3 Tips for a Successful BI Implementation

Rolling out a new business intelligence implementation involves a lot of planning and hard work. Here’s some tips to keep in mind once you get started:

1)  The Sales Cycle Isn’t Done

Rolling out a new business intelligence implementation involves a lot of planning and hard work. Here’s some tips to keep in mind once you get started:

1)  The Sales Cycle Isn’t Done

Just because the main corporate decision makers have signed off on the deal, and the check’s in hand, doesn’t mean the sales process is done.  While having their buy-in is critical, to actually get the rubber to hit the road, you’ll need support from multiple areas of the organization to ensure success.  This includes users from both the business side and the IT side. 

A ticked off employee at a lower level can easily derail a project, or go to bat for you with the boss if you hit a roadblock.  It’s important to get the key players on the implementation identified and sold on the tool before the schedule and plan are laid out.  Oftentimes the end users’ needs and issues may be different from what the executives have communicated.  Executives may be screaming for mobile while the end user needs self-service reporting.  Make sure you can address both ends.

2)  Go For a Quick Win

Just like consumers, businesses have grown used to seeing quick results from IT and technology engagements.  It’s getting tougher and tougher to get the luxury of a massive project schedule that can go months and years before delivery.  Businesses need to see impact immediately, so you need to get a smaller project off the ground quickly that can show tangible value to the business.  Is there a report that folks are clamoring for that needed to be delivered yesterday?  Get it done and win some fans.

3)  Manage Expectations

Business intelligence tools have a lot of powerful features, but in the end they are simply that – tools.  Data quality, underlying business processes, and politics in an organization can affect the ability of an IT system to deliver results, and BI is no different.  It’s important to raise flags on any issues that can affect quality or a project schedule.  Get these potential roadblocks out on the table early.

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