Balancing Self Serve BI & Governance

Having the best of both worlds

Success Factors for Corporate BI

Accurate, auditable, up-to-date data Consistent, verifiable calculation formulas Coherent, conformed data from all source systems Friction free access to all of this data for users Appropriate visualizations to understand complex information Structured, standardized reports that provide the data people need when and how they need it

Successful Self Serve BI

Easy access to corporate BI data Easy to understand relationships between data Ability to easily combine external and 3rd party data Ability to update data reliably Ease of what-if analysis across scenarios Flexible visualizations Personalized calculations and customizable formulas

The Dichotomy
Corporate BI
Corporate standard reports Established Corporate data Long lived reusable assets Authoritative information Current and widely available Aligned with corporate objectives Consistent calculations and formulas Bounded analysis Auditable

Personal BI
Explorative reports Ad hoc combinations of data One off and disposable Risky for pivotal decisions May be dated and local Aligned with operational objectives Calculations and formulas may vary from Corporate standards Un bounded analysis Not auditable

The Business Intelligence Continuum

Strategy Driven Business

Compliance & Risk Management

Consistent Measurement & Rewards

Innovative Organization

Local Decision Making

Aligned

Empowered

Organizational BI The Orgs Context BI Solution created by IT, Established corporate context & is reusable, scalable and backed up.

Team BI Our Context BI Solution created by power user. Context is for a small team & its managed on a server.

Personal BI My Context BI solution created by user. Context is only for user & exists as document.

Governance ensures that solutions are valid within the context they are presented

Gauge Corporate BI Maturity

Coexistence
Self serve BI is an excellent incubator for defining and developing tactical and strategic BI assets

Self serve BI allows users to perform operational BI without incurring IT overhead

Self serve BI reports need to be validated to mediate risk before being deployed for other users

Self serve BI drawn from corporate BI data stores are the best candidates for rapid deployment to other users as the data has already been sanctioned corporately
Self Serve BI allows good ideas to bubble up to corporate BI and act as a shock absorber for ad hoc requirements BI governance is required to manage and clearly establish Roles and responsibilities Rules and guidelines Request prioritization

Guidelines for using Spreadsheets as BI Tools

Create a spreadsheet governance policy
Spreadsheets can be used for processes that do not go beyond individuals and small workgroups Spreadsheets cannot be used for mission critical processes Spreadsheets cannot be used as systems of record or for regulatory processes

Monitor compliance with the policy

Spreadsheets that do not conform to the policy need to be controlled and managed Excel services provides a means to migrate spreadsheets from Individual to Team BI Monitor usage to extend solutions to corporate BI Monitor usage to deprecate unused BI assets

Managing the BI Continuum

Personal BI Is conducted on the users desktop using Excel Involves validating hunches is our pricing strategy correct? Is tactical what can I act on now? Team BI Uses articles stored on a shared platform using SharePoint Involves managing departmental issues are we maintaining our margins? Is operational what can we act on now? Governance Personal BI is a matter for individuals to manage on their desktop Personal BI becomes Team BI based on consensus among team members Team BI allows refinement and prioritization for corporate BI Team BI artifacts usage is tracked on the server by IT Team BI operates on a use it or lose it basis A policy needs to be established to remove unused artifacts and promote heavily used artifacts

Cost vs. Veracity

There is a cost for quality and reliability! There are risks associated with unmanaged BI As we move towards sanctioned Corporate BI the cost increases Verification and validation require resources Choices must be made Alignment with budget requires prioritization of effort
As BI moves along the continuum from Personal through Team to Corporate greater scrutiny and verification is required Not only data and formulas need to be considered, so does the statistical accuracy of the result

How do we manage this?

Manage tradeoffs between costs, business impact and resource requirements

Lay out guidelines pertaining to usage and promotion of requests Clearly differentiate strategic and self-serve BI categories

Define who is responsible for BI at a corporate and departmental level and what those responsibilities entail

BI Steering Committee
IT
Determines Costs Ensures toolset fitness Validates data fitness Provisions training
IT

Finance
BI Governance

Defines budget Determines ROI Manages alignment with strategy Champions BI corporately

LOB Stakeholders

Determines BI priorities Brings forward candidate initiatives Prioritizes projects based on business impact and resource requirements

Request Prioritization
Evaluate BI Request
Objective: Determine if request is ad hoc or part Corporate BI initiatives

Ad Hoc Project Requests

These are unplanned projects that need to be prioritized and managed in the BI project portfolio
Objective: Classify project requests as high or low priority based on their potential business impact and required resources

Baseline Project Requests

These are pre-planned projects such as annual, monthly and weekly reports and augmenting data sources. BI forecasts the number of projects and required resources annually based on requests
Objective: Allocate pre-determined resources, place into project portfolio, and address when able.

Typical percentage of projects: 80 %

Typical percentage of projects: 20 %

High Priority Requests

Business Impact: Has high revenue potential or supports strategic initiatives BI Resources: Requires more than 40 hours to complete or has an immediate and firm due date Typical percentage of projects: 30 %

Low Priority Requests

Business Impact: Has low revenue potential and low strategic alignment BI Resources: can be addressed in under 8 hours or has a flexible due date Typical percentage of projects: 50 %

BI Steering Committee Charter

Names the members and their areas of expertise and responsibility Team Leader CIO or Top manager Team Champion CFO or Director LOB Representatives Senior managers from Sales, Finance, Operations etc. Technical Lead BI Designer/Architect Terms of reference Objective and mission statement Scope (limitations and boundaries) Assumptions, constraints, obstacles and risks Strategic and tactical objectives Measures of success Criteria for request prioritization Audience definition Communication plan and workflow Team member time commitments Stakeholders Hardware and software recommendations Legal and compliance issues

Recommendation
Create a charter for the BI steering committee Obtain buy-in from CFO, CIO and LOB management Define the criteria for Corporate and Self-serve BI Define and refine a matrixfor prioritizing BI requests Define a project management approach to execute requests Prepare a communication strategy to manage expectations Identify BI power users and engage them in the process Set a regular schedule to meet and make decisions