Business Intelligence, the use of technology tools to collect, analyze, and present business data, provides organizations with valuable insight to drive decision-making, respond to changes, and enhance business performance. However, despite its many benefits, BI also comes with some challenges that must be addressed for an organization to fully realize its potential. With a wealth of knowledge and a demonstrated ability to overcome various industry obstacles, our seasoned BI consultants share the most common problems they have run into—as well as the solutions they have implemented to overcome them.
Lack of BI Strategy
The lack of a clearly defined business intelligence strategy is a significant challenge; a robust plan is crucial to steer the process and ensure the organization’s goals and objectives are effectively met. Our client, a large manufacturing company, had some BI systems in place but needed technical expertise to create and implement BI and data management strategies and design and implement customized BI solutions. ClearBridge provided a Senior BI Engineer who worked with their business stakeholders to understand their needs, evaluated and improved existing BI systems, developed and executed database queries and conducted analysis, created visualizations and reports, and developed and updated technical documentation. In the case of our client, a well-defined BI strategy was the key to unlocking the full potential of their data, empowering them to make informed decisions and drive their business forward.
Data Integration
BI is only effective when it can combine and visualize data from different business areas to provide comprehensive information that is truly insightful. Organizations must ensure that all data sources, including internal systems, external systems, and third-party vendor platforms, must be able to integrate with the adopted tools. Many of our clients face significant challenges with this issue, a task that requires not just assistance, but specialized expert assistance. For example, in the case of our client, a large insurance firm, the expertise of our Senior Data Integration Engineer was instrumental in designing, developing, and programming systems to consolidate and analyze data from multiple sources, providing them with a sense of relief and reassurance.
Data Quality
Data quality is the next hurdle in our list of BI challenges. The accuracy of the data on which business intelligence solutions are based determines the quality of the results. To ensure that all users interact with the same reliable and up-to-date information, organizations must create a flexible and agile data architecture and a data management strategy that defines data governance policies.
Data Visualization
Even if all the data is reliable and accurate, a lack of vision and interactivity with dashboards can create another significant challenge that firms have when implementing business intelligence. The ability to view and interact with data makes it easier for users to gain insights and increase the actionability of the data even further. ClearBridge provides BI Consultants with experience designing and developing data dashboards using interactive charts and graphs to visualize large amounts of complex data. For example, we recently provided a BI Analyst who was responsible for architecting complex data models and tables, building reports, creating grids, graphs, metrics, and filters, establishing API integration, and building dashboards for our client, a large telecommunications company.
Choosing and Implementing New BI tools
Another challenge companies face is concerns when choosing and implementing new BI tools. Depending on an organization’s BI strategy and business needs, a simple BI solution with only essential features and functions might suffice. On the other hand, an organization might require more advanced features that serve specialized needs. Our client, a large manufacturing firm, recently struggled with this very challenge and reached out to ClearBridge for support. We provided a Senior BI Developer who translated business needs to technical specifications, designed and deployed BI solutions, maintained and supported data analytics platforms, created tools to store data, conducted unit and quality testing, and worked with business partners to prioritize work and provide estimates.
Security and Compliance
Using BI technologies to process and analyze massive amounts of data exposes organizations to several security issues, such as:
- Collection of Data: A BI system quickly collects data from multiple sources and may capture sensitive data that is subject to privacy laws or regulatory compliance.
- Dependence on the Security of Third-Party Providers: When utilizing cloud services, an organization relies on the provider to ensure security measures.
- Difficulty in Securing Various Endpoints: With remote work, individuals might be working from home or using their own devices. Hackers can access private and sensitive information.
- Access: An organization must ensure policies and procedures to reduce risk and provide strong data governance. To mitigate unauthorized access, end users must be limited to the data relevant to their business area.
Maintaining the security of your data requires an understanding of these risks and effective management of them, including identifying vulnerabilities, encrypting communications, implementing robust data governance policies, managing access control, and conducting security and compliance audits.
User Adoption
One common challenge during business intelligence implementation is low adoption rates. One of the main reasons people are reluctant to use BI tools is that they are unfamiliar with them. Another factor is a lack of data literacy. IT teams must provide training programs to educate users on the utilization and capabilities of BI tools. This involves offering workshops, tutorials, and documentation to enable users to fully realize the potential of BI tools. Demonstrating real-life examples of the data, dashboards, analysis, and insights will establish a data-driven culture and allow users to fully appreciate the benefits of BI. Another way to encourage users to embrace BI is to ensure strong data management which allows users to easily find and utilize the content they need. With a well-crafted data design, users can review complex data in a clear, concise manner utilizing charts, graphs, and other visualizations.
Specialized Skills
Business Intelligence relies heavily on professionals who can analyze data, design meaningful visualizations, and implement robust BI strategies. However, technology has outpaced talent, leaving many organizations struggling to implement and optimize BI tools. To address this challenge, organizations must invest in training programs, education initiatives, and smart talent acquisition to ensure that they have the skilled workforce necessary to navigate the complexities of BI tools.
Final Thoughts
From addressing strategies, integration, quality, security, and low adoption rates, IT teams have a critical role in steering BI initiatives toward success. They can foster organizations toward a culture of data-driven decision-making and empower stakeholders at all levels to leverage insights for strategic advantage. Business intelligence is a field that is constantly evolving, and it is crucial to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies. As BI evolves, our BI consultants, with industry-specific knowledge and technical expertise, will undoubtedly play even more integral roles in shaping the future of our clients and enabling them to thrive in an increasingly data-driven world.
ClearBridge can help you develop effective data-gathering to better understand – and ultimately advance – your business. Contact us to unlock the power in your data!
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