the big trends in business intelligence competency centers

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The Big Trends in BI Competency CentersTimo ElliottSAP

© 2016 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. 2

Agenda

• Business Intelligence Competency Centers

• Top Trends

• Learning from Others

• Wrap-Up

3

Business Intelligence Competency Centers


What Is a BICC?

A Business Intelligence Competency Center (BICC) is a cross-functional organizational team that has defined tasks, responsibilities, roles, and skills for supporting and promoting the effective use of

Business Intelligence across an organization

Note that Gartner says that “Competency Centers” have a bad reputation, and now recommends “Business Analytics Team” …


Basic Goal: Make BI More Strategic and Cost Effective

Reactive

Maintenance

Strategic

Reactive

Maintenance

Strategic


BICCs Bring Big Benefits

Every winner of a BI Best Practice Award has a BICC• (but beware of correlation and causation)

Survey conducted by BetterManagement.com, 2010

Decreased software costs

Decreased staff costs

Better understanding of the value of BI

Increased decision-making speed

Increased business user satisfaction

Increased usage of Business Intelligence

24%

26%

45%

45%

48%

74%

Organizations with a BICC see the following benefits:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEIQFjAD&url=http://www.researchgate.net/publication/257036372_INTEGRATION_OF_KNOWLEDGE_MANAGEMENT_AND_BUSINESS_INTELLIGENCE_INNITIATIVES_IN_A_COLLABORATIVE_INTELLIGENCE_FRAMEWORK/links/0c960524405e2c55d4000000&ei=eVMZVKbRI5LeaJargfgK&usg=AFQjCNGVe13GiYTTCAmZ2M1fJIlFxzjxyA&sig2=Z1Qde6IY8CpZhm4e0m8jkg&bvm=bv.75558745,d.d2s


BICC Key Skills

Source: Gartner


The Main Functions and Responsibilities of a BICC

Source: Capgemini BICC Study 2012

http://www.slideshare.net/capgemini/business-intelligence-competency-centers-best-practices


Text

Functional Areas of the BICC

Business Intelligence

Program

BI Delivery

Data Stewardship

Training

Advanced Analytics

Support

Vendor Management

Data Acquisition

Business Intelligence Competency Center

Executive Sponsor


BICC Recommendations

Creating a BICC• Assess the current state, needs, and

opportunities• Define the business value of a BICC to the

enterprise — specific business objectives and the business case

• Figure out the top priorities for skills, technologies, initiatives, and governance

• Identify business sponsors to steer the BICC and charter governance bodies

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Top Trends

11© 2014 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.


Analytics Took Over the World

Analytics is now the hottest trend in business, not just in IT. Business people now want to have more access, and more control.


User Empowerment Leads to New Organizational Stress

Consumerization of IT

Employee-driven technology

Business-led budgets

Customer-facing needs

More external data Speed of change

Increased business frustration

Increased IT frustration


New Technology Means New Approaches

Predictive/NoSQL/Hadoop/Machine Learning/Data Lakes, etc. have enabled new relationships between different groups: IT, data scientists, business users …


BICCs Are Not Driving BI


The Large Portion of Data Users Need Isn’t in the System

“We found, on average, that 45% of the data business people use resides outside of the enterprise BI environments.

An astonishingly miniscule 2% of business decision-makers reported using solely enterprise BI applications.

This is undoubtedly connected to 76% of business respondents indicating they continue to resort to spreadsheets and other homegrown BI applications to analyze BI data.”

Source: Forrester

55%

45%

In enterprise systemsNot in enterprise system


Enterprise Systems Are Too Slow

31% wait days or weeks for an average BI request


Enterprise BI: Too Little Data and Too Hard to Use


Business Users Do Not Fully Trust Enterprise Data


So Users Turn to Their Own Systems

40% are using an equal amount or more of homegrown applications


The Basic BICC Setup (May Not Be Enough)

Business Intelligence that is:• Standardized• Repeatable• Clearly understood across the company

Regular, well-communicated releases• Jointly agreed between Business and IT• Facilitates the business areas planning and

scheduling of report requests

A steering group of senior management• Majority business leaders with strong

representation from IT

Clear measurements to follow up performance• Usage and user feedback


A Typical Deployment

Scandinavian manufacturing company deployed a first Global BI solution around 2000 together with the first SAP implementations

2000-2005 2005-2010 2011

No BI strategy

• No real BI strategy

• IT left to prioritize

• Multiple versions of the truth

One truth

• Company Performance model

• Standard reporting

• One truth

• Anchored in finance

Future vision

• Extend reporting to more users

• Redefine role

• More end-user flexibility


A Change in User Profiles and Patterns

Over a period of 7 years a company saw several shifts in its BI user group — and the shifts seem to be happening with shorter and shorter intervals

• System Expert• Favored Excel as front

end• Could live with poor

performance• Primarily used data from

SAP

2005“The controller”

• General analyst• Wanted to use web

reports as well• Interested in data from

several sources• Demanded better

performance

2010“The analyst”

• Expecting BI self-service• Wants information on

mobile devices• Not scared of technology,

uses the right tool for the job

2012“You and me”


New Conflicts

Internally-orientedCosts

GovernanceEfficient reuse

Customer-facingOpportunitiesFlexibility and speedExperimentation

IT Business


IT Seeing Same Disruption as Other “Digital Businesses”

“Through 2020 spending on self-service visual discovery and data preparation market will grow 2.5x faster than traditional IT-controlled tools for similar functionality”

– IDC

“Are you Uber? Or the taxi company?”

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Learning from Others


Best Practice: External Audit

Determine current vs. desired• Did the team really understand the users and their needs? • Was the reporting in the central system a true picture of overall reporting activity?• Did management have an accurate overview of reporting activities? • How should the team involve management in prioritizing and setting strategic

directions? • Was the team perceived as a help or a bottleneck? • Where could the team really make a difference?• What were the new requirements in terms of speed, flexibility, and simulation?

“I can recommend this exercise. I know a lot of departments who work with BI think they know their users, what they’re doing, and what their needs are – but unless you’ve done a real investigation of this, I would challenge you that you will find stuff you didn’t know existed.”

– BI Manager, Scandinavian Manufacturing Company


Getting the Facts Straight

The project was an eye-opener for the management team. The main findings were:

Tools

More user-friendly tools

Need a wider variety of tools

Data

Data is too hard to

understand

Need access to non-ERP

data in reporting

Flexibility

Need to be able to create own reports

Standard reports have limited value

Ownership

Some had invested in

own systems

All preferred to be in a global

system


Shadow BI Revealed

Time to information Business case required to get new reports, and could take six months. Business movers ended up buying their own tools.

Multiple iterationsMultiple iterations required, communications degrading. Local BI teams able to be more consultative and collaborative.

Lack of accountabilitySome things that should have been done locally were being delegated to central IT. Gut-based decision making was taking over.

Good: Agility, happier business users

Bad: Higher costs, no holistic view, no economy of scale, fragmented BI tool landscape, lost business opportunities from not having a global view


Best Practice: Launch a New Approach

Large Retailer:

Big kick-off meetingAnalysts, IT, execs, outside expertsAll areas of the businessTool independent

Launched new “service bureau” approachStrong executive supportAnalytics driven locally, best-practice shared centrally“Own the problem, not the solution” (“Can we access this tool, please?”)Collection of “agile services”Community-driven, using internal social networking


Best Practice: Refocus

Development close to the businessKnows Business/Analytics/IT

Report Developer

PrototypingBusiness-driven

Secure, strong BI governance

IntuitiveFast development

Cover all analytic needs

BI Expert

Agile BI

Up-to-date suite of tools + pragmatic

exceptions

Role

Process

Tools

Need Solution

“Agency” philosophy: Be the best available option for the business — leverage unique knowledge of cross-functional opportunities


Best Practice: Invest in Appropriate Tools and Skills

• Broad, not deep — build competence in “turning business information into insight” rather than technology, i.e., less reporting, more exploration

• Stay current! Be two years ahead of the business instead of two years behind. It will take time to build BI experts — start now.

“Doing visualization is really cool … but if you apply the wrong graphs to the data you will not get a very good result … Some of my employees have had to actually take a course in visualization, just to be able to challenge the business.”

– BI Manager, Scandinavian Manufacturing Company


Best Practice: Federated BICC Approach

• From “gatekeeper” to “air traffic controller”• Bring “shadow BI” under umbrella of BICC — but retaining local links• Co-locate “central” staff in business units whenever possible


Best Practice: Build and Nurture a Council/Community

UK Retailer:

Regular face-to-face meetings• Bring people together across silos: IT, Analysts, Business Leaders, Execs• Presentations of successes and best practices• Invite external speakers

Virtual communities• Leverage internal social tools for people to share information• Community-driven BI content

Community self-policing• Act as BICC eyes and ears to discover projects,

opportunities• Social mechanisms to ensure the “right behaviors”

Ensure support at all levels• Not just executives — middle and users


Best Practice: Adopt a Clear Methodology

National Electricity Grid

DecideDefineDevelopDeployDeclare


Best Practice: Agile BI

“Agile BI is an approach that combines processes, methodologies, organizational structure, tools, and technologies that enable strategic, tactical, and operational decision makers to be more flexible and more responsive to the fast pace of customer, business, and regulatory requirements changes.”

– Forrester, 2014


Inspiration from the “Agile Manifesto”

The highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of analytics.

Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for competitive advantage.

Deliver working projects frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

Business people and analytics staff must work together daily throughout the project.

Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

Delivered, used analytics is the primary measure of progress.

Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done — is essential.

The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Adapted from: http://agilemanifesto.org/

http://agilemanifesto.org/

http://agilemanifesto.org/


Agile in Practice

Scandinavian Manufacturing:

Multi-level, agile approach:Three levels, self-serve, agile BI, IT/cross-platform Initiate, mock up, finalize, industrialize — two-week cyclesCorporate “Wikipedia” for documentation

Finding experts:Look for best fit and relationships with business, then train

“Hypercare” handholding on first reportsFirst report more expensive, but now just a few days instead of four to five weeks —after six months, saving of 40% in the development time

Guide towards solutions rather than “tools”


Best Practice: Make the Work Visible


Best Practice: Team Management

Performance measurement based on the user experience: Data quality, engagement, delivery

Continuous Improvement: What can be improved in the processes, tracking learning

Social! Visual Mgt of priorities by team member

People focus on the health of the team


Best Practice: Offer “Agency Services”

Data BureauOne-stop shopping for data, internal, external, or “wrangled”

Tools BureauExpert recommendations of best technologies to use, when

Sandbox EnvironmentsEnvironments that let businesses experiment on their own

Innovation OpportunitiesWorkshops (e.g., Design Thinking) to uncover new opportunities

Analysis ValidationTrust, but verify …


Best Practice: Introduce Data Driving Licenses

Source: Gartner


Best Practice: Support the BI Lifecycle

Source: Gartner


Best Practice: Invest in Communications!

Effective communication is the bedrock of a successful BICCInvolves skills that aren’t always part of the staff hiring process

Sell the sizzleUse dashboards, scorecards, maps, and other visual applications/tools“Paint the walls with data”

Celebrate successPick a first initiative and make it a business successIdentify evangelists from the initiative and have them sell the success


Best Practice: Integrate BI into Executive Decision Cycle

US Retailer

Fully interactive, data-based screens

Questions answered there and then, no leaving the meeting until a decision is made


Best Practice: Support the Business

Scandinavian Manufacturer

Beyond BudgetingA new vision for performance measurement

Daily Resource Allocation


Best Practice: Support the Business (cont.)

Massive increase in demand for analytics and better-presented data initially overwhelmed available resources


Best Practice: It’s All About the Relationship

Instead of a scenario in which Business and IT play separate, traditional provider-versus-user roles everybody has to combine efforts to jointly explore and learn — and everybody has to compromise!

Learn from the business — there is a lot of good practice that should be adopted

49

Wrap-Up


Where to Find More Information

SAP BICC Playlist on YouTube: LinkSAP BI Self Assessment : www.sap.com/bistrategySAP BI Strategy Playlist on YouTube: Link

BI News: www.sap.com/BINews

Blogs on BI Strategyhttp://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-30479http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-30480http://scn.sap.com/community/business-intelligence/blog/2012/12/07/bi-strategy-bicc-a-key-element-to-your-bi-programhttp://scn.sap.com/community/business-intelligence/blog/2012/11/07/bi-strategy-bi-competency-centers-take-center-stage-againhttp://blogs.sap.com/analytics/2013/03/27/driving-value-from-your-business-intelligence-program-define-track-and-measure-success/

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPA5ZAeDvb1cPajM-cR8ar6Q8R_ihsE3i

http://www.sap.com/bistrategy

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPA5ZAeDvb1dUMYIUChURAYcIhZy9etgD

http://www.sap.com/BINews

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-30479




http://scn.sap.com/community/business-intelligence/blog/2012/12/07/bi-strategy-bicc-a-key-element-to-your-bi-program



http://scn.sap.com/community/business-intelligence/blog/2012/11/07/bi-strategy-bi-competency-centers-take-center-stage-again



http://blogs.sap.com/analytics/2013/03/27/driving-value-from-your-business-intelligence-program-define-track-and-measure-success/





7 Key Points to Take Home

1. Old approaches are no longer enough

2. Self-service BI is a wonderful business opportunityIf done right, can dramatically improve business agility and IT/Business alignment

3. But it requires new cultures and ways of workingYou’re no longer in charge — and everybody has to compromise

4. Provide what the business needs, not necessarily what they wantService-oriented approach, but the “customer is not always right”

5. Community is the essential pillarNo one person or team can do this alone — build momentum and listen to feedback

6. Look for opportunities to simplifyIt’s not about technology, but the right technology can help agility

7. Keep up momentum and successLook out for teaching opportunities, and market success widely and often

52

Thank you!

Timo Elliott, SAP

[email protected]

Twitter: @timoelliott

Blog: timoelliott.com


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