Business Intelligence Consulting Group?

Hi Jason,

Investment in a BI strategy is an expensive business for any organisation, whilst the expected ROI can be high, the investment cash is nonetheless significant.

If you have never undertaken a BI strategy before, then you really must employ the services of someone who has. 75% of the projects we undertake are the replacement for failed or no longer relevant BI implementations. Frankly all of which could have been avoided given some decent advice and guidance at the outset.

We have a saying "never make your first BI implementation your first BI implementation", in other words, ensure that when you start you get the benefit of hindsight from some who already has.

So what questions should you ask a potential candidate? Again this is a tough one, but I would start with knowledge and experience in your market. Whilst the principals of BI generally apply across all market sectors, there is no substitute for domain knowledge. Someone who knows the "language" of your market will also understand what are the important areas of focus for any new implementation.

An early quick win is essential to keeping the business on board with a BI strategy. Make your first phase of a project a manageable one that delivers value in the shortest possible time. Again we have a saying for this also "if it takes more than 3 months it's too big".. Too many implementations ahve failed through lack of support from the business because of protracted delivery timescales.

So, the next question i would ask a candidate is "What would you make the scope of a phase one delivery?". Gauge the answer for yourself, will this add value to your business?

A note of caution though. In case you weren't already aware, a BI strategy has no end. It has a start, but no end. A BI strategy is constantly changing and being honed and expanded to meet with the current business requirements. Every time a business changes, so the method of measuring it's success changes, and hence the BI to demonstrate this must also change.

So, the next question I would ask is "How do you know you're at the end of a BI project?".. This is a real interesting one, because the real answer is "you never are at the end...it's ongoing".

With this in mind, it's essential therefore that you get the right advice on the products to use, you need to be sure that they are going to embrace the inevitability of change, and not attempt to fight against this. Your business intelligence consultant must be able to recognise this.

So, the next question is. "What measures will you use to evaluate the most appropriate products for our organisation's BI needs". There's not a single answer, gauge the responses on common sense, remembering the need for change.

Hope all this helps and good luck

Rob Davenport
DataAcademy