Businesses of today from Small Business, Local Stores, Medium Enterprises, to Large Multi-National Corporations, all collect and generate data of all kinds. Data might not just be information about your products and services, but it could also mean pay roll, attendance, and other miscellaneous data. More often than not, this data soon becomes a burden of organizations if they don’t know what they could do with it. This is where data warehousing and Business Intelligence solutions convent enormous amounts of random data into actionable insights.
The benefits of Business Intelligence solutions are well documented in the past and the applications of Business Intelligence are being explored in even more avenues and industrial verticals. However, a recent study suggests that 50% -70% of all Business Intelligence Solutions fail. From our experience in providing Business Intelligence solutions to a number of our customers, and also in resurrecting failed BI implementations we have understood that no two BI failures are caused by the same reason.
There are many reasons why BI projects fail and we have also realized that there are few mistakes that are repeated by many and are more common than the others. These mistakes could be simple or complicated but these mistakes could also be easily avoided. That is why we have created this list of 5 most common mistakes that lead to the failure of Business Intelligence solutions.
1. Not Understanding what BI is:
Many people tend to believe that once they have purchased and implemented a BI solution, their profits will go soaring through the roof. This is a very common misconception which has to be avoided. This however cannot be solely blamed on the buyers but also on the persons marketing BI solutions. This could lead to false guidance and false expectations.
To prevent such false expectations, you should first understand what you require from a BI solutions and then you could list out which BI solution could provide you with what you require. Understanding the requirements and the deliverables would reduce complications by a great extent.
2. Stakeholder Commitment:
All BI projects will probably run into errors and sometimes could lead to delays and unforeseen expenses. From our experience this is one of the major reasons why BI projects fail. When the stakeholders of a business are not completely committed to the project, minor delays and expenses could lead to scraping the project altogether. Such situations could be avoided when the stakeholders of the company are completely sold to the idea of implementing the project come what may. This support will ensure that project is completed and its demands are met.
3. Improper Data Collection:
Data collection and warehousing is one of the most vital aspects to creating and implementing a successful BI solution. To understand the importance of Data Warehousing in BI, you could read our previous blog here. When the data is not accurate, so will also BI solution. Worse still, improper insights could lead to man y big problems in the company. This is dangerous for the organization and should be avoided at all costs. Data with relevant parameters and functionalities should be categorized and integrated with the warehouse efficiently to ensure that insights provided by your BI are relevant.
4. User Friendliness and Acceptance:
Both of these aspects are actually two different factors contributing to BI project failure but both are equally important and are dependent on each other. Sometimes a BI tool may look very attractive to see during the demonstration but the users would be completely in woods while using it themselves. It is important to ensure user friendliness of the BI tool to be successful. Only a BI tool which is used by everyone will be successful. Every person from end users to data entry points should complete their part of the task for the BI to be reliable.
User Acceptance could be increased by providing the proper training. Many times from our observations we have found that good training may even make tools that are not even adequately user friendly to be well accepted by the end users. Getting the requirements right, focus on user friendliness, and most importantly comprehensive training could ensure success of your BI solution.
5. Scalability:
In many cases, BI implementations and solutions are designed and created for an organization’s present requirements. But it is very rare for an organization to be stagnant where the requirements remain the same for a long period of time. Conversely, BI solutions that are flexible and scalable could be configured according to the requirements of the organization. This has numerous benefits. You don’t have to purchase and implement a new solution; you just have to make minor tweaks to match it up to your organization’s requirements. It reduces expenses in time, money and resources.
One of the easiest ways to ensure your BI implementation is successful is by working with experience BI solution providers like XCEL Corp. With over 15 years of experience in IT on a global scale we have encountered numerous businesses and provided highly efficient business intelligence solutions. The solutions we have provided are proven to increase efficiency enabling businesses to achieve greater return on investment.
If you are looking for business intelligence solution for your business, get in touch with XCEL Corp right now!
Bhavani Suri ( Content Writer)
Our in-house content writer, who develops and creates content marketing strategies. She writes about the latest trends and advances related to IT in particular, and Technology in general.
