RSS feedsTo support the making of pertinent business decisions, what organisations need most is to have the right information in the right place at the right time.
But while this notion of having information at your fingertips is appealing, it is easier said than done. Often, information is scattered between spreadsheets and databases, so data gleaned from one part of the business may not correspond with that obtained from another. This can lead to inaccuracies as it can be difficult to establish a single version of the ‘truth’.
Centralising data
Many large enterprises have traditionally tackled this thorny issue by centralising key data into expensive bespoke data warehouses and adding business intelligence (BI) tools to enable them to analyse the information and generate reports from it.
But because relational database vendors, such as Microsoft, are now embedding BI-style capabilities into their products, it is no longer necessary to set up separate systems. As the corporate market has become more saturated, traditional front-end presentation and analysis tool providers such as Business Objects and Cognos have spread their nets more widely.
These events, along with the advent of new technologies and services, has led to such offerings starting to become more affordable and analysts expect adoption in the SME community to jump over the next few years as prices continue to fall. This is likely to be particularly true of companies with between 1,000 to 5,000 staff in the financial and professional services, retail, manufacturing and media sectors.
One organisation that has already adopted a BI approach is financial services firm, Partnership. It employs 160 personnel and provides products such as annuities to people with health conditions. Partnerships went through an internal transformation in October 2005 when it de-mutualised and undertook a management buy-out from the Pension Annuity Friendly Society.
Partnership’s management team wanted to expand beyond the company’s traditional niche markets and introduce a programme to generate sustained, but rapid growth. ‘Without fast, timely, accurate BI, you’re at risk of making the wrong decision about how to grow,’ says finance director Chris Rhodes.
Decision time
As a result, after evaluating a range of products on the market, the firm decided that it made sense to exploit existing technology and skill sets. It implemented two Microsoft SQL Server 2005 databases one to handle real-time financial-based management information and the other to provide high volume statistical sales data as well as SQL 2005 integration services to import information from third-party sources such as Excel spreadsheets and the HR database. It also introduced SQL 2005 reporting services to enable users to access information using a browser and Dundas Software’s data visualisation tools to enable them to view and analyse it graphically.
Historically, the company had relied on information being rolled down to staff from management briefings, ‘Now everyone has access to performance metrics using their browser. This means that they know how they should be performing and they’re making decisions based on fact,’ he says.
There are certain considerations to bear in mind when implementing software of this type. The first is to have a clear idea of what the organisation wants to achieve and to focus on each area using a step-by-step approach because, says Daniel Gwalter, head of IT at Partnership, ‘the scope for mission-creep is massive’.
The key issue is one of culture rather than technology change. As the way that staff and managers work alters, it is necessary to communicate openly and frequently with all concerned from the outset, what will be provided and how it will affect them, particularly in terms of benefits.
‘You’re moving from a situation where managers were managing based on anecdote to doing it based on hard fact. So the staff being managed need to understand that and be aware of the metrics that they’re being measured on,’ says Rhodes.
Catherine Everett is a freelance technology journalist
