 |
|
- A clearly defined business problem and project definition
- The right multidisciplinary team commitment and "organizational readiness"
- Specific expertise in business intelligence application technology
Failure to assess and address organizational readiness is the single most common cause of project delays and even project abandonment. Organizational readiness is largely a matter of key stakeholders and other project team members fully understanding the scope of their contributions and the priority their efforts must have. In the real world, for example, in the crush of competing commitments, some key individuals may find they just can't make the time available to participate in the project. The result can be delays or inadequate reviews that cause changes later in the project, when they are more expensive to accommodate. Another situation occurs when organizations undertake BI projects based on one group's needs without fully working through other departments' interactions with the project. Turf issues may emerge with competing departments fearing loss of influence if timely, coherent insight into performance becomes available. In any of these situations, covering the bases up front can make a huge difference and may actually reduce the overall project time to delivery.
An outsider can see the gaps ahead of time and set out a practical plan to address them, often more clearly than an insider. Our insights are based on the experiences of many different companies over the years. By laying out an action plan and helping your team to communicate the action steps to all stakeholders, General Analytics can help your organization achieve a readiness level that can save months of fruitless and costly efforts.
On the technology side, BI application issues include scalability considerations, security issues, and performance issues. These require different considerations than standard relational applications. Getting them right the first time requires in-depth knowledge of both the software and business requirements. It's not unusual for a company's internal technical staff not to have had the chance to gain this type of expertise.
From the organizational side, BI applications require more intense involvement from a wider range of people than standard relational projects do. All team members need to understand the scope and priority of their contributions. Extensive, careful communication is needed to get the team on board and to keep them on track during the project. Although every organization is different, over the years we've seen clear patterns that enable us to steer your project effectively, even from an outsider's position.
BI applications promise timely information in a form business users can access directly. If the promise is for daily information but the application requires 25 hours to calculate, it will not be seen as a success. That may sound silly, but organizations that take a do-it-yourself approach to BI application design often find that after months of effort, they have delivered an application that uses more resources or responds more slowly than is ideal from a user perspective. These problems are completely solvable; we've solved them for many organizations.
- We bring specific expertise in business intelligence applications gained over 15 years of high-level experience
- We understand both the business side and the technology side of BI applications
- We're flexible to do as much or as little of your project as you need
- We work smoothly with your technical staff, operational users, and top management
- You can rely on us to deliver BI applications that work and provide your organization with the benefits identified at the project start
Copyright © 2003 General Analytics LLC. All rights reserved. info@generalanalytics.com
|
