Why Bother?Identifying the True Value of SAP Investments by

Looking At Real Australian Implementations

Steve BennettCo-founder

Business Intelligence CORTEX

My Background

• Co-founder Business Intelligence Group• CORTEX - an online Australian community of BI, PM,

DWH, ETL and Analytic professionalsForums Research Jobs Local BI News & Eventswww.tbig.com.au/forums

• 20 years building analytic capabilities• Oz Analytics Blog analytics.typepad.com

What We’ll Cover

• Introduction• Ownership Lessons• Best Practices• New Capabilities• Conclusions

Introduction

• Lessons from over 100 BI projects• 2003 - 2009• Over 50% in environments with SAP• 70% Australian, 30% Asian• Mainly in Banking, Insurance and Leisure

10 Signs You Need Analytics

1. You have to wait to make/change a report2. There are more than 100 requests pending 3. Multiple numbers for the same thing 4. The same words to mean different things5. You can't get an instant understanding6. The commentary is larger than the report7. The report is handcrafted 8. It takes longer than 5 minutes to view 9. You can't access the report10. You manually validate key numbers

Why Bother? Because …Organisations that have successful BI solutions:

• Have better and timelier access to information:• Customer activities• Operating costs• Market trends• Supply chain issues

and many other pieces of performance that are not easily measured

This can give them a capability to …• Better understand current performance (issues)• Identify efficiency opportunities (insight)• Reliably predict future performance• Make better decisions because they are based

on correct data and insight (trusted)• Reduce risks (less surprises)• Enhance agility (in handling new requirements)• Promote a shared understanding (same

language)• Reduce internal conflicts (SSOT)

Business Objective ContinuumWide range of ambitions:

leverage analytics for competitive advantage

Performance Manage Decisions

Automated Decisions

Management Reporting

Dashboards Scorecards

Operational Reporting

Analysis

When you know the question When you know the data When you know the drivers

Short Term Goals

Long Term Goals

Department Enterprise

Batch + Periodic Real Time

Alerts

Reality Check

• Developing a better analytic capability is difficult because:• You have to consider non-financial measures (e.g. ¾ of the

balanced scorecard) that are typically not in your transaction and financial systems

• Modelling of future performance (lead measures) is complex to do well

• You do not know the business better than everyone else

Ownership Lessons

Best Ownership Practices

• DQ champions in IT and BI Departments.• Domain experts from across the enterprise• Data owners of every data item and measure in the BI

platform• Empowered to make decisions:

• All business data and their definitions(including reference data)

• Enterprise performance measures and their calculation basis• solutions (business processes and IT)

• Monthly meetings to solve DQ issues

Establishing Ownership

• Have a clear plan to realise benefits• Sell the benefits• Establish the governance group asap• Define the data• Prioritise and decide data issues.• Provide feedback on Data Controls, Data Validation

and Quality.• Business ‘work-arounds’ that deal with issues without

requiring additional IT work.

Best Practise Data Control Principles

• Anyone can raise data issues• If you raise the issue you own acceptance of a

solution• BIA Department owns the resolution process• Data Council owns prioritisation• Reconcile daily• Measure data quality against agreed SLA’s and KPI’s• Recognise the data lifecycle and manage it

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What are the burning questions?What are the value drivers?

Data AnalysisWhat does the data support?

Logical ModelHow do we think it should look?

Business NeedWhat does the business want?

Listen to the business• Talk to the business – and keep

talking!• Get buy in - partnership• Agree definitions• Understand the business

processes

Look at the source data• Look at the data• Look at history and recent data• Work on data quality• Validate business processes

Argue for the Big Picture• Understand the big picture• Avoid silos• Conform dimensions• Challenge the business need

Business Requirements:

Best Practices

Have C-level support

“He’s charged with expressing contempt forbusiness intelligence.”

Enterprise dashboard down to transactions

“We just want a dashboard”

Enterprise DQ with a BI Platform focus

Garbage In Garbage Out

Single (business driven) analytic community

Trust us, we know what we are doing

Single (business driven) governance structure

Arguments and confusion because meanings aren’t defined and agreed

BI linked to performance management

“We’ve got enough rocks – what we need is better intelligence”

Best Practices

• BI is a management process• Daily performance tracking of:

• Products• Portfolios• Marketing Campaigns

• Performance predictions against targets• Financial• Cultural

• Competitors• Mobile delivery

• Customer Satisfaction• Data Quality• etc.

• Strategic Objectives• etc.

New Capabilities

When Developing New Capabilities …• BI investments can spread over several years• The actual solution(s) is usually only known

when well into the BI project• 30 – 50% of your investment in BI will be on

meeting additional requirements• The more successful you are the more new

requirements you will have to meet

within the same budget.

New Capabilities• An example from the GFC:

• Delivering a BI platform for self-service reporting• New need to securitise mortgages• Existing BI investments could be repurposed to meet the

new requirements.

• An example new Board requirement:• Delivering a ABC capability• New focus on profitability (fees-less-expenses)• Existing ABC project expanded.

3 Key Points to Take Home

• Data is the lock• Analytics is the key• Attention to detail gets the key in the lock• Everyone is struggling with similar issues and

>80% of BI in Australia addresses the left ⅓ of the continuum

• Success in the other ⅔ is possible and Australian examples exist

3 Key Points to Take Home

Questions?

Business Intelligence CORTEXA new online Australian community of DQ, DWH, ETL, BI, PM and Analytic professionals

Forums Research Jobs Local BI News & Events

www.tbig.com.au/forums

sbennett@tbig.com.au 0413 666 724