{"id":15840,"date":"2018-10-23T13:12:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T20:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devwww.3cloudsolutions.com\/post\/bi-basics-technology-serving-business-2\/"},"modified":"2023-12-22T14:02:36","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T22:02:36","slug":"bi-basics-technology-serving-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/resources\/bi-basics-technology-serving-business\/","title":{"rendered":"BI Basics \u2013 Technology Serving Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my BI Basics series of blog posts, I\u2019ve already discussed visualization<\/a> and data transformation<\/a>. Those are crucial aspects of Business Intelligence. Without the ability to acquire data and present it to people within the business, BI becomes somewhat of an academic exercise. Today, though, we want to talk about the goals that BI attempts to achieve. What is BI all about anyway?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"BI<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve made sidelong comments about it here and there, but I really want to spell it out and dig into the mission. Business Intelligence harnesses technology to collect, transform, and use data to support business goals. We\u2019ve got four fundamental aspects here to our definition:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Collecting data<\/li>\n
  2. Transforming data<\/li>\n
  3. Using data<\/li>\n
  4. Supporting business goals<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In this post, we really want to zero in on point number 4. For tech people who love technology for technology\u2019s sake, I cannot stress it enough; everything is oriented to support the business. As a programmer, an IT geek and a techie, there\u2019s the ever-present temptation to pursue technology for technology\u2019s sake. If you mention a tech buzzword, it gets my heart racing. Cloud computing! Big Data! Data lakes! Machine learning! Artificial intelligence! We\u2019re living in the future, folks!<\/p>\n

    The problem is that technology is not the end goal. It always needs to serve the business. BI has always been a support to the aims of the business. It doesn\u2019t make a product which can be sold, but it still needs to demonstrate return on investment. Business Intelligence might do this by identifying ways to better serve customers or by uncovering waste or inefficiencies. It might also pinpoint products or services that may increase profits. It could reveal ways to make employees happier or more productive. It could also be used to improve R&D or internal processes. But if technology doesn\u2019t serve a business need, it\u2019s a distraction and a liability that needs to be killed off.<\/p>\n

    How do we do it?<\/h2>\n

    How do we see some of that application to business needs in the real world? Well, see our solution briefs<\/a> to get some stories of how we\u2019ve helped customers in real life. I don\u2019t want to turn this into a wholesale ad for BlueGranite, but we\u2019ve done some cool stuff. A few examples? Everything from helping the agriculture industry<\/a> effectively and responsibly irrigate vast areas of land, to helping transportation firms save millions on maintenance<\/a>. We\u2019ve also helped improve the lives those in need \u2013 helping a nonprofit better connect with donors<\/a> to continue critical medical care funding for children\u2019. The important part is that it isn\u2019t just \u201cWe built this cool process to ingest and process terabytes of data\u201d but that the process improved lives, the environment, profits and ultimately, for each organization and business.<\/p>\n

    When a BI project does not have business focus, it tends to become a sinkhole. If all you can say is \u201cIsn\u2019t it cool?\u201d but can\u2019t answer \u201cWhat can it do for the business?\u201d then it\u2019s not business focused. Without a clear business application, the intended users will ignore the system or find ways around it. In fact, a project venture shouldn\u2019t even be approved without any clearly defined business goals. Answering \u201cWhat can it do for the business?\u201d should be the first consideration. If there are no business users in meetings, that is a major red flag that the project does not have business focus. Without stakeholder input, features may be incomplete or even fundamentally broken. This can lead to unnecessary expenditures and may even disrupt existing processes with disastrous results.<\/p>\n

    To maintain business focus, involve business users continuously \u2013 from the inception of a project all the way through to the end. Their involvement is critical to success. In the design phase, they reveal project needs that are often invisible to the technical side. They can help spot flaws that will doom the project from the beginning. By participating regularly, these stakeholders see the progress being made and can keep the technical team apprised of new or unforeseen challenges. They remind the technical team that things like accessibility, user interface and polish matter. By guiding development, they are more likely to champion the project\u2019s long-term results. And the project will be far more likely to succeed.<\/p>\n

    If you need help keeping a business focus on your BI projects, contact BlueGranite<\/a> to help keep you on track!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Visualization and data transformation are crucial aspects of Business Intelligence. Without the ability to acquire data and present it to people within the business, BI becomes an academic exercise. Today, we want to talk about the goals that BI attempts to achieve. What is BI all about anyway?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":14179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[305],"class_list":["post-15840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data-ai","tag-modern-bi","topics-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}