Optimizing your BICC for Trusted Data Discovery

Optimizing Your BI Organization and

Processes for Trusted Data DiscoveryTimo Elliott

SAP

© 2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. 1

Agenda

BICC Overview

What Changed?

Learning from Others

Recommendations

Wrap-up

2

Business Intelligence Competency Centers


What Is a BICC?

A Business Intelligence Competence 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


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

24%

26%

45%

45%

48%

74%

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

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 2012i

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.

10

What Changed?

10© 2014 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.


Analytics is a Hot Topic

Big data is a big deal in big business

Business people now need to control it


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


Lots of New Techniques and Technologies to Manage

Businesses struggling to provide coherent approach

Source: Gartner


But BICCs Are Not Driving BI


The Majority 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

45%

55%

In enterprise systems

Not in enterprise system


Enterprise Systems Are Too Slow


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


Basic Conflict

BI programs have struggled

to clearly define roles and

responsibilities between IT

and business users in a self-

service BI delivery model.

Few BI programs have been

able to find a workable

balance between business

user empowerment and

governance with self-service

data discovery.

Top-down

BICC

Bottom-up

Self-service

Trusted information

Efficient reuse

Too report-driven

Flexibility

Speed

Experimentation


Wikipedia

Local experts Encyclopedia

Britannica

Encarta

IT Seeing Same Disruption as Other “Digital Businesses”

22

Learning from Others


(1) Scandinavian Consumer Manufacturing Co.

The 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 the company saw several shifts in its BI user group

The shifts seem to happen with shorter and shorter intervals

• System Expert

• Favored Excel as front end

• Could live with poor performance

• Primarily used data from SAP

• General analyst

• Wanted to use web reports as well

• Interested in data from several sources

• Demanded better performance

• Expecting BI self service

• Want’s information on mobile devices

• Not scared of technology, uses the right tool for the job


Time to Find Out What Was Really Happening

With the help of external consultants the company ran a small three month

project to 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 they’re 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


Acting on the Results

BI Self-Service Approach

More responsibility to end users

More user-friendly tools

Visual discovery

Training required

Business and analytics skills

“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


(2) European Consumer Goods Packaging Company

Had Created The “Perfect Giant” of Enterprise BI

Business Intelligence was:

• 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


“Past Achievements Don’t Guarantee Future Success”

Time to information

Business case required to get new reports, and could take six months. Business

movers ended up buying their own tools.

Multiple iterations

Multiple iterations required, communications degrading. Local BI teams able to be

more consultative and collaborative.

Lack of accountability

Some 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


Making It Agile

How to make an Ocean liner perform as a

speedboat?

Moving to an agile strategy

Learn from the business. BI is something that

brings up emotions. Found a lot of good practice in

the business as well as bad.

The unofficial BI was more agile and more cost-

efficient: Creating the reports close to the action,

leaner process, no handovers, more niche tools

that met their requirements.

Had to find a new balance between control and

autonomy/freedom.


Decentralization of Reporting

Data warehouse centralized, but all report development local

Agile development

Cost effective

Business driven


Redefinition of Roles, Processes, and Tools

Development close to the business

Knows Business/Analytics/IT

Report Developer

Prototyping

Business-driven

Secure, strong BI governance

Intuitive

Fast development

Cover all analytic needs

BI Expert

Agile BI

Up-to-date suite of

tools + pragmatic

exceptions

New Role

New

Process

New Tools

Need Solution


What Changed

Before: “The” BI process

Now three levels, self-serve, agile BI, IT/cross-platform

Getting the BI experts: Looked for best fit, then trained

Some areas didn’t feel they had the competences

“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

New four-step process

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

Corporate “Wikipedia” for documentation

Guide towards solutions rather than “tools”


(3) Large UK Retailer

Situation

Beloved UK institution but “beleaguered”

Top-to-bottom control of products

Lots of information silos, tools

Lots of “institutional knowledge”

Change Ahead

Needed omni-channel approach/“products”

Required new integrated, business-focused analytics approach

New executive team and “digital native” IT


Launched New Analytics Approach

Big kick-off meeting

Analysts, IT, execs, outside experts

All areas of the business

Tool independent

Launched new “service bureau” approach

Strong executive support

Analytics 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


Decision Pods

Fully interactive,

data-based screens

Questions answered

there and then, no

leaving the meeting

until a decision is

made

Based on the

experiences of a

large US retailer

37

Recommendations


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


Build and Nurture a Community

Regular face-to-face meetings

• Bring people together across silos: IT, Analysts, Business Leaders, Execs

• Presentations of successes 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


Move to Agile BI

Forrester, 2014: 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.

• If your enterprise BI isn’t agile, unofficial BI platforms will grow like

mushrooms in the dark

• A fragmented BI tool strategy will add cost and jeopardize the holistic view of

BI

• Report development is highly iterative — traditional IT development

processes don’t work


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/


Reorganize and Refocus

Avoid “worst of both worlds” approach!

Move to federated 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

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

“Agency” philosophy

• Be the best available option for the business — leverage unique knowledge of

cross-functional opportunities


Offer Key Services

Data Bureau

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

Tools Bureau

Expert recommendations of best technologies to use, when

Sandbox Environments

Environments that let business experiment on their own

Innovation Opportunities

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

Analysis Validation

Trust, but verify …


Introduce Data Driving Licenses

Source: Gartner


Support the BI Lifecycle

Source: Gartner


Remember to Communicate!

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

Analytics is “white hot,” so sell it

Celebrate success

Pick a first initiative and make it a business success

Identify evangelists from the initiative and have them sell the success

47

Wrap-Up


Where to Find More Information

Barc Collective Insight white paper

SAP BICC Playlist on YouTube: Link

SAP BI Self Assessment : www.sap.com/bistrategy

SAP BI Strategy Playlist on YouTube: Link

BI News: www.sap.com/BINews

Blogs on BI Strategy

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/

http://www.sap.com/bin/sapcom/en_us/downloadasset.2014-05-may-07-17.information-culture--collective-intelligence-pdf.bypassReg.html

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/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 opportunity

If done right, can dramatically improve business agility and IT/Business alignment

3. But it requires new cultures and ways of working

You’re no longer in charge — and everybody has to compromise

4. 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 feedback

6. Look for opportunities to simplify

It’s not about technology, but the right technology can help agility

7. Keep up momentum and success

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

50

Thank you!

Timo Elliott, SAP

[email protected]

Twitter: @timoelliott

Blog: timoelliott.com


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Optimizing your BICC for Trusted Data Discovery

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