| > | | | | company. |
| Companies large and small can benefit from a well | | | | In order to pick the most worthwhile goals, you must |
| thought out business intelligence strategy, but | | | | understand what the desired end result is. You will |
| developing that strategy can sometimes be more | | | | have to ask yourself what you will do with the |
| challenging than implementing a business intelligence | | | | business intelligence information your program |
| program. To make sure that your company is getting | | | | generates once you have it. Otherwise, you will have a |
| the most out of your BI program, make sure that you | | | | vast amount of information and no way to strategize |
| define your goals and have a plan for the information | | | | around it. In companies without a comprehensive |
| you generate before you start collecting and analyzing | | | | long-term plan, decision makers react to the |
| data. | | | | information they get from their data without |
| First Steps | | | | understanding the far-reaching consequences of their |
| Assess your current system of data collection. How | | | | actions. |
| you collect your data will make a difference in how | | | | Another important thing to think about before you |
| complete your information is, which will in turn affect | | | | implement your program is what your options are once |
| the results of your business intelligence program. Make | | | | you have the information. Often companies have an |
| sure that if you need historical data on your company | | | | idea of how they want to move forward and are |
| or customers that you know where it is and how to | | | | looking to the business intelligence information |
| access it. You’ll also need to take some time to | | | | generated by their BI program to support their current |
| understand your business needs and make a rough | | | | strategy. They soon learn that the information is not |
| road map for how you would like your business to | | | | always in line with their current plan. Brainstorm all |
| transform. Focus your attention on a few operational | | | | possible outcomes of your business intelligence |
| objective that can be achieved both short and long | | | | program and think of ways that your company can |
| term. | | | | improve based on the different results. You probably |
| Planning Your Strategy | | | | won’t be able to come up with every single |
| Start with your vision of where you would like your | | | | possibility, but you will be prepared to think creatively |
| company to be in 3 to 5 years. Pick specific goals that | | | | when your BI program starts to generate useful |
| can be achieved with the assistance of a good | | | | information. |
| business intelligence program. These goals should have | | | | Lastly, remember why you are implementing this |
| measurable success rates or key performance | | | | program. Business intelligence can be a huge asset to |
| indicators. You will use your key performance | | | | your business, but if you focus on the data and not on |
| indicators (KPIs) as milestones for how close you are | | | | what the data can do for your company, your energy |
| to accomplishing your goals. You can then set up your | | | | is misplaced. Before you become overwhelmed with |
| information infrastructure to collect the necessary data | | | | data warehousing and data integration initiatives, take a |
| that can be analyzed and turned into information, which | | | | step back and refocus on your company’s |
| can be used to make effective decisions for your | | | | goals. |