| A savvy IT professional will ask end users about their | | | | Your BI deployment will be influenced by the required |
| requirements, before trying to introduce business | | | | latency of the data involved. Business intelligence has |
| intelligence to his or her organization. They will ask | | | | three possible levels of latency - scheduled update, on |
| questions like: "What information are you looking for?" | | | | demand, and real time. |
| and "How do you want it to be formatted?". | | | | With scheduled update, the information is not |
| 1. What level of technical skill do the users already | | | | up-to-the-minute. The data source is probably updated |
| have? | | | | on a scheduled basis, e.g. once a day or every hour. |
| This question should not be posed directly to users. | | | | Or, the data can be close to real time, and be updated |
| Many end users have a somewhat optimistic | | | | incrementally within minutes of a transaction. The |
| perception of their technical abilities and most consider | | | | majority of BI deployments work well with some kind |
| themselves more of an expert than they actually are. | | | | of a scheduled update. |
| As a general rule of thumb, if you are handy with | | | | Users will require direct access to information |
| Excel, i.e. can use formulas and sort data, and you can | | | | contained in a near real-time data warehouse with an |
| interpret numbers with relative ease, you are likely to | | | | on demand solution. While this does not necessarily |
| be able to comfortably work with a business | | | | affect the BI deployment itself, it is uncommon for BI |
| intelligence solution. | | | | tools to give users access to this kind of information, |
| 2. How much time can you dedicate to finding, | | | | because it is usually stored in a form that makes |
| accessing and analyzing information? | | | | creating ad hoc queries difficult. However, dashboards, |
| This is a pretty essential question, probably the most | | | | reports, and guided ad hoc reports are effective |
| important of the five, but is often completely ignored. | | | | business intelligence deployment methods when on |
| Yet if it is answered realistically, you can easily create | | | | demand access is required. |
| an accurate deployment plan, even without responses | | | | Finally, true real time means that the information being |
| to the other four questions. In most companies, people | | | | displayed is updated as an event happens - even |
| need access to information, but they often lack the | | | | before the relevant data makes its way into a |
| time to dedicate to it. If you don't have a lot of time to | | | | database. Only dashboards and reports will enable the |
| spend finding, accessing, and analyzing information, then | | | | dynamic display and update of information in real time. |
| you probably don't require business intelligence | | | | 5. What role does the user play within the |
| capabilities. How much time someone has to devote to | | | | organization? |
| reporting is often related to their role in the organization. | | | | Understanding a user's role gives you a certain insight |
| For example, CEOs may have very little time to spend | | | | when it comes to their BI requirements. For example, |
| analyzing data, while analysts will have more since | | | | executives look primarily for key performance |
| analysis is what they are primarily responsible for. | | | | indicators, whereas analysts will often spend their time |
| 3. What types of questions will users be asking? | | | | analyzing data in more detail. A front office worker, |
| Different types of questions are best asked and | | | | such as a customer rep, often searches for |
| answered by different types of solutions. Performance | | | | information to solve specific problems. While there are |
| management, dashboards, and scorecards are about | | | | likely to be differences from one organization to the |
| monitoring the status of a key metric, whereas ad hoc | | | | next, understanding the characteristics of the various |
| query tools are better suited to asking random or | | | | users in your particular firm will help you better |
| on-the-fly questions. | | | | understand user requirements. |
| 4. How timely must the data you are accessing be? | | | | |