Gartner BI Summit Message: Users and IT must align?

In the lead keynote presentation at the recent Gartner Business Intelligence Summit, a point was made to underscore the fundamental (and troublesome) differences between the IT function and end users - e.g., culture, language, perspective. This was done through a series of video vignettes with two analysts role-playing IT and Finance.

To some long-time Gartner followers, it was reminiscent of a presentation/skit that Frank Buytendijk and I delivered while at Gartner (circa 2002) called the "BI Paradox". In it Frank played the business user and I played the "IT guy" (that's me with the propeller hat on the left!) Eight years ago we confronted those same issues - with Frank requesting the latest user tool (a "magic 8 ball") and me offering a more "robust" solution

(a Radio Shack electronics kit - remember the ones with the web of color coded wires?)

The point being, IT (~90% of conference attendees) and end users still have very different perspectives when it comes to Business Intelligence. While some conference presentations surfaced this issue and offered some potential solutions - elsewhere the term "rogue user" was heard as a way to describe unruly business users who attempt to forge their own BI destiny. Granted, some users aren't cooperative, but most just want BI their way and they want it quickly. So while the "rogue" rhetoric may offer some comfort to beleaguered IT people, it doesn't help to solve the problem. Instead it encourages an unproductive divisiveness.

This issue is underscored by the chart (below), which comes from my recent Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study (TM), indicating that user-driven BI initiatives are on the rise - indicating an ongoing struggle between IT and the business for ownership of BI.

(click on image to enlarge)

In my keynote at Gartner's event, I presented content from my latest book, Profiles in Performance - Business Intelligence Journeys and the Roadmap for Change, where I attempted to tackle these same issues - using my Performance Culture Maturity Model (TM). I discussed what I call the "four essential forces", which must be present to create a performance-directed culture - an important precursor to real BI success. Two of these forces include "organizational activism" and "business advocacy". Sadly, users representing these forces are often misunderstood by IT and labeled as "rogues".

I am reminded of Cleveland Clinic, one of the case studies in my latest book. Their BI initiative (and early performance-directed culture) was driven by Medical Operations and Finance - great examples of both business advocacy and organizational activism. Branded an "alien application" (aka "rogues") and isolated by the IT Department, they had to "go it alone". This persisted until new leadership emerged with a new vision and renewed common purpose - which included performance-directed culture and BI as centerpieces. Now their very successful enterprise BI program is jointly owned by the business and IT .

In my opinion these user "rogues" should not be feared, rejected, isolated or controlled. They should be celebrated, embraced and partnered with. This is not to say that the path forward is an easy one. It is not. The average time it took the case study organizations in my book to approach a performance-directed culture was 8 years!

My recommendation: take a "rogue" to lunch this week and begin the process towards performance-directed culture and strategic success with Business Intelligence!

As always, I welcome your comments!

Best,

About The Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study (TM):

The “Wisdom of Crowds” Business Intelligence Market Study was created as a way to give a voice to those actually using BI solutions (i.e., “crowds sourcing”), creating a new and different perspective for measuring BI vendors and products in the market.

The Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study Findings and Analysis Report includes 68 pages of in-depth market and vendor analysis including over 25 pages of detailed vendor and product analysis, comparisons and rankings.

Order and download your copy today by visiting the official Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study website at www.business-intelligence-study.com.

Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study (TM) Video Number Two

Hello Folks.

I have recorded another video for your viewing pleasure. This one focuses upon two charts from the groundbreaking Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study (TM). I used one of these charts in my keynote presentation at Gartner's BI Summit last week.

Remember, you can order and download your very own copy of The Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study Findings and Analysis Report at our Official Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study Website.

In this video I discuss the trend away from large BI deployments and the likely increase in the numbers of BI tools that organizations will have to confront.

About The Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study (TM)

The “Wisdom of Crowds” Business Intelligence Market Study was created as a way to give a voice to those actually using BI solutions (i.e., “crowds sourcing”), creating a new and different perspective for measuring BI vendors and products in the market.

The Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study Findings and Analysis Report includes 68 pages of in-depth market and vendor analysis including over 25 pages of detailed vendor and product analysis, comparisons and rankings.

Order and download your copy today by visiting the official Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study website at www.business-intelligence-study.com.

If you act soon, you'll be invited to our soon-to-be-scheduled webinar where I'll review the findings and answer your questions - live!

Best,

Howard

Back from Gartner BI Summit & A Slide to Share

Hello Folks!

I just got back from the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit in Las Vegas. It was a great event - well attended, good content and a busy show floor with lots of vendors represented.

While there, I met with a number of attendees who are struggling to deliver business intelligence capabilities, and are hampered by a myriad of factors.

In my keynote presentation, I focused upon content from my latest book, Profiles in Performance, and what it takes to establish a "performance-directed culture" - a key enabler to successful BI. In an email from one of the attendees, they said:

"Your keynote session was very informative and a good pre-cursor to reading your book. I actually read most of it on the flight back home yesterday. I really enjoyed the Cleveland Clinic and Denihan case studies, and I think there is much I can take back from those two. We have definite culture obstacles that are preventing us from becoming truly performance driven, and this has stalled some of our BI initiatives. We actually have all the right enablers from a technology standpoint so that is one hurdle we shouldn't have to overcome, but the hardest one is the culture, right?? I think we are currently have a little bit of chaos and mostly departmental optimization, so as you state in the book, we can only improve."

Unfortunately, "departmental optimization" is quite typical and (unfortunately) may be on the rise.

Here's one of the slides that I used in my presentation to show that BI deployment sizes have decreased over time - suggesting that the numbers of tools within organizations continues to increase. This slide comes from my recent Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study (TM) and suggests that organizations are still lacking the right cultural direction and remain "departmentally optimized".

During my Gartner keynote, I mentioned that while reviewing the data from the study, I noted several respondents from the same organization claiming their BI tool was the only one in use! Clearly they need to read my book!

About The Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study (TM)

The “Wisdom of Crowds” Business Intelligence Market Study was created as a way to give a voice to those actually using BI solutions (i.e., “crowds sourcing”), creating a new and different perspective for measuring BI vendors and products in the market.

The Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study Findings and Analysis Report includes 68 pages of in-depth market and vendor analysis including over 25 pages of detailed vendor and product analysis, comparisons and rankings.

Order and download your copy today by visiting the official Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study website at www.business-intelligence-study.com.

If you act soon, you'll be invited to our soon-to-be-scheduled webinar where I'll review the findings and answer your questions - live!

Best,

Howard

Gartner's Business Intelligence Conference

I’m just back from Gartner’s BI conference in Chicago and I feel energized. First of all, let me mention that I founded this very conference in 2003 and chaired it until I left Gartner in 2005. So, I was honored and delighted to be invited back to deliver a keynote on Thursday with “Mr. Balanced Scorecard” himself, Dr. David P. Norton, in addition to presenting at a “power breakfast” and a doing a book signing.

I was impressed with how the conference has grown since 2005. With over 1,200 attendees and more than 50 vendors on the show floor – it is the biggest vendor-neutral BI/EPM show in the world. When we started the conference in 2003, it was at the Sheraton in Chicago. After three years – and growing from 400 attendees to 800, it moved to the Hyatt. Now at 1,200 attendees, Gartner will be moving it to the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, in Maryland, for 2009.

Unlike when I was chairing the conference, I had plenty of time to talk to people and even attend some sessions. Here are some of the things that I observed:

Even though many of the sessions were designated “advanced sessions”, most attendees were first timers and were there to begin learning about business intelligence, data warehousing and performance management. This confirms my belief that, while vendors consolidate and make for a more mature supplier market, user adoption and penetration is still in its infancy. Absent a real BI strategy, these organizations are rife with the misuse of spreadsheets and other personal productivity tools. To cater to them, Gartner offered tutorials and even some workshops this year.

Eighty percent (or more) of the attendees came from IT departments. The rest (presumably) were business users. Gartner has been trying to encourage its traditional following to bring a user “buddy” with them by offering discounts. Having said this, much of the content was oriented towards IT, not business. Among the most popular sessions: data warehousing and master data management – i.e., the “plumbing of BI”.

Some of the attendees that I spoke with felt frustrated by their inability to take what they learned and change the status quo of their organizations. This is nothing new and underscores the fact that success with BI and EPM requires much more than architecture and technology. In fact, while it might be easier to buy yet-another-tool, it is often the wrong approach. Change requires vision and leadership at the highest levels of the organization. Those who have read my book, The Performance Management Revolution (John Wiley & Sons), know that I have focused predominately upon organization, culture, politics and method as the obstacles or enablers of “information democracy”.

Others attendees were sent with a real mandate to supply better information to management. Here I see the potential to change management’s perception of BI and EPM. However, shifting from a tactical request for better information to a performance-driven culture is fraught with risks and challenges. Working with Finance and establishing a competency center outside of IT can help. Gartner had at least two sessions on competency centers. The one I went to was extremely well attended. However, at my “power breakfast” I surveyed the audience and found that only a small minority of them had a competency center in place.

With some of the changing market dynamics, I was pleased to see sessions on “open source” BI and DW and software-as-a-service (SaaS). However, to my great surprise, when polled during the MQ Power Session, none of the attendees indicated that they were using any open source products for DW, DI or BI. A few seemed to be exploring SaaS. Perhaps those were the few business users, as most IT folk view SaaS as a problem. And, while the “mega vendors” (e.g., IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP) were often mentioned, I found no in-depth or critical discussion of their offerings, strategies or relative merits.

All-in-all, it was a great conference which was very well received by attendees and vendors alike. And, given the imperative by management to improve decision making and access to information, I suspect that 2009 will see continued strong demand – with the indoctrination of the next crop of “newbies” to DW, DI, BI and EPM.

And, don't forget to check out my website for details on articles, speaking engagements, presentation abstracts, my book and more!