Evaluating BI Solutions: Who Should Be On the Decision-Making Team?

When evaluating business intelligence vendors and their products, many organizations make one common, yet detrimental mistake – choosing and purchasing a solution from just a single perspective.  In fact, the typical BI project is headed up by only one group.  In most cases, either the IT department oversees the initiative (this is the most common scenario), or the functional business unit who will be using the system leads the charge.

Whether you’re a first-time BI user buying a brand new application, or a seasoned BI pro looking to replace your existing business intelligence system with a more robust and feature rich one, it is important to build a solid, well-rounded project team to make the decision.  Why?  Because, functional workers don’t understand the technical intricacies of business intelligence, and IT staff lack insight into how BI will be used to support the day-to-day activities of end users.  Bringing together the right group of people will ensure that everyone’s needs are met, and that the solution will deliver maximum value to the most broad range of user types possible.

Who should you select to spearhead your initiative?

Executive management.

No technology effort can fully succeed without senior-level buy-in – and BI is no exception.  Without support from the top, major business intelligence projects may not receive the funding or the resources they require.  On the other hand, when projects are highly visible to executives, budget money becomes more readily available, staff members are easily allocated or re-assigned to related tasks, and schedules and deadlines are more likely to be met.

Line of business users.

In order to ensure widespread adoption, and to find the solution that will best satisfy all the requirements of its primary user base, line of business workers must be involved in the entire process from start to finish – from needs assessment through vendor selection and rollout.  Choose a few representatives, at various levels and in different roles, from each department or business unit that will be impacted by the new business intelligence application.  For example, if your BI solution will be used to support financial reporting processes, select a finance manager, a purchasing/procurement agent, and an accounts receivable coordinator to participate.

IT staff.

Which solution is the most technically sound?  Where will the application plug into your existing infrastructure?  How easily can each vendor integrate their offerings with the other systems in your environment?  Only IT professionals can answer questions like these – and they are vital to purchasing a viable solution.  Therefore, no BI project team is complete without several representatives from your IT department.

External partners.

Do you plan to make business intelligence capabilities accessible to constituents outside the enterprise?  For example, allowing customers to retrieve account statements or order information, or enabling selling and channel partners to check the status of co-marketing leads.    If so, then their input is critical to the decision-making process, and their needs should be considered before a solution is purchased and rolled out.

By asking a diverse base of stakeholders to participate in your project, you can build a winning team and purchase the best possible business intelligence solution for your business.

Comments

[Ed Freeman]

You forgot someone: BI experts! I've usually seen tool decisions made by executive sponsors + IT systems people, but BI is it's own disipline with it's own insights and expertise.