (especially management) knows the importance of what they are measuring. You need to know what questions you want to ask.

Performance management and balanced scorecarding should look at all key elements of the organisation and be a reflection of its vision and values mission statement.  These are management philosophies – not technologies!

Where does BI fit in?

Technology is the tool of BI, not the reason for the organisation to implement it. Successful deployment requires an investment in pure business management consulting to define objectives, goals and strategies. Don’t be fooled by marketing and sales hype which creates the illusion that implementing the technology will generate the business philosophy.

Performance management and balanced scorecarding are important to any size company; however their comparative priority and importance to SMEs usually ranks lower than at their larger equivalents. Be warned this can be a fatal mistake.