Chapter 8 - Common mistakes companies make on business intelligence initiatives

Abstract

This chapter explains common mistakes that companies make on business intelligence (BI) initiatives. The few mistakes it highlights are: no explicit alignment between businesses intelligence strategy and business strategy; not knowing how to define information requirements; not marketing the vision to obtain organizational support; using ad hoc practices to select and fund business intelligence projects; providing inadequate governance for the business intelligence program management; establishing de facto program governance based on the initial business intelligence project; not strategically positioning the business intelligence in the business organization; not providing adequate resources and funding for supporting efforts needed for a successful business intelligence initiative; using a technical infrastructure that does not adequately support business intelligence; using operational system information technology design and development approaches and using information technology standards and policies designed for operational systems. The first step in getting maximum value from BI is to identify how it can improve business performance and to define the scope of the BI efforts. BI information requirements should be defined so that they are explicitly connected to the organization's business strategy. Actively marketing the value of BI both to top management and to business users helps ensure adequate support for developing BI and profitable use of BI after it's developed and provides incentives for people to use the new BI capabilities that have been developed.