How to Implement a Successful Business Intelligence Strategy

The effective use of business intelligence possesses the power to support and grow any business by providing meaningful insights into various aspects of your business. The predictive information provided by efficient use of business intelligence can put your decision making in the fast-track mode. However, you need to understand that business intelligence is not something that needs to be rushed into without proper planning and strategy.

Establish vision and goals

The primary purpose for which business intelligence is utilized is to provide information that allows you to analyze the information and maker decision based on that analysis. So, the first step in an effective business intelligence strategy is to develop vision and goals for the strategy.

For this you need to consider:

• How do you plan to develop and take your business to the next level?
• How can you make efficient use of data to support your vision and objectives?
• What are your strategic goals and how can they help you achieve competitive advantage in the marketplace?

Taking proper care of the above-mentioned points will help you in establishing a center of analytics that will provide key business performance measures based on which you can take meaningful actions.

Build a high performing team

Irrespective of the size or type of your business, it is of paramount importance to build a highly efficient and effective team that can help your business fulfill its strategic vision. First and foremost you need to have an Executive just after the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The sponsor needs to value the data and realize its importance and impact on the overall business. The Executive will be your representative at the decision-making table helping communicate the objective of the program and ensuring that funding does not come in its way of proper implementation. It is also important to have a cross-functional team where subject matter experts from different fields are present to provide their own views and insights.

Develop key metrics

This is the step that follows the establishment of your vision and goals and putting a team in place. Some important factors to consider as you determine your business key performance indicators (KPIs) are as below:

• Industry benchmarks against which you wish to establish your KPIs
• Your company’s historical data that can help you with your future progress
• The person or department who will use the information and from where he will get it.

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