Actionable BI

So what is the return on investment for BI projects? Usually there is no direct impact of business intelligence outcomes to the business. The decisions made out of business intelligence often require investments, both in terms of time and effort, and those are credited with returns and profits. So how does one measure the success of BI projects?

Gartner says the value is more in the mind that in the books. In my thoughts, the BI solutions provide a better view into the business, often clear, consolidated, and concise. I have also noticed that the organizations (even at the level of departments) with business intelligence solutions tend to be better integrated than others. Internal efficiencies come before measuring the external impacts. These efficiencies may be in terms of productivity, automation, creative decision making, collaboration and so on.

Now the challenge is to build relations between business intelligence. In other words making business intelligence “actionable”. It’s like finding causes and effects for business intelligence efforts – understanding the cause for building and intelligence and tracking the outcomes to effects. Today’s BI tools do not provide such features out of the box. But the solutions built around the tools can.

Do you struggle relating with a business intelligence solution to the ground reality? Look for the actionable nature of your business intelligence outcomes. If you need any help discovering the actionable aspects of business intelligence, write to us.