If you want to get the best value for your Information Systems you need to take ownership and really start to use your data. Here are some easy tips on how to do this for relatively little investment.

1.    Invest in some Business Intelligence Tools
There are literally dozens of Business Intelligence tools on the market scaled for the Large Enterprise to the Small, Medium Business.  Some are monolithic representing a large investment whilst there are plenty that are relatively simple, open source and sometimes free.  Each has its own strengths and weakness, but what they are all good at doing is simply converting raw data into tools that can be readily interpreted and used by business as essential decision support systems. Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of the main Business Intelligence products here.

2.    Recruit an Analyst Intern
Any young graduate or college leaver who is versed in your chosen Business Intelligence tool or with system administration of your data platform will be able to pay for themselves several times over in cost savings through analysis and efficiencies.

3.    Start using Excel properly
The most widely used Business Intelligence tool in the world is Microsoft Excel.  Most data applications have the ability to export reports and grids in either CSV, XML or even XLS format, but this can be time consuming and doesn’t easily allow for bespoke or ad-hoc queries.  Invest in time and training in figuring out how to use the sophisticated tools that Excel has to hook into your data directly utilising ODBC, OLE DB and web services to automate your reports and queries to generate some really powerful tools. Excel 2007 and 2010 have really moved on a great deal to make these data connections much slicker and sophisticated.

4.    Think about what you want rather than what you think is possible
It’s an old cliché, but one of the barriers to producing successful Business Intelligence is that users are unable to think outside of the box.  They restrict their requirements to what they think is possible rather than truly thinking about what they really need.  When scoping reports and dashboards with users I like to use whiteboards to draw a mock up of requirements without a specific application in mind.  That way you can tailor the final solution to meet the requirements rather than shifting the spec to fit the capabilities of the application or developer.




5.    Understand your data structures
One of the biggest problems with delivering successful Business Intelligence tools is data integrity and often this is caused not by corruption or data errors, but in correctly interpreting the data.  Those not versed in database design or not familiar in your database structures can have major problems generating reports even if you get everything else in place.  Get data dictionaries from your provider, normalise the data into meta-databases or data warehouses and document the data structures yourself.  Ensure that all of your external reporting tools are looking at the data in a consistent manner to ensure data accuracy and integrity.

Take a look at our Data Services page to find out how Conduce Consulting can help you make the most out of your data.