BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE STRATEGY ASSESSMENT

RECOMMENDATIONS

This document provides recommendations based on your responses to our business intelligence (BI) strategy assessment

questionnaire. Our recommendations are based on our assessment of the extent of your business challenges and the

impact on your business when addressing those challenges.

Best Practices

A solid BI strategy addresses the information needs of your entire organization. Your strategy should answer questions

such as:

• Do we have sufficient information to make critical business decisions?

• What capabilities are required to make information available and useful?

• What are the dependencies to make information readily available?

• Are we using information to identify strategic and competitive advantages?

• What should our high-level BI roadmap of initiatives look like?

• What is our vision for information accessibility and usage?

• What metrics should we use to manage the BI implementation and fulfillment of BI business goals?

• What kind of governance model do we need to support BI initiatives?

Based on research from *Gartner and other industry analyst groups, SAP has identified proven best practices that can

serve as guidelines to help ensure success for any BI initiative. As discussed below, the top proven practices include:

• Find a high-level executive sponsor

• Make BI a strategic initiative for your organization

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• Establish a business intelligence competency center

• Develop a road map, and measure your organization’s progress and success

• Define architecture and standards

Find a High-Level Executive SponsorHigh-level executive support is one of the key reasons for success. The executive sponsor of your BI initiative is someone

who understands the value of business intelligence and is willing and able to champion and promote the program across

the organization. The role of executive sponsor includes:

• Championing the program

• Influencing and gaining trust of other senior executives

• Approving the budget required for the program, including money for promotion

Make BI a Strategic Initiative for Your OrganizationOften, BI initiatives begin as tactical programs. Employing a consistent methodology will help your organization to move

from tactical to strategic BI.

Your approach should include aligning BI objectives with your organization’s overall business objectives and business

strategy. A key factor to success lies in understanding the information needs across your organization and by stakeholder

groups. Ideally, your methodology will include prioritizing needs both within and across stakeholder groups. The activity of

selecting priorities must be transparent and agreed on by BI leaders and stakeholders. Where possible, you should assign

priorities relative to the impact on corporate objectives.

Establish a Business Intelligence Competency CenterA critical element for success with your BI initiative is making sure the right people and program management practices

are in place. Establishing a broad-based business intelligence competency center (BICC) or similar body (such as a

business intelligence center of excellence) is crucial for the effective implementation of a BI strategy. Research shows that

fewer full-time support employees are needed when a well-run (certified) BICC is in place.

Successful BICCs are chartered to link the business-driven objectives of the enterprise with the information, applications,

processes, training, policies, and technology the organization can provide and support. A cross-organizational group, the

BICC encompasses a wide range of users, including business analysts and technology-skilled resources. The BICC

develops the overall strategic plan and priorities for BI and enterprise performance management, defines and implements

the requirements (including data quality management and information governance), and helps the organization to interpret

and apply the insight to business decisions. This strategy must be driven by clear business objectives, and be able to

evolve with the corporate objectives.

Regardless of the organization’s structure, the BICC should report to a high-level business executive, such as the CFO,

COO, CIO or chief strategy officer. In addition, the BICC should have a mandate, resource plan, and a charter that defines

its scope, accountabilities and interactions with other groups.

Develop a Road Map, and Measure Progress and SuccessIt is important to develop a roadmap, measure progress and manage key decision points within the program timeline.

Develop metrics that will measure both the implementation and ongoing success of the program.

Define Architecture and Standards

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Define the architecture for the different components of the BI infrastructure. Develop and maintain standards regarding

methodologies, definitions, processes, tools and technologies required to implement BI.

* Daniel Yuen, “Eight Steps to Foster the Creation of a Business Intelligence Competency Center,” Gartner, August 2011.

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Summary of Business Challenges

The challenges across your organization are prioritized based on your responses to the BI strategy assessment

questionnaire. This section assesses your business challenges and how your business will be affected when addressing

those challenges. Challenges are categorized into the following groups:

• High priority:This group identifies the challenges with the highest level of effort and business impact.

• Pursue opportunistically: This group identifies the challenges that will not have a great impact. They should be

pursued opportunistically but no significant time and investment are warranted.

• Monitor: These challenges are not necessarily urgent, but they are important and therefore should be monitored.

• Long term: This group indicates the challenges that do not have a large impact and hence should be considered long

term.

Your organization should focus on the high-priority challenges indicated in the figure below.

Business Challenges by Priority

Challenges by Line of Business

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High-Priority Challenges Across Your Organization

The top high-priority business challenges are those your organization should evaluate and resolve immediately. These

challenges span all lines of business for which you entered information.

How to Read this Table

Business Challenge: The business challenge restates an issue within your organization that you identified as having a

negative impact on your organization.

Business Solution: The business solution indicates ways that you can address the business challenge and provides a

foundation for using business intelligence.

Expected Benefit: The expected benefit indicates how using business intelligence can aid your organization and resolve

the business challenge.

Line of Business (LoB) Business Challenge Business Solution Expected Benefit

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Solutions for High-Priority Business Challenges

Addressing business challenges requires your organization to apply both technology and process. SAP provides a

comprehensive suite of solutions that are designed to solve real business problems and positively impact your

organization. Based on the high-priority challenges you’ve identified across all lines of business, we have prioritized the

following portfolio solutions for you according to their applicability.

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TOP LINES OF BUSINESS

Based on your answers, this BI strategy assesses the top lines of business in relation to the business challenges and

their impact on your organization. These challenges will have the highest degree of impact for your organization. For

these lines of business, you can evaluate the top most important business solutions that your organization should

consider based on your input.

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NEXT STEPS

To build a solid BI strategy you need a consistent, structured methodology that will help you identify business challenges

across your enterprise and align your BI initiatives with business objectives.

To help ensure that your BI initiatives have the greatest impact across your organization, SAP has developed a four-step

methodology that will help you develop a solid BI strategy.

SAP can help you take a structured approach with a personalized workshop. Contact an SAP account executive today.

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