Business intelligence efficiency

Abstract

A critical success factor for business intelligence (BI) programs is the adoption of a philosophy that implements repeatable processes and promotes reuse. Four of the most significant areas in which this philosophy needs to be applied are architecture, data, methodology, and governance. The BI architects must anticipate future needs but must be careful to deploy the architecture incrementally. BI teams must strive to deliver business intelligence functions every few months, and this requires a blueprint that can be divided so that each project builds on the infrastructure established by the previous ones. This approach must be applied to the data, as well. A subject area model and entity-level business data model can be developed relatively quickly and provide the data blueprint. The model can then be attributed as needed for each data warehouse increment, with each attribute being defined from an enterprise perspective. The methodology is a series of processes, and to the extent that each process is thoroughly defined, it becomes more reusable. Finally, the governance structure must adhere to the repeatability and reuse philosophy. A Center of Excellence provides a good way to capture and disseminate information about best practices, templates, and applications of the data. All of these works together to help organizations leverage their information resources.