Your business has systems producing data. You need to get and analyze that data and report it to the right people at the right time so they can act on it. Maybe you also need to scale up your current BI, reduce costs and eliminate bottlenecks. You know your company needs to invest in the right Business Intelligence in order to comply, react and thrive in this ever-changing world. In this two-part blog, I will talk about why it's important to understand ROI of Business Intelligence for your organization.

In part 1 I will discuss:

• Barriers to BI
• BI Wins
• Making Your ROI Case

In part 2 I will discuss:

• BI Goals To Consider
• Investment Costs Not To Miss Out
• Where Do We Come In?

Barriers to BI

Our experience tells us that many companies suffer from 3 fundamental issues in delivering cost-effective BI. Before you start making the case for your chosen solution, ensure you've considered these potential barriers......

Will It Handle Volume & Complexity?

Ensure your solution is scalable- to manage and automate possible thousands of different reports being delivered to any number of recipients in a huge variety of formats, protocols and schedules. 

Is It Responsive & Always Learning?

Does it support self-service, ad-hoc and event-driven reports and will it flag up any failures (such as data errors, delivery failures, processing glitches)?

Will It Be Compliant?

Confirm it will comply with all relevant regulations and business standards.

BI Wins

We see dramatic changes at companies that choose an enterprise-wide reporting framework.

Top Results We See From Great BI

1. Increased sales
2. Better and faster decision-making
3. No more manual processing or distribution
4. Staff cost reduction
5. Better internal communications, site & company-wide
6. Detect inefficiencies or new opportunities that had been invisible
7. Enable new and better processes
8. Quality improvement information

Making Your ROI Case

Who's Your Audience?

As you compile your case for investing in business intelligence, always keep in mind what your team will care most about. The requirements of your ROI analysis will vary depending on your company size, sophistication and culture. 

What Drives Decision-making In Your Company?

Do you have a "show me the numbers" management team who make quick decisions based on quantifiable net gains within a fixed and sometimes arbitrary- time period (e.g., one year). Or will you be expected to present specialized rates of return, multiple payback periods, opportunity costs and the time value of money?

Assessing Value Over Money

It's not always about money. Sometimes ROI involves factors that are less tangible and harder to measure. Segmenting various aspects of the "return" in ROI is a useful exercise for separating the important factors from that which is valued less. Some organizations (or leaders) value all quadrants of this matrix. Others don't. You should allocate your effort proportionally.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this blog where I will discuss the BI goals you will want to consider, as well as the investment costs not to miss and where we (ChristianSteven Software) come in! 

Blog Part 2 →