Technology Decisions Jun/Jul 2013 | Page 28

Benefits
enterprise collaboration - in relation to BI
ogy can support the ingrained processes
Has anyone actually proved that collaborative
at least anyway .
humans naturally undertake when making
BI works ? Aside from the strong customer results I ’ ve seen , analyst firm Aberdeen Group has conducted early research into this emerging area . The results of its study
What components are essential for a successful CDM module ?
important cooperative decisions .
Or , as Imhoff and White put it : “ Organizations can implement collaborative interac-
- ‘ Collaborative BI : Harnessing the Extended
How should you support enterprise collabo-
tion and information enhancement features
Enterprise to Boost Productivity ’ - are
ration in a BI context ? Firstly , you need to
using the capabilities currently offered by , or
profound . Organisations that embraced
ensure that the process of collective decision-
being added to , many BI tools . Supporting
and implemented best practice collabora-
making is able to take place in full view of
collaborative decision-making , however ,
tive BI enjoyed a 42 % improvement in
your up-to-date and interactive data . Inside
requires the use of a collaborative platform
employee productivity , a 30 % increase in
or outside your BI environment - wherever
or a separate system designed specifically
business process efficiency and a 40 % rise
it makes sense .
to meet the need for collaboration in the
in BI adoption .
decision-making process .”
Why do current attempts at collaborative
Most analytics-based group decision-making
does not occur in full view of live reports
Enabling collaborative BI
BI fail ?
and dashboards . Shared decisions are most
To achieve real collaborative BI , organisations
often made via emails or in meetings , open-
also need to adopt a collaborative mindset
Given these astounding results , it ’ s per-
ing a gap between human insight and the
and support a culture of organisation-wide
plexing that Gartner recently revealed
business data . Decision-making remains
information sharing and data access . This
that some 80 % of BI projects fail , citing
isolated from the data that should drive
breaks down departmental silos , enabling
poor communication and collaboration
and underpin it .
faster , better and more effective decision-
as the primary reasons . And , according to
making . It ’ s also a non-negotiable prereq-
Accenture ’ s ‘ Competing Through Analyt-
BI vendors should be adjusting the technol-
uisite for success , as cautioned by Gartner ’ s
ics ’ survey of 250 IT executives , 40 % of
ogy to seamlessly integrate into your natural
Carol Rozwell : “ If you have a culture where
major business decisions are not based
decision-making processes , rather than
people are rewarded for hoarding informa-
on information generated from reporting
making users adjust to the technology - it
tion and being experts without sharing ,
and analytics , due to limited capacity for
must be intuitive .
you ’ re not ready . Technology will not make
business decision-makers to share and
an organisation collaborative if it does not
discuss BI content . Eckerson ’ s study backs
Eckerson ’ s landmark study into collaborative
already support the notion of teams from
those results , finding that of those using BI
BI found that meetings are the overwhelm-
different business units working in concert
solutions that already contain collaborative
ingly preferred collaborative mechanism
on common projects .”
features , only 16 % use them . Consequently ,
employed by people looking to make a
“ we still see a real gap between the level
collective decision based on the insights
The birth of collaborative BI has highlighted
of information in BI and the quality and
gleaned from data analysis - people like
two BI truths . The technology must assist the
transparency of decision-making ”, accord-
to make crucial decisions together ; face to
right people to make decisions in an intuitive ,
ing Gartner ’ s Rita Sallam .
face . Why would it be any different when
natural way ; and , the right technology alone
acting on the information produced by BI ?
isn ’ t enough to ensure great reporting and
How is this possible , you ask , given the
analytics . The environment must be right
proven benefits of collaborative BI ? Why
Best practice collaborative BI is about un-
too . It ’ s not just the technology but what
are users snubbing many of the collaborative
derstanding and enabling people to share BI
you do with it that drives performance and
elements currently available when there ’ s
content ; discuss overlaying knowledge and
return on investment .
such an obviously strong demand for features
contextual information on that data ; and
that can assist collaborative decision-making
collectively decide the best course of action
Adopting technology conducive to innate hu-
within a BI environment ?
whenever and wherever needed - inside a
man decision-making processes , and estab-
BI environment , embedded within your
lishing a corporate environment conducive
Well , it seems that many technology ven-
company wiki or during a presentation .
to collaboration , is the only way to achieve
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dors haven ’ t understood how to support
It ’ s about understanding how BI technol-
the best from your BI implementation .
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