How 4dBI works

© Saltare Consulting Limited 2015. 4dBI is a trademark of Saltare Consulting Ltd. Registered in England and Wales. No. 7375755 | www.saltare.co.uk

4dBI is a business intelligence methodology that creates very high value BI solutions, by guiding businesses to build stronger links between their goals, people, processes and BI technology.

BI technology can be enormously powerful, but only if BI projects can unlock its full potential value. Just like any tool, BI technology must be used in the right way to deliver the best results.

BI solutions are readily adopted, because people find they are highly relevant to the processes they perform and

they understand how they help them to achieve business goals.

Your business looks at its goals and processes, to understand the role of BI in enhancing those processes to

better achieve your business's goals.

An understanding forms about what BI and data

capabilities are necessary to realise those qualities.

Assessment of the qualities in current BI solutions, and the

strength of current BI and data capabilities, is used to

determine your business's enterprise BI gap.

What's the difference between the BI qualities and capabilities we have now, and those we

need to have?

Work to close that gap is costed and prioritised based on the

criticality of business goals and the feasibility of BI delivery.

Let's focus on a combination of high value and easy delivery.

BI requirements analysis translates what BI qualities

your business needs, into how BI technology must deliver

those qualities.

BI solution design specifies how KPIs, analysis and reports

must all work together to deliver true business value.

OK, that's no problem.

Your business's people have a full understanding of how BI

solutions work, both in isolation and together to enhance the attainment of business goals.

What kind of BI content do we need? And what methods should we use to

deliver it?

Well, this analysis is

based specifically on those

KPIs...

What caused that issue we saw in the KPIs?

BI solution effectiveness is high, because people are

coached on how to accurately interpret and apply it.

Your business is now truly intelligent, because the information it consumes accurately reflects

how its people, processes and technology must unite to achieve your business's goals.

I knew precisely

what would close this

deal!

BI solutions are frequently applied to processes and

decisions, because their benefit has been measured and people

know how they add value.

Your business identifies what qualities must be

present in its BI solutions for BI to fulfil that role.

There's the four dimensions of 4dBI!

Your BI operating model is updated with your increased BI capabilities, and your BI quality

continually evolves through iterations of the 4dBI cycle.

Repeat the cycle!

BI solutions are prototyped,

developed and tested in

collaboration with business

people.

Now I see the report coming together, I'm

realising that it needs to work a bit differently...

BI solutions don't align well with business goals and processes, which means user adoption can be a

challenge and people may feel 'forced' to use them.

Yeah, it's exactly what I asked for.

But now I see it, I'm not so sure it's what

we need.

Your business identifies and plans BI objectives based on

perceived business pain points and priorities.

Business leaders decide on the kinds of BI solutions that are

believed to be necessary.

Lets start from the top with a KPI dashboard!

Your business engages with the BI marketplace to find out what BI tools

and technology are available, what they do,

and how much they cost.

Your business focuses on what BI technology

needs to do, rather than what qualities of BI solutions will make

them valuable.

A BI approach is selected based on the apparent strengths or merits of a BI technology, and

perceptions about what BI tools need to do for the business.

BI requirements analysis is based on untested opinions

about what (not how) BI solutions will benefit business processes.

BI solutions may be developed and tested away from BI users, using your business's regular

software development approach.

BI solutions are delivered with poor understanding or agreement of how they will benefit business processes and aid the attainment of

business goals.

Your business concedes that the BI solutions which have

been delivered provide little business value.

One or both...

Well, it came out

on top following the RFP process.

Why are we going with that BI tool?

BI solutions are designed to meet perceived needs at a single tier of the business. Other supporting BI

solutions are scoped for later.

We just need the KPIs in my spreadsheet

put into a new web-based dashboard.

X XX X X

Hey, isn't that the old KPI spreadsheet but in a new web-based dashboard?

...this is the dashboard you must use...

But, it doesn't tell us what we

need to know!..

What went wrong?

Time and money are spent investigating why BI value has failed to meet expectations, and what can be done to improve the situation.

Stakeholders who have been affected by the poor

value BI, seize an opportunity to promote their own preferred BI

tools and sources of data.

Various groups of people in your business make attempts to create their own BI,

resulting in conflicting information and multiple 'versions of the truth'.

Your business's efforts to achieve BI excellence have become paralysed,

as budget and resources are consumed by the need to manage the fragmented BI infrastructure.

...so we have to spend time creating our own reports!

Peoples interpretation of BI content is inconsistent, which

further diminshes business value.

The KPI dashboard showed us

issues, but we didn't build

the analysis to show us how

to react.

Ah, here's that old report! It was far

more useful...

Your business decides that it wants the benefits of high

quality business intelligence