Why do so many BI & big data analytics solutions fail to deliver business value?
It’s common knowledge that in today’s digital world, every move leaves a digital trace that can be turned into actionable insights and actions. That’s why so many organizations are investing in BI tools to support decision-making, and in big data analytics solutions to maximize customer experience and optimize business results.
However, the reality is different. Many organizations who have purchased such tools/solutions have turned to me after failing to get sufficient business value from them. In my opinion, and based on my experience from meeting with them, there are a number of reasons to explain this conundrum. Here are my tips on how to improve:
1. “Jack of all trades, master of none”: To save on resources, many organizations combine the business and implementation aspects of BI and big data analytics solutions in one person. However, these two roles require very different skill sets, and their combination may result in missed business value in BI implementation and big data analysis. Just as data analyst skills are different to data scientist skills, the same goes for business knowledge vs. analytic capabilities. The result may be the difference between turning data into valuable business insights and simply playing with the data in a big data analytics implementation, and between achieving valuable decision-making solutions and a negligible solution in BI implementation. So, irrespective of whether organizations hire a service provider or choose to implement in-house, two resources are essential for success – one with the business understanding to ask the right questions and the knowledge to turn the data into business insights and actions, and the other for the technical/analytics execution.
2. “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur”: Cutting costs through the use of cheaper, and often less-professional suppliers, inevitably results in costing more in the long run. In particular, implementation tends to take longer and the business value is negligible. Furthermore, organizations must ensure that their service suppliers have an appropriate resource who understands the business, as well as another resource with the necessary technical capabilities to ensure successful and valuable implementation and analysis.
3. “Think before you act”: Many organizations rush to purchase and quickly implement a BI or big data analysis tool without initially defining their actual business requirements and the results they want to achieve. There is a huge difference between the two, and it’s very easy to fail through incorrect specification of requirements or through focusing on incorrect, non-valuable business challenges in the sea of data available. Avoid being over-agile and plan well.
