Business Intelligence: Think like a Leader, not like a Manager

The nature of Business Intelligence software is changing and BI technology is positioned for rapid change in the next few years.  Patrick Meehan at Gartner refers to the change as being a cultural one and well as a technological one.  We’ve seen in our earlier posts that BI software is becoming easier to use and more “self service” and “consumer software like”.  The ease of use has and will continue to broaden the audience of users and expand the way in which BI technology is applied.

NetworkWorld quotes Meehan as saying: “Traditionally, BI has been used for performance reporting from historical data, and as a planning and forecasting tool for a relatively small number of people in an organisation that relies on historical data to plan ahead…”   Modelling future scenarios permits “an examination of new business models, new market opportunities and new products, and creates a culture of opportunity.”

For BI to be able to deliver and continue to appeal to an ever wider base of users, Meehan says that organizations need to change their usage habits of the software as follows:

• The right information needs to get into the hands of the right people.  BI software needs to be made available to users holding a wide range of roles within the company.
• Teams should be formed from users having specific interests in a certain set of data.  The formation of the teams need not be restricted to organizational boundaries and also need not be restricted to the “owner(s)” of the data.
• Focus on key questions.  Decide what is most important to the business.  The answers to these kinds of questions will create the greatest business impact.

ComputerWeekly quotes Meehan as saying: “If you don’t ask the right questions, BI is not a crystal ball that pops out the answer. People in IT need to stop approaching BI as a vendor or engineering solution, or as a tool. They need to understand what business they are in. They are in the information and communication business.”  Often the questions that most impact the business are not technical ones, rather they are psychological and sociological ones.

I especially like Meehan’s observation about management and leadership.  “Most people in IT are managers. That is a skill that can be taught – delivering to time, cost and budget. But sometimes it’s better to take twice as long and spend twice the money because we get 50 times the value. That’s not management thinking. That is leadership thinking, not technical questions.”