John Colbert is vice president of research and analysis for BPM Partners. Colbert gathers and reviews industry and vendor-specific data for BPM Partners’ service products and alliance programs. BPM Partners is an advisory services firm with a focus on business intelligence and business performance management solutions. BPM Partners is well-known for its annual “BPM Pulse Survey” which consolidates real users’ opinions of business intelligence and performance management priorities, trends and satisfaction with vendors.
Q: BPM Partners’ core business is working with end user companies to document requirements, create an enterprise roadmap, select technology if needed and successfully deploy business intelligence and business performance management solutions. What are you seeing among end user companies?
JC: One big trend we are seeing involves companies re-evaluating business intelligence projects that have languished and are figuring out how to get them back on track. In particular, we have noted a general increase in optimizing reporting projects.
Q: Are there any general reasons that business intelligence projects get derailed?
JC: Yes, there are some specific signs of business intelligence projects that indicate a project may be headed to failure. We’ve identified these signs as 1) end users are not accepting/using the application, 2) the technology selected at the beginning of the project no longer supports the challenges today, 3) the initial requirements of the project resulted in massive amounts of customization, 4) the consolidation of vendors in the business intelligence market has created software integration and obsolescence issues and 5) the initial scope of the project was very large.
Q: What is your advice to companies wanting to avoid these business intelligence project “traps?”
JC: Each attribute of a failed – or doomed – project has a different cause. But generally, not having the right executive level buy in and not involving business users in the project requirement phase have a significant impact on the overall success – or failure – of a business intelligence project. It’s important for the business intelligence team to work with a key executive or two and the business unit stakeholders if they want the project to succeed and the end business intelligence application to be adopted.
Q: What about the other attributes?
JC: The other three attributes really revolve around trying to do too much at once. Business intelligence projects should not be akin to multimillion dollar, multi-year ERP deployments and rollouts. The business needs change far too quickly for an organization to spend years developing, customizing and deploying a business intelligence project.
Q: If a company has a stalled or failed project, how can they get it back on track?
JC: When we work with a company, we start by detailing their business intelligence project requirements. In the case of a stalled project, we need to identify the requirements that have changed over the lifespan of the business intelligence project to date, and we identify the requirements that have not changed. From that assessment we develop a roadmap that addresses the end users’ needs, existing business intelligence technology investments, and pare down the project so it can be deployed quickly. An important part of project success is to develop a plan that involves key stakeholders in the process.
Kelley Kassa
Spotfire Blogging Team
Image Credit:BPM Partners
