Business Intelligence Strategy

A BI solution strategy outlines the best combination of techniques and technologies to meet the business intelligence [BI] of any one organization.

The ability to deliver consistent, timely information in a format the supports corporate performance management requires a conscious blending of traditional and non-traditional methodologies and technology.

• BI is NOT just a data warehouse
• BI is NOT just about OLAP
• BI is NOT just a dashboard
• BI is NOT just about technology
• BI is NOT just for executives
• BI is NOT just for large corporates

BI is a combination of People-Process-Technology that can add value to over 90% of the enterprise.

BI is an enterprise wide ‘system’ that makes use of timely, trusted data to support performance management and decision making. This has a 90% people and process component.

It is important that the technology does not overshadow the rationale behind the business desire for business intelligence capability. Also see BI Evolution

The BI Vision

The BI vision is documented in a BI Strategy document to ensure that implementation of specific technology or a data structure remains focused on the BI objectives for a particular organisation.

A good starting point to help define your BI Vision and objectives is to understand:

• BI Drivers - what is propelling you to adopt a BI Culture
• BI Constraints - where are the tough spots, or barriers, that need to be overcome for the strategy to be achieved in full.

The implementation of that vision must ensure that any technology or techniques employed fit the overall BI environment. The BI Strategy acts as a guiding roadmap for BI rollouts. See - Identifying BI Opportunities.

By addressing business requirements one at a time, BI iterations can tightly focus on specific business requirements of each functional area. However, each iteration must fit into the long-term vision of the BI organization. Working with a broad, enterprise-wide BI Road Map is the only way this can be assured. Also See Long Term BI Strategy

BI Roadmaps

BI Roadmaps are best developed firstly from a business perspective, to ensure that the most important business needs are addressed first. This is then overlaid onto a BI technology roadmap, which will add an implementation difficulty element to help define the final BI implementation path. A conceptual BI Technical diagram is useful for illustrating how all the BI technology fits together, and assists with both the strategy definition and subsequent implementation planning. See - Identifying BI Opportunities section.

Executing the BI Vision

The BI Strategy Plan starts with high-level diagrams, broad policy statements and general definitions. As the BI environment grows, details are added to the strategy document.

• The BI organization is a future architectural vision for the enterprise.
• The BI strategy document is the road map to follow as you begin implementing this environment, iteratively.

Without a broad architectural vision, BI iterations are at risk of resulting in discrete warehouse-centric implementations rather than an enterprise-wide, informational asset.

The strategy document offers insight into the BI environment, with the focus on communicating:

1. What is to be built
2. How it will be built
3. When it will be ready to meet user requirements.

The BI strategy also directs BI best practices that must be adopted.

BI Strategy Document

BI strategy documents at a minimum include four core components:

1. Conceptual view
2. Data architecture
3. Technical architecture
4. Implementation view.

Each of these components provides readers with a unique perspective of the BI environment being planned. Each section contains alternative approaches and technology solutions.

Some aspects of the overall strategy are provided in detail, whilst other elements are at a very high level or conceptual perspective. See BI Strategy Document

The BI Strategy document is used in conjunction with other BI tools:

• BI Roadmap - a high level view of the BI rollout projects
• BI Maturity Model - a tool to help gauge where in the BI competency lifcycle the organisation now sits
• BI Scorecard - a simple scoring tool to gain a visual representation of progress against the BI strategy, in terms of industry best practice.

It is important to recognise that BI capability itself does not drive value in an organisation. It is the use of BI that turns market players into market leaders - See BI Excellence Survey Results

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