05.03.08
IT Departments Versus On-Demand: Does Internal Expertise Matter?
BI analyst Lyndsay Wise published a fairly provocative piece that we agree with in large part. She investigated whether it’s wise for a company’s IT organization to be responsible for BI application implementation. She says:
Realistically, most organizations deploying BI use the traditional model of internal IT staff to manage and develop the data warehouse as well as to develop reports and front-end tools that can be deployed organization-wide. For IT departments to deliver value and create applications that extend beyond the super user, it becomes essential for IT to understand the business units, business needs and problems. Unless data is transformed into information that is valuable for the end user to make informed decisions, the full value of BI may not be harnessed or accessed at all.
Boy do we agree. Everyone agrees that one reason why many BI systems fail is because the systems aren’t effectively tied to the business objectives and in a sense simply become another piece of shelfware. We work with our clients to ensure that everyone understands the business purpose we are all trying to achieve and have found that by starting from that perspective, the possibility of success greatly improves. We’re not always sure that our corporate IT partners look first from a business perspective, so we put key meters in place to ensure that’s we’re all working to achieve the same goals.
It’s transforming data into information into knowledge that leads to better business decisions.
Read the rest of the article here.