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The Big Trends in BI Competency CentersTimo Elliott, Innovation Evangelist, SAPMarch 2016

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Agenda

• Traditional Business Intelligence Competency Centers• Top Trends• Learning from Others• Wrap-Up

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Traditional Business Intelligence Competency Centers

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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

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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:

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Store, maintain, integrate dataImplement changes

Summarize and analyzeDiscover and explore

Link to corporate strategyAlter processesPrioritize and set expectations

Gather requirementsEvangelizeMonitor satisfaction

Interpret resultsDevelop alternatives

Identify dataExtract dataValidate data Engineering skills

Analysis skills Relationship skills

Leadership skills

BICC Key Skills

Source: Gartner@timoelliott

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The Main Functions and Responsibilities of a BICC

Source: Capgemini BICC Study 2012

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Functional Areas of the BICC

TextBusiness

Intelligence Program

BI Delivery

Data Stewardship

Training

Advanced Analytics

Support

Vendor Management

Data Acquisition

Executive Sponsor

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The Traditional BICC Setup

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

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Top Trends

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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.

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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 …

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BICCs Are Not Driving BI

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The 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

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Enterprise Systems Are Too Slow

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Enterprise BI: Too Little Data and Too Hard to Use

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Business Users Do Not Fully Trust Enterprise Data

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So Users Turn to Their Own Systems

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

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New Conflicts

Internally-orientedCosts

GovernanceEfficient reuse

Customer-facingOpportunitiesFlexibility and speedExperimentation

IT Business

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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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BI-nosaurs

Gartner, 2016: “BICCs are dead.”@timoelliott

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Learning from Others

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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

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Best Practice: Embrace Shadow BI

BI is best done by business people• 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

New BICCs are about providing good governance and encouraging best practice rather than providing reports and analytics

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

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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

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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 …

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Best Practice: Adopt a Common Methodology

e.g. UK National Electricity Grid

DecideDefineDevelopDeployDeclare

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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

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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/ @timoelliott

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Agile in Practice

Scandinavian Manufacturing Company

Multi-level, agile approach:• Three levels, self-serve, agile BI, IT/cross-platform 

• Initiate, mock up, finalize, industrialize — two-week cycles

• Corporate “Wikipedia” for documentation

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

“Hypercare” handholding on first reports• First 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”

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Best Practice: Make the Work Visible

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Best Practice: Introduce Data Driving Licenses

Source: Gartner@timoelliott

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Best Practice: Support the BI Lifecycle

Source: Gartner@timoelliott

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Best Practice: Invest in Communications!

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

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

Celebrate success• Pick a first initiative and make it a business success• Identify evangelists from the initiative and have them sell the success

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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

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Best Practice: It’s All About the Relationship

The old model, where Business and IT play separate, traditional provider-versus-user roles is dead.

The new best practice, that combines the best of agility with governance, is still being worked out.

The key is to ensure good working relationships — everything else can be worked out.

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Wrap-Up

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Where to Find More InformationSAP 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/

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7 Key Points to Take Home

1. Old approaches are no longer enough2. Self-service BI is a wonderful business opportunity

If done right, can dramatically improve business agility and IT/Business alignment3. But it requires new cultures and ways of working

You’re no longer in charge — and everybody has to compromise4. Provide what the business needs, not necessarily what they want

Service-oriented approach, but the “customer is not always right”5. Community is the essential pillar

No one person or team can do this alone — build momentum and listen to feedback6. Look for opportunities to simplify

It’s not about technology, but the right technology can help agility7. Keep up momentum and success

Look out for teaching opportunities, and market success widely and often

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Thank you!

Timo Elliott, SAP

timo.elliott@sap.comTwitter: @timoelliottBlog: timoelliott.com