In today's environment, running a business can be quite challenging. These ever-changing and dynamic obstacles can make you feel overwhelmed. Maintenance of operations is a time-consuming process that leaves little time for working on the insights needed to gain a competitive advantage. However, organizations of all sizes, particularly SMEs, require accurate and actionable data perspectives. The role of a business intelligence (BI) strategy is to make this data available, which necessitates a deliberate plan.
The central goal of a business intelligence strategy is to use software and services to transform important data into actionable knowledge. This is very important as business intelligence revenue in software was projected to reach $23,258.94 million in 2021. BI tools give users access to analytical data, which includes reports, dashboards, maps, charts, and various other visual representations. Users can get detailed information regarding the state of the company.
“BI is about providing the right data at the right time to the right people so that they can make the right decisions.”
Nic Smith, Microsoft BI Solutions Marketing
Business intelligence strategy includes:
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Performance management
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Predictive modeling
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Analytics
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Data mining
Why Should Businesses Implement BI?
A business intelligence strategy will allow you to address your data problems, such as clarity, scarcity, insights out of data, and requirements, create a unified system, and sustain it.
You should consider implementing a BI strategy if your business faces the following issues:
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You generate a lot of data but don't know what to do with it
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Overstocking or understocking
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Wasted resources and time
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Loss of customers
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Underperforming employees
Data-driven decisions can benefit your business by:
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Discovering problems and their solutions
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Analyzing competitors’ data
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Analyzing customer behavior
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Planning approach to increase profit
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Foreseeing trends
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Optimizing operations
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Tracking performance
Tips to Create a Successful Business Intelligence Strategy
Business intelligence tools and capabilities are designed to create quick and easy-to-understand portrayals of an organization's current state.
Developing a strategy to deal with all of these tools and skills is an essential part of reaping the benefits of business intelligence.
If you want to learn how to build a strong business intelligence strategy, keep reading.
Understand and Assess the Present Status
The first step in implementing a business intelligence strategy is to put together a team that is capable of analyzing and presenting the current state of the company's data. With a dedicated team in place, evaluating an organization's current situation entails thinking about the data collected and the technology used to manage it. Understanding the organization's structures and processes for mining and interpreting data is also critical. At this level, a BI team will seek to assess which data is the most valuable and which is irrelevant to the current operations.
Have a Vision with a Purpose and Direction
A vision is a combination of direction and purpose. Without a vision, there is no strategy. Instead, it presents itself in various critical decisions, such as where we collect our data and who will access the insights.
The following should be explained in the vision statement:
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Who will be in charge of the business intelligence processes?
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What is the state of your BI strategy concerning the business and IT strategies?
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How will it provide help and solutions?
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What solutions do you want to deploy, and where do you propose them?
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What kind of infrastructure do you want to provide?
Prioritize Initiative by Developing a BI Road Map
The BI roadmap should provide deliverables at various execution levels and a timetable. On the roadmap, you should have all of the data you wish to organize and arrange, as well as the dates and deliverables for each activity.
Define the Way How the Data Is Going to Be Shared
Another thing to do before establishing a business intelligence strategy is to define the terms and meaning of BI with all of your stakeholders. Because many employees are involved in data processing, make sure that everyone is on the same page and understands the business intelligence development strategy.
At this stage, you should answer all the possible questions from your stakeholders, and the way and process data will be shared with all of them.
Must-have BI Strategy Documentation
A BI strategy document's logic is that it will serve as a point of reference for the entire organization and will be used to communicate the strategy.
The following sections should be in the document:
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Executive summary
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BI strategy alignment with corporate strategy
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Project scope and requirements
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BI governance team
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Alternatives
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Assessment
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Appendices
Make Regular Reviews to Assess the Progress
A review process is necessary for any effective business intelligence strategy. These review methods should evaluate lessons gained while also documenting and determining the value of the data to the company.
A review process may consider the user's experience and the possibility of changing the business's KPIs year after year. In addition, it helps to understand the progress of the strategy and the benefits it has brought to the company.
Summing Up
Any business's growth requires a BI strategy as it gives you a competitive advantage. You need a solid strategy, planning, and analysis to enjoy the rewards. You can drown yourself in useless analytics if you don't have a structured roadmap in place.
Therefore, staying on track and assessing your methods regularly are critical to reaping the benefits of a BI strategy. The abovementioned steps serve you as stepping stones in developing a successful BI strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Business intelligence?
Business intelligence is how businesses use methods and technology to analyze both current and historical data. This is done to improve strategic decision-making and gain a competitive advantage.
Which are some of the BI tools?
Data mining, predictive modeling, and contextual dashboards or KPIs are the most popular and widely used BI tools.
Which are some of the major benefits of business intelligence?
The benefits of BI are speedy analysis, intuitive dashboards, data-driven business decisions, improved employee satisfaction, increased organizational efficiency, and many more.