How to evaluate Business Intelligence solutions

(22 Feb 2010)

1. What BI tools does Codec offer, and what is the difference between them?  
   
2. What advice would you give to companies looking to implement Business Intelligence (BI) solutions?  
   
3. How should companies evaluate the various tools in the market? 
   
4. Are BI projects expensive?   
   
5. Does it take long to implement?   
   
6. How soon before companies start seeing results? 
   
7. What kinds of advantages and benefits does BI offer?  
   
8. Do current BI offerings have any weaknesses and if so, what are they?  

---

1. Codec works with products from the major Business Intelligence vendors. Our focus is on delivering BI applications that deliver the most value to organisations in a short period of time. Our customers such as the ESB, AIB, Department of Finance, Aer Lingus, Bank of Ireland and the Kerry Group often select a BI solution and work with us to implement it.The major difference in the technologies are:

• maturity of the product set
• performance
• completeness – does it include budgeting, planning, consolidations, strategy management and master data management and
•  functionality – such as write-back and Microsoft Office integration

2. Start with a small project that can be implemented quickly and delivers measurablevalue to the business. Having a tangible result makes it easier to get executive sponsorship for the rest of the BI project. A good way of doing this is to work with a vendor that has already implemented BI for a company in your industry and knows what to do. Codec has customers in many industries.

3. Check the maturity and the references of the product in Ireland and in your own industry. The evaluation should cover the entire solution, not just the product. We would recommend you engage with one company for the full solution; software, services, training and support to ensure full accountability. Check the background of the services vendor. Is BI their core competency? or is it an-add on to an IT business? How long are they established in BI? Where have they worked in your industry? 

4. Spend in BI in the recession has grown, so that at least says it is compelling for this market. Relatively BI is not expensive and can be funded, for example,  by a one year delay in hardware refresh. In terms of value to the business, a BI solution will, in most cases, far out way the benefits of a hardware refresh.
    
5. Yes and no. A quick win can be realised within weeks. To deploy an end to end Performance Management solution takes time as it will require a behavioural change as well as a software implementation. It is important to realise this. Look at it as a series of phases:

• Making previously unavailable data, available, on time
• Putting this data in context with relevant reports
• Incorporate finance: budgeting, planning and consolidations
  Strategy management
• Full end to end Performance Management BI 

6. If done right? a couple-of-weeks.

7. Business Intelligence is the difference between having the right information to run the business and guessing it. There are different levels of BI. At its simplest form it means getting the right information to the right person when it is needed.

   A full BI Performance Management system will fine tune an organisation to focus on results and strategic goals. Look at it this was; ERP was huge over the last 15 years, but the value in ERP is mostly limited to efficiencies. BI is the next growth wave but its value to an organisation can be much more than efficiencies.
    
8. Yes. From the outset the deliverables must be realistic and achievable because if they are not the project will fail and there will be no more appetite for executive sponsorship. Therefore it is important to start with a quick win, something that has worked in your industry before. Codec has industry specific examples of proven BI solutions.
   
   As an example, an executive dashboard with lots of graphs and colours that is disliked by the finance team and not used will fail to get further executive sponsorship.
   
   Perhaps the biggest potential weakness of a BI implementation is to implement it without the budgeting and planning BI module. This is because it is important to link the cost, expected return and resource associated with scenarios that are evaluated in the BI system. The old adage applies: if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it